2. Front cover
The colours used on the front cover of a magazine depends on what the magazines is
about, colours can affect the genre and target audience for the magazine. The colours used in a
magazine which is aimed at men would be stereotypically masculine colours, so colours which you
would associate with people of the male gender are colours like blue, green, black, red and more.
Stereotypically feminine colours are colours you would associate with people of the female
gender, so pink, yellow, purple and light orange. For example the magazine ‘XXL’ is a magazine
aimed at anyone, mainly people of the male gender who are interested in music and are over the
ages of about sixteen years old. The colours used are mainly red and black because the colours
have a special meaning and things are associated with colours. The connotations of the colour red
is danger, strength, power, blood and war. The colour black has the connotations of death and
power and it denotes strength and authority. So black and red are used in hip-hop/rap magazines
to show power and strength of the central image. Also the fact that the artists on the front cover are
serious matches with the colours used.
Every magazine has a masthead and it’s situated on the top of it. The reason why the masthead is
large and is at the top of the magazine is because when they are sold at shops, you may only see
the masthead of the magazine due to the fact that the other magazines are in the way so the
masthead must stand out in order to the grab attention of others. The masthead is either in front of
the forehead of the central image or behind the central image because if the central image is in
front of the masthead that could mean the brand has a well established identity so it’s recognisable
by consumers even if you cant see the whole masthead like ‘Vibe’ for example. The design of the
masthead doesn’t change as the consumer would get confused it if it did, this will also keep to the
magazines DNA.
Puffs and cover lines will be put in empty and negative spaces. This means that they are put
anywhere apart from the central images face. You would put puff, cover lines and graphic features
on the central images hair, clothes, neck and sometimes the body, but not face. The larger the
puffs or cover lines the more you know it’s the main article or story. Some magazines are laid out
to be balanced, so if there was a large text on one side it would be balanced out on the other side
with a graphic feature. You wouldn’t fill one side with lots of text and leave the other side empty.
The artists name on a hip-hop/rap magazine is larger than the puffs and cover lines. Puffs and
cover lines has been specifically chosen to draw your attention to the magazine to make you want
to purchase it.
3. Contents Page
All magazines have their own unique design and layout for the contents page. It’s a way of
navigating through a magazine to look at key bits you want to read. The design and layout
depends on the target audience, for example if a magazine was aimed at children then the
contents page will need to be simple in its design so they will be able to understand it. Some
content in a magazine may be featured, this lets the reader know what the main stories/articles
are. Featured content are normally accompanied by images and text size which is are larger than
normal and are on the front cover. For a hip-hop/rap magazine there is usually just one large
image which takes up about a ½ to ¾ of the page.
Some magazines choose to lay out the contents page simply and others chose to add lots of text
and images. The size of the text and numbers as well as the amount of information varies
depending on what type of magazine it is and who it is aimed at. A magazine aimed at children
about the age of ten will have lots of graphic features and text as they have a short attention span
so they will get bored easier than others. Sometimes the numbers are bold and large and the text
are small or vice versa. There will always be images on a contents page and without it the
contents page would look plain and dull, the images could also link to the stories/articles in the
magazine or it could just be a background image.
Having just text and numbers on the contents page would be boring and dull, you need to catch
the reader attention so you would add images of artists/bands to make things more interesting and
you would lay it out differently to what other magazines would. The reader will find it confusing if
too much is added. The style of the contents page also depends on the front cover of the
magazine because it has to look similar and follow the house style. The same type of colours, fonts
and more must be used to keep to the magazines DNA just like the front cover. You can sometimes
find the date of issue of the magazine along with the address to the magazines webpage.
4. Double Page Spread
Double page spreads lets the reader know that it’s one of the main articles/stories
in the magazine. You will always find a large image on a double page spread to
catch the readers attention. Normally there is one large image and sometimes you
will find one or two smaller images to accompany the larger image in a hip-hop/rap
magazine. Usually the artist is on the double page spread of a music magazine
and the title of the article links to something which has happened to the artist or a
quote from what they have said about something. Double page spreads on music
magazines usually talk about the artist/band, on hip-hop/rap magazines famous
rappers are talked about as you can see on the images on the right. The double
page spread article normally only features one artist on hip-hop/rap magazines
and other music magazines.
Different magazines choose to lay things out differently to other magazines. For
example the XXL double page spread, the second one from the top. They chooses
to use the right side of the page for the image of the hip-hop/rap artist which is
‘The Game’. This dominates the right side of the page and makes it look more
interesting and to separate the text to make you feel as if there is little to read so
you don’t get bored. XXL have decided to separate the text into columns so it
doesn’t feel tedious to read and the headline is large to stand out in order to grab
the readers attention when flicking through the magazine. The text is also smaller
for the article and quotes are added from what the hip-hop/rap artists have said in
interviews about something or someone.
Some people like to read the first and last paragraph of an article so it’s important
that they are the most interesting which will make you want to read the whole
thing. The text takes up about a half to three quarters of a page so there isn’t too
much to read to keep the reader interested. The writers add information about
things you may not have heard about the artist yet in order to make you to
purchase the magazine again, so the content must be new and fresh.
The layout is simple yet effective as you have a large image on the left or right
hand side of the page which takes up most of the space, you also have an
enormous heading which can take up to about a third of the page as well as text
which is normally separated into columns in magazines.
