The magazine cover uses red and black colors throughout to signal its rock genre focus. The large masthead in the top left identifies it as Q Magazine, while additional text lines promote the magazine's content and popular artists. Centered below is the word "rocks" in red to further highlight the genre. The back image depicts Cheryl Cole, intended to attract male audiences. Together these visual elements clearly brand the magazine and aim to persuade potential customers within the rock music category.

1. There are many layers in this cover.
The masthead for this magazine is red.
The colour of red, runs throughout the
cover. This catches the eyes of the reader.
In most Q magazines, the masthead is
always placed at the left hand corner as it
stands out from the rest of the magazine.
It is big and bold, this makes it clear what
the magazine is called; it is one of the
most important and eye catching features
of the magazine.
At the top is the coverline that states
“THE UK’S BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE”.
This attracts customers to buy this
magazine as they see that it is popular
making them motivated to buy it.
The rest of the coverlines are used to
promote the content that is the
magazine which helps consumers
decide whether to buy the product or
not depending if there is anything they
are interested in or not. The purpose of
it is to intentionally persuade
customers within the genre to
purchase the magazine as it mentions
all the popular artists and the band at
the side.
The word “rocks” is placed horizontally. This is the body
text as it is the biggest text on the cover other than the
masthead. This highlights the genre of the magazine
being Rock; to highlight this, its also done in the colour
red, going with the theme of the magazine.
These are the colours that are
chosen to be used within the
magazine are mainly throughout red
and black, this showing the genre of
the magazine clear for audiences of
the rock genre. This goes along with
everything else in the cover that
supports the genre clear.
The image is one of the layers that are placed
at the back. The image of Cheryl Cole is used
to attracted male audiences as through this
year of the published magazine she was
labelled as the ‘sexiest female’. The image
shows her licking her ring which appears to
be sharp and fierce, blending in with the rock
genre.

2. The masthead is placed vertically
down the side of the cover. There
are very few layers in this
magazine compared to a Q
magazine cover. The colour of the
masthead is to match with the
shade of Taylor Swift’s hair
colour. This makes it effective and
eye catching for consumers.
Below the masthead is a small print
of text, stating the month the
magazine was issued and the
magazine website. This information is
at a small print as it is not the
importance of the magazine and as it
tries to draw attention to the only
coverline on the cover, which states
“2014 Taylor Swift Woman of the
year”.
The coverline, being the only coverline on the magazine is effective Taylor Swift having to be
really successful in the year of 2014. For audiences, it attracts those within the pop genre and
intrigues the consumers to purchase and find out why she is woman of the year as this is
exaggerated as the biggest news in magazine.
The main image is Taylor Swift. She is the face
of the cover as the majority of the magazine
cover is about her and mostly her image. This
sets the pop genre to the magazine.
The cover as a whole is set in a tone of colour.
The background colour and the colour of the
model’s eye match. For audiences this is
extremely eye catching as it draw the
audiences into the magazine.
These colours are the colours that are used
throughout the cover. These are used as they
are eye catching to the reader as they look at
the masthead and it goes with the model’s hair
and the background colour goes with their eyes.
The magazine coming across fairly simple is
attracting.

3. The masthead is placed at the left hand
side of the cover. This is so that
consumers clearly know that it is an ID
magazine straight away. The magazine
is a neutral colour; the yellow box with
the masthead helps to the masthead
stand out more than it would if it was
not there due to the neutral colours
occurring in the cover.
Within the masthead, it mentions
what type of stuff that would be
included in the magazine. This is
different to other magazines as
most magazines would normally
place one or more coverlines to do
with what will be included within
the magazine. However this is kept
very brief and not specific.
There is one coverline placed at the bottom saying “play loud”. This makes
readers very intrigued to know what “play loud” means in the context of
the magazine therefore this will attract consumers to purchase the
magazine. Though “play loud” also informs the consumers that the
magazine consumes of music. It also attracts young audience as the term
“play loud” would associate with them, in anyway and with them having
fun as young people.
The main image is Rihanna, a very popular pop
star. It is placed central within the magazine.
The image automatically sets the genre to pop
and a young audience from 16-25.
The magazine follows the Z format. As it starts
off with the masthead at the corner then goes
down to the model’s face then across to the
coverline of “play loud”.
These colours are used throughout the cover. The
background colour is fairly light and neutral,
making all the dark colours that are part of the
model’s costume stand out. They are contrasting
colours as the yellow comes out really bright
compared to the rest of the colours. This is used
as a technique to attract consumers to purchase
the magazine as they are eye catching through
the colours used and how simple the cover itself
is. This gets straight to the point of what the
magazine is about and what's in it without many
layers of coverlines.