The document discusses the mastheads of three different magazines - Billboard, NME, and Vibe. It describes the design elements and color choices for each masthead and how these visual characteristics help attract their target audiences and promote brand recognition. The mastheads use high contrast colors, memorable fonts, and large sizing to catch readers' eyes on shelves and convey a sense of importance for the magazines. Color symbolism and design consistency across issues aid in connecting with readers and building customer loyalty over time.

2. The masthead is just one block colour with a few random
colours added in to make it that little more memorable to the
target audience/public; the block colour is black which is
actually not that exciting and the random colours added are
red, which was added inside of the ‘b’, baby blue, which was
added inside of the ‘a’ and bright yellow, which was added
inside of the ‘o’ and the ‘d’. It is not the most eye catching
masthead but considering the background, being white,
completely contrasts the main colour of black, it does the job –
the job of attracting the target audience/public, but without
the contrasting background, it would not work. The fact that
random colours have been added into title this could portray
that ‘Billboard’ is not a very sophisticated magazine, maybe
even a little bit childish as little children love to play with bright
random colours. On the other hand, this is the same set-up for
the title they use every week, meaning people will start to
easily recognise it and will become memorable to everyone.
Keeping the title consistent in its looks is key to keeping
customers, because that is how they know it is their magazine.
The masthead is very big, which instantly catches the eye of
the reader, this could portray the importance and significance
of the magazine.

3. The masthead of the magazine is “NME”, but it used to be “New
Music Express”, it was changed to “NME” to make it much more
appealing and memorable to the public; “NME” will stick in peoples
minds and will be easily passed on from one to another, also they have
put it in an initial form to symbolise that it is an important magazine,
due to shortening the name into something that is recognisable to the
public. The colour of the masthead is also very important; the
masthead being red is very symbolic to the target audience of this
specific magazine. The target audience would be punk rock and heavy
metal lovers etc. These sort of people are very rebellious, they live
every day like its their last, they are very dark – the colours red and
black appeal to them. Red portrays danger and that’s what this target
audience live for, the red title will excite them and encourage them to
purchase it. Another factor that makes it stand out is that it is very
bold; because it is bold it attracts peoples attention. If it was just a thin
lined title, people would just walk past the magazine while it is on the
shelf in the shop without taking any attention – the boldness draws
them in. Moreover, when it is placed on the front cover, it is in the
largest font out of all the writing on the page due to that being the info
the customers look out for when looking through magazines. The
outline helps it really stand out against the similarly coloured
background, so the reader can view it properly and so it is eye catching
against other magazines on the shelf. The fact that it is in block
capitals gives it a sense of importance and significance.

4. The masthead is original red and black so it is recognisable
and memorable to the regular customers. The actual title
‘VIBE’ is set-up as one block colour, this makes it have a very
bold meaningful look to it and will attract many people. To
grab the readers attention, they have added black to the
background, this makes it much more appealing to look at as
red and black are two colours that go very well with each other
and also it looks more interesting than just the red by itself.
This set-up of colours will let people know that it is a good
music magazine to read as they see the same font and colour
every week, if they recognise it they want to buy it. The
masthead is very big, which instantly catches the eye of the
reader, this could portray the importance and significance of
the magazine. The background colour and the title colour
match very well which makes the title itself stand out much
more. Moreover, the title has no outline around it which may
connotate that ‘VIBE’ has no limits and it could include
absolutely everything inside the magazine. The font is also
very modern this may signal that the magazine is aimed at a
younger generation, the title by itself, VIBE, is a very fresh up-to-
date word that it used daily by teenagers.