The Rolling Stone magazine cover uses bold red colors and a black and white photo with eye contact. The exclusive text stands out in bright yellow. The NME cover uses stickers and shadows on the cover lines to seem informal. It subverts conventions by having the cover line near the bottom and an unnatural right to left eye flow. Both magazines use sans serif fonts and sophisticated designs but NME seems more unconventional and last minute.

1. Magazine Front
cover
Comparison:
Rolling Stone and
NME

2. Rolling Stone:
The strapline on the
cover is clear.
Bold colours – typical for a
music magazine – black and
white photo and red
Clear cover line - masthead
Font is the same
as the
explanatory text
Eye contact is met by Formal language is
the person the exclusive used in both the
is on (Keith Richards) explanatory and the
cover line text
Photo is taken in a studio
Exclusive stands out – still looks natural and
as it is in a bright relaxed though – lighting
colour (yellow). is quite soft – plain
background
There is a natural eye
the price of the flow, and backward S
magazine is £3.95 shape. Making it easy to
see everything

3. NME:
Mast Head
Cover Lines
with
Sticker explanatory
text
Main Image
Main cover line
Cover lines
Strapline

4. Stone Masthead and Strapline
The Mast head that ROLLING STONE use is called Royal Acid Outline,
and we can see that this magazine is a well known one because the
model on the front cover is covering the Masthead, which shows that it’s
audience is already familiar with the magazine. The colour of the
Masthead is Red, which is commonly used in music magazines because it
is bold and stands out against the black and white colours that are also
used on the covers. The strapline font that is used

5. Masthead and strapline:
The Masthead of this magazine
The Strapline on NME is on the
is quite bold and short and
bottom of the issue. It is also in
therefore has a direct impact on
the same colour font as the mast
the reader as it is easier to
head and the main cover line,
remember. There are sans serif
showing that it still has
fonts used on the cover of this
information of importance.
magazine, which makes is
easier to read for the reader as
they do not have to struggle to
see the explanatory texts and
cover lines.

6. tone Image and Main Cover Lin
Eye contact is made by the model
(Keith Richards) who is also the person
that the exclusive is on. This draws in
the reader as they may feel that the
interview within the magazine would be
a personal one.

7. mage and Main Cover Line:
The magazine has used the Arctic
Monkeys as endorsement, in order to
have more consumers of their
product. This means that the
magazine will get new readers who
are fans of Arctic Monkeys and
haven’t bought the magazine before,
and those who are regular buyers of
the magazine. All of the band
members are looking at the camera
lens, giving the reader a feel that
they are looking right at them.

8. Stone Cover Lines and Kickers
The font and colours that are used for the
cover lines shows that this magazine is quite
sophisticated and doesn’t really break many
boundaries of magazines, which is
something that music magazines tend to do.

9. ME Cover Lines:
The Sticker that is used on the front
cover, gives the magazine an
informal feel because the font used
on the sticker is like handwriting. The
editors of the magazine have also
used a shadow on the cover lines,
used to make the text stand out
against the colour of one of the band
members t-shirt which is white. The
use of exclamation marks also
makes the magazine feel that
everything is last minute, as it allows
the reader to feel that they may miss
something of importance in this
issue.

10. ing Stone Eye Flow:
The eye flow of the magazine cover
subverts the conventions of a
magazine as it is the opposite to our
natural eye flow, going from right to
left.

11. ME Eye Flow:
The Eye flow of the magazine
cover is from left to right which
is natural for someone reading a
magazine. Their main cover
line is near the bottom of the
page which shows that they are
breaking the conventions by not
having the cover line in one of
the corners.