The document analyzes magazine covers from Q Magazine, Spin Magazine, and NME Magazine. For Q Magazine, the analysis notes the iconic red and white masthead and a seductive cover image of singer Lily Allen. Spin Magazine's similar red and white masthead and cover image of artist M.I.A. in a rebellious pose are also discussed. The cover of NME Magazine is said to be intentionally non-serious, featuring a naked and comedic pose from singer Beth Ditto alongside the tagline "kiss my ass".

1. Magazine cover analysis

2. The masthead on Q magazine has always been the same and is well known, its white font on a red background, the red emphasises the white font and makes it stand out more to the audience. The colour Red is symbolic of many things, love, passion, danger, blood, it’s a very widely used colour as it can mean many things. The main image is of a well know British singer Lily Allen, her pose is very seductive and she is wearing nothing on her top half and is covered by only her arm, her finger is playfully near her mouth this would appeal to the male audience of Q magazine. The target audience would be between 18-30 male and female, but mainly a male audience. The font is mainly sans-serif with a little serif font, this creates sophistication and reflects the fact it’s more for adults not teenagers. They have used the left and the right side of the page which is going against code and conventions of a normal magazine this could be because they like to be individual. The different use of font is very eye catching. They use bold, italics and normal throughout and change it regularly this gives it some playfulness.

3. Spin magazine’s masthead is very similar to Q’s with the red background and white font again its one of the most eye catching mastheads. The main image is of a young artist named ‘M.I.A’ she’s pulling a rebellious and youthful pose that cant be taken to seriously, the two tone colour on her lips and funky coloured jacket makes the simple cover more interesting and adds to her edgy pose. They have mainly used the left hand side with only a little bit of writing on the right but the most important things on the right. The main image has a lot of light on her, this lightens and makes the cover very bright, al ot of her accessories reflect light, the studs on her hat and her necklace this makes them all very shiny. The target audience would be between 16-25. The rebelliousness of M.I.A is repeated in the writing ‘with a rebel yell’.

4. The cover of NME magazine is never one to be taken seriously this is shown by the larger than life Beth Ditto who is not the usual type of person you see naked on a cover and also with the cover line ‘kiss my ass’. Her pose is almost become comical instead of seductive, the impression you get is that she doesn’t care what you think, she seems rebellious and wild. NME are giving away free posters this is advertised on the front cover this will entice people to buy the magazine as everybody likes getting something for free. The colours are very vibrant and almost to much, the bright canary yellow and blood red, and the small use of black and white. The masthead is a black background with white outline around red, this is very original and eye catching.