2. Target Audience and genre-
Taking into account the sans serif style, colloquial
language used in the masthead (‘mag’) and main image, it
would suggest that it is targeting a young audience
between 15 and 30. Ignoring the banner at the top of the
magazine, the main image, and masthead and cover lines
suggests that the genre is dance music. ‘IBIZA 2013’ has
connotations of clubs and DJ’s also supporting the genre
and the main artist that is featuring in the magazine.
Main Image-
The main image features Disclosure, music artists favouring
the dance genre, in the background which has had influence
on the house style for the magazine. The image is casual
but involves direct address with the audience, which draws
the viewer attention towards the front cover. It looks as if
the image is hiding behind the cover lines and model credit
but it is the feature of the magazine so it over laps the mast
head.
Model credit-
The model credit features the main artist in the
magazine- ‘Disclosure’. It is situated in front of the
main image almost overpowering it. The text suggests
the name of the artist behind and gives a visual
reference to the main feature. This model credit is a
play on words, being catchy and concise it catches
passerby’s attention.
Main Cover Line-
‘IBIZA 2013’ is the main cover line for this magazine.
We know this due to the fact that it is situated in
primary optical area- therefore being the first
headline a passerby sees. The text is slightly larger
than the other cover-lines, and comes in four layers
and three colours- black orange and white.
Masthead-
The Masthead on this magazine is big, bold and quite modern,
using a sans serif font. This would attract the audience’s field of
view towards the masthead; also highlighting the main image
which overlaps it. This would suggest that Mixmag is a well-known
magazine and so the font is instantly recognisable to the
view, having no need to display it clearly.
The Gutenberg Design Principle-
The Gutenberg principle is a layout that all magazines follow to
highlight certain areas that they want people to see. The areas
include Primary optical area; which is the top left corner; weak
fallow area; bottom left corner; strong fallow area; top right hand
corner; terminal area; bottom left corner. Mixmag follows the
Gutenberg principle as you instantly look at IBIZA 2013 (main
cover line) then you see the model credit (DISCLOSURE) then a
cover line in the terminal are (PLUS). This happens due to
reading gravity, where you naturally reading from left to right.
Colours/Typefaces/House style-
The colours are warm and humid, which suggest it is a seasonal
magazine (summer). The house style is red, black and white
which work together harmoniously with the background (main
image). The font is quite alternative and modern; therefore there
is a sans serif typeface used on this magazine. Disclosure’s album
was released in summer 2013 and Mixmag tries to emphasise this
through the use of colour. The hair blends in with the back
ground and there is juxtaposition between the blue and the red.
Cover lines-
‘Mixmag’ uses a lot of cover lines that are distributed around the main image. Problems that
arise with cover-lines are that they run over the image with a lot of colour changes. The main
image does have a lot of colour changes but ‘Mixmag’ is careful not to overlap the text. Where
colours are similar the text is backed with black making sure it doesn’t drown into the
background. Due to the fact that your eyes naturally follow from right to left the text size
reduces in order of importance- following the Gutenberg principle.
Banners/Flashes/badges-
Banners/flashes and badges are either across the page (banner),
a splash of colour (flash) or a circle or rectangle (badge). They
are used to highlight a certain text e.g. EXCLUSIVE. On this
magazine there is a banner across the top above the masthead
which advertises small articles, or titles within the magazine.
