1. Salford City College
Eccles Centre
AS Media Studies
Foundation Portfolio
Masthead Colour
The masthead for this magazine cover is the easily The magazine uses bright colours mainly light blue and a
memorable ‘NME’ logo. Despite the fact that the pale yellow. These colours make the magazine stand out
masthead is obscured slightly by the main image, it is still amongst others of the same genre appealing to the
easily recognisable and the audience know straight away audience. The blue in the main cover line where it says
without having to see the whole thing. Lady Gaga make it the first thing you see when you look at
the magazine.
Main image Typefaces
The main image of this magazine cover is a picture of The typefaces on this magazine are constant throughout
Lady Gaga. She is making eye contact with the reader so it except from the odd word that is in italics for impact. This
automatically has a bigger impact. Lady Gaga is an easily gives a formal quality to the overall playful cover.
recognized celebrity that will appeal to most age
demographics and the slightly sexual pose makes the
magazine appeal further
Photography Lighting
The photography lighting used makes the image very
Model credit bright. This emphasises the prosthetic lines on her face and
The model credit of this magazine cover is the quote on makes them stand out. This enables the artist to appear
the left hand side of the cover. The quote is direct from different to others of the same genre and targets the
Lady Gaga which will appeal to her fan base. It also demographic more by making it seem unusual. The lighting
contains swearing which will appeal to the audience as it also focuses the attention towards the head and torso
could be seen as rebellious. which could be viewed as rebellious, again appealing to the
target audience.
Coverlines
Target audience
The cover lines are placed at the sides of the main image
I believe that the target audience for this magazine is males
to not obscure the picture or draw attention away from
and females around the ages 15-20. This is because the
the main target of the magazine. The bold font helps
music genre expressed in the magazine is mainly pop, rock
them stand out more so that they are not lost behind the
or indie music which appeals to a mainly younger audience.
focus of the main image.
Also, the main image is Lady Gaga who is a popular pop
singer so this will target a certain audience. Furthermore,
the use of profanity in the model credit could again target a
younger audience as it is seen as rebellious. The brightness
Main cover line of the image is also key to the target audience as because
The main cover line is the largest writing on the cover. this magazine cover is bright and Lady Gaga’s hair and face
The words Lady Gaga are in Blue and over shadow the etc. is brighter than most magazines that would typically be
rest of the writing. This will draw audiences in. Also, the found in shops.
main cover line could have an ambiguous meaning as it
says unzipped which in magazine terms could mean that
we are going to find out about her more private life that House Style Design Principle
she would not normally share. However, when paired This magazine cover has good house style. The fonts remain the same throughout even though the This magazine makes use of the Gutenberg design principle
with the image of her wearing numerous zips, this creates writing varies in size. The bright colours will help the magazine stand out amongst the many of others in that the masthead is in the Primary optical area which
a slightly humorous yet slightly erotic outcome. that it will be next to in stores and make it eye grabbing. The magazine has an overall slightly childish makes it the first the thing we see. The flow of the writing
appearance to it. This tells the audience that it will be a less serious article and may be humorous is from left to right again relating to the Gutenberg
contrasting with other music magazines. principle.