The document discusses the layout and design elements of several music magazines' front covers and contents pages. It describes how they use images, colors, fonts and other graphical elements to attract readers and convey information about the artists and articles featured. The magazines aim to highlight important information and create brand identities while appealing to their target audiences.

1. The masthead ‘NME’ uses capital letters to highlight the importance and the use of a bright red font colour of the masthead is main house colour of the music magazine and therefore creates a brand identity. The main front page image is situated in the centre of the magazine and shows a man playing a guitar who seems young. This also highlights the target audience that the brand is trying to set out and appeal to. It is primarily trying to appeal to 17-30 year olds and suggests what the reader can expect to find in the magazine. The images used on the front page of the music magazine help amplify what is going to be included inside the magazine and the readers can find what interests them and appeals to them from this. The images give enough information about the most important information and artists that will be included inside and this draws the readers in to focus on this. The magazine uses opinionated views and the audience feel more involved when the magazine uses quotes from articles on the front page to give a outline of what more is offered inside, and the use of more sensational and exaggerated words that the magazine has used themselves to catch the audience’s attention. The colours all stand out and using white on a dark background is effective in receiving immediate reactions and attention.

2. The magazine creates a continuous brand identity as the colours all relate back to the front cover and create a themed style throughout the magazine. The contents page provides a insight into what the music magazine is providing articles on and what artists are featured, the images used also highlight the main artists of this issue and that is what tends to attract the readers more and therefore maintains the readership as well as the front cover aiming to do so. The contents page for ‘NME’ tends to be overcrowded and it tries to consume all space available as it saves space for stories in the next issue but it also sometimes places the most important pages across a double page as these are the pages readers are more likely to go to and read.

3. This article uses a image of the artist which takes up one full page of a double page spread. She is dressed fairly casual and her eyes are the main centrepiece of attention as they have been emphasized with the black make up, and her position is tilted which connects to the articles title as she is positioned with her hands on her hips and conveys how she is being intimidating and defensive. The layout of the double page feature spread and uses a variety of newspaper text cut outs which present the text quite effectively and it is plastered across both pages making the article seem large. The image is framed around the edges of the text and the article text is very miniature compared to the actual image and heading so that more emphasis is placed upon these features. The title of this article is a quote from the artist herself and is picked out from the main body of the article as this is what draws the audience in and the red font is used to highlight the artists name as she is the main focus.

4. The masthead is unique and the ‘Q’ on a red background fill contrasts with the bright white text making the letter seem important. The letter itself ‘Q’ is the name of the magazine and the use of highlighting it is a ‘bumper issue’ gives it more attention and importance. The image is placed central and the direct address lures the audience in and it overlaps the masthead and more importance is placed on the eyes of the artist and in this case Madonna as she is a famous, well-established artist which suggests the magazine is focused on big musicians. The freebie that is included is a incentive the music magazine is providing and the use of ‘Free Inside’ immediately gains attention and draws attention as it is in bold and indicates one of the main features of the magazine. The front cover doesn’t use obvious cover lines like other issues however the cover lines that are used are associated to the music artist in this issue and is the main theme of this issue.

5. The ‘Q’ logo is coloured in red alongside the other subheadings that are the key essentials. The gold colour fill used for ‘Oasis’ connoted how special and royalty as they are artists that are established. The review that the ‘Q’ magazine provides and the use of buzz words like ‘the worlds biggest and best music guide’ immediately attracts the audience and influences readers to continue reading on and ‘buy into’ this music magazine. The main image used on the contents page is one of the features pages that readers can continue reading on about and obviously they have been placed under much importance and ‘Q’s’ use of placing them on the contents page gives a insight to the readers to what they can expect in this issue of the magazine.

6. The main image goes across both pages of the double page spread. The use of another image beside the main feature page image make the main focus degrading. The magazine has used pull-quotes which have come directly from the music artist and this is a main feature that involves the audience with the magazine and also could be seen as one of the reasons ‘Q’ has such a large readership basis. The text is in columns which once again makes the article seem easy to read and organised, which connotes how the magazine is well-established.

7. The magazine is themed black and white and the gold just highlights the importance and it catches the audiences attention. The name is layered and sent to the back as the main image overlaps the masthead. The magazine gives away a freebie like every issue and it provides this incentive to create a customer loyalty and so that there are future repeat purchases. The audience may just buy the magazine for the free CD which allows ‘MOJO’ target the audience and have this as a continuing feature as they have decided to do so. The masthead is a plain black font against a white background which stands out and contracts well with the theme of the magazine. The ‘music magazine’ text overlapping over the masthead conveys what the magazine is about and seems like handwriting as it is in italics and shows a personal connection from the magazine to the reader. The image is centralised and is in black and white, which gives us a insight into the past maybe and suggests it is representing the famous musicians of the past. The image hides half of the mans face and is using direct address which lures us in as the audience to find out more about this certain individual.

8. The images are placed over the top and overlap in areas which make it seem like a collage of many images compacted. The clear and easy accessible format of the music magazine makes it easy for the readers to understand and visualise. The black on white colour scheme is traditional and suggests the music is more from the past. The subheadings are highlighted in red to convey the importance of them and the main articles are in black bold typography which clearly shows what has been given more emphasis.

9. The layout of this music magazine is like a newspaper layout which makes it easy to read and for readers to find a certain section. Each article has a overview about the music artists to help the readers gain a clearer insight into what they are about and what they specialise in. ‘ MOJO’ is a very traditional music magazine but is fairly current and the newspaper layout suggest its traditional features but also the magazine tries to inform readers in how to but the featured artists music which is a regular feature, its just more attracting with the added use of images. The magazine uses a variety of different images that are either live, backstage or posed to show the contrast.