This document analyzes magazine cover design techniques based on an example of Rolling Stone magazine. It discusses design elements like the masthead, cover lines, barcodes, fonts, and color schemes. The goal is to attract a wide audience with prominent text, catchy headlines about featured artists, and minimalistic covers that enhance the seriousness and simplicity of the content. Color choices like yellow or greyscale are meant to convey different moods and stand out against photographs.

1. Masthead Largest piece of text on page, stands out Only text in white White always emphasises colour Cover Line List of artists featured in magazine to interest wider audience Barcode – typical positioning with date and website underneath Main cover line Multiple colours – stand out Black stands out against grey Main focus ‘Rhianna and Chris’ in large font to show importance and catch eyes Main cover image Black and white to make the blue stand out – also to make the blue text stand out against the image Greyscale has connotations of melancholy, quite dramatic picture Minimalistic approach to cover to enhance seriousness and simplicity

2. Sometimes reoccurring colour for actual magazine. EG yellow for Rocksound. Yellow is bright and is often connotated with danger [for example, crime scene police tape, warning signs, etc] Large audience targeted as everyone likes music so all people must be represented or included so, for example, no use of slang or specialist terminology. Rock sound front cover handwriting notes to make it seem more relatable and ‘young’. Like a student taking notes. Rocksound cover ‘the untold story’ makes it seem exclusive so you cannot read about that issue anywhere else. White always exaggerates colour and make it more bold, hence it being the background for most covers. Font consistencies. – branding, recognisable, etc. ‘ cut out’ format of rocksound. Looks more edgy and appealing. Stands out against main cover picture. Colour schemes - If article is of the cover story, it’s likely the colour scheme will continue. Either for consistency or coordination with the photo. Usually to link with photo or similar colours (purple). Rolling stone is an international magazine – it is sold in many countries. For example they have a Chilean issue .

3. A different student’s analysis of the Rolling Stone magazine contents page