The document analyzes the front cover design of the NME (New Musical Express) magazine. It discusses several design elements: 1) The masthead is placed in the top left primary optical area to be the first thing readers see. 2) Popular artist images and article headlines are placed in the terminal areas to draw attention. 3) A variety of genres and artists are featured to appeal to different audiences and maximize profits. 4) Cohesive color schemes and stylistic elements are used to establish the magazine's brand identity.

1. Lydia Platts
Front Covers
The NME (new musical express) is a music
magazine which is published weekly, the
magazine targets mainly to the indie genre
however it does feature more mainstream
bands and artists within the magazine. The
reasons for this I believe is to gain more profit
as by only targeting one specific genre the
magazine isn’t getting the amount of readers it
would if it aimed to a range of different
audiences.
The target audience age is around 18- 25 and
roughly around 70% of the readers are men and
roughly only 30% of the readers are women. It
is evident that the magazine aims to the
younger generation through the cover star on
this front cover. The artist is Florence from
Florence and the Machine, this band is very
current and popular with the younger
generations therefore by seeing an image of someone who is current and popular is appealing to the
audience. However, although the main target audience is the younger generation the magazine is
trying to also appeal to more older generations by including an image of the main singer from the
band ‘Joy Division’. This appeals to the older generations as Joy Division were a band that was out in
the 70’s and 80’s therefore is not current and popular, by doing this magazine is once again
maximising profit by expanding their target audience.
The Guttenberg Design Principle has been used well on this front cover as in the top left hand
primary optical area, the masthead has been placed, by placing the masthead here it means that it is
the first thing that the eye sees. This is a cleaver thing to do as by seeing the magazine name first the
audience can make their mind up to if they want to purchase the magazine as people tend to buy
products that they know and trust and as the NME is a well established and popular magazine it will
appeal to the buyer. The Guttenberg Design Principle says that once the eye looks in the primary
optical area of a page in then shifts its focus diagonally down the page where the terminal areas are.
On this front cover in the terminal areas the lead article has been placed, and cleverly above this
main title there is a subheading which includes the words ‘comeback interview’. These words are
eye catching and make you want to know more, by placing them in the optical area it grabs a
potential buyers attention. In the bottom terminal area on this magazine cover we see artists names
such as ‘Rihanna and Radiohead’, these two artists/bands are very popular however both attract
different audiences, this isn’t just a coincidence that they have both been placed in this particular
area, they have been put there for a reason. As this is the last thing that the potential buyer will
analyse on the front page, it has to be something that will appeal to them and as the magazine
targets different audiences, mainly mainstream and indie, they have added two of the biggest names
out of each music genre to grab their attention to be the determined factor on if they will buy the
magazine or not. In one of the dead corners of the magazine, the barcode has been placed, the

2. Lydia Platts
dead corners are where people do not tend to pay attention to, and as the barcode is not something
that is seen as important it is a good place for it to be put.
The main image on the front page sets the house style for the magazine as the colours in the image
are all pastel colours ranging from reds, creams and greens .The colours of the image have
influenced the colours of the text that has been used on the cover as they have to be calm and
subtle and this is exactly what has been done as white, black and red have been used, these colours
done strike you as subtle colours but in relation to the image they have worked well together. The
use of red text is very cleaver as Florence is known for her bright red hair and it works well as it gives
the cover more colour and is appealing to the eye. Black is used to make appealing words in article
titles to stand out, by making them stand out it catches your eye and then you want to read the
article.
The lead article has been placed across the page in large red writing, compared to the other colours
on the page this title stands out and jumps off the page. The artists name ‘Florence’ is the main word
used in the lead article, by using just the name as the title appeals to the magazines specific
audience as Florence is very current and popular to the genre of this magazine. So therefore the
target audience will be attracted to this as it relates to them and it is something that is current and
popular. Other words that have been used within the article title are ‘world exclusive’ by using these
words makes the magazine unique and different from every other magazine because no one else has
this story, it is ‘exclusive’ to this particular magazine. Knowing that this article is ‘world exclusive’
draws people in to buy the magazine because this is the only magazine that has this article and they
won’t find it anywhere else.
The masthead on the magazine is the largest text on the front cover, and it has been placed in the
top left hand corner of the magazine which is the primary optical area and where our eyes are
automatically drawn too. By having the masthead the largest text on the page establishes what the
magazine is called, it also appeals to potential customers because, NME is a well known and
successful magazine and when seeing this masthead straight away you recognise and trust it so you
would then therefore buy the magazine.
Overall I believe that this magazine front cover is very successful and well designed, I believe this
because every part of the magazine has been though about. You can see how well planned the
magazine is through the house style as the colours used relate to the colours on the main image, this
is something that I intend to take into consideration when planning my own magazine. Also the use
of black text within article titles is something that I will also consider using when planning my own
magazine as it makes the articles jump off the page and grab your attention and makes you want to
buy the magazine. I think using an image as the magazine back ground is also something I will do
when creating my magazine because it establishes the magazine straight away as the image is so big
and of an artist/band that is related to the genre of music and magazine. I want my magazine to
establish its genre straight away and appeal to its target audience successfully just like this magazine
has done.

3. Lydia Platts
After looking at the NME magazine I now want
to look at another magazine of a different
target audience and genre and analyse the
magazine, the magazine I have chosen is
Mixmag.
Mixmag is also a music magazine like the NME
however its target audience and genre is dance
music which is in some ways a niche audience
as it is not mainstream music and doesn’t have
the following that mainstream music has,
however the magazine is said to be ‘the world's
biggest selling dance music magazine". The
magazine, also like the NME, is published on a
monthly basis, I believe the reasons for both
magazines being published monthly is that if
they were to be published weekly that the
magazine would lose profit as in this day and
age people do not buy magazines as much as
they used to. Therefore by making the
magazine monthly they are getting more profit rather than losing any.
The target audience age for the magazine, similar to NME, is around 18-25 as the genre of music that
it caters for is a very young and now. Although dance music has been going for years it has only just
become more well known and popular meaning that the audience who listens to the music are
within the younger generation rather than the older generations.
Unlike the NME magazine, Mixmag has not used and image of a band or artist as the magazine
background, instead it has used an abstract image of a yellow spider against a black background.
Although this is unusual for a music magazine it is actually appropriate to this particular genre as the
appearances of dance artists/acts are not well known, their name and music is more well known, so
if there was an image of a dance artist on the cover, people may not know who this person is and
then would therefore not buy the magazine.
The Guttenberg Design Principle has been used to some extent on this magazine cover, we see in the
primary optical area, which is the top left hand corner, half of the masthead and half of the banner
cover line above the masthead. As this is the first place the eye looks it is, in my opinion, the best
place to put the masthead as it established the magazine straight away. By placing the banner cover
line which in the primary optical area is very cleaver and successful, this is because, the banner says
‘the world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine’. By placing the banner above the
masthead it makes the magazine more appealing. This is because the magazine name is not a
household name and isn’t as popular as the NME and someone buying the magazine may be unsure
to buy the magazine because they have never heard of it before, but then they see the magazine is
the ‘world’s biggest’ this gives them the trust and confidence in the magazine and influences them
to buy it. After your eyes sees the primary optical area it then moves down to the terminal areas, in
this area we see the main article title which reads ‘ who is the greatest dance act of all time? Winner

4. Lydia Platts
revealed inside’ this text grabs the reader’s attention because you want to know who is the best act
and therefore you want to open the magazine and find out who is the greatest of all time. The eye
then carries on diagonally across the page to the bottom right hand corner, here is where the rest of
the articles have been placed.