Empire is a successful British film magazine known for its reviews, interviews, and coverage of upcoming films and TV shows. It uses eye-catching design and color schemes on its covers that complement the featured content. The cover shown analyzes Skyfall and uses shades of red, black, white, and gray that match the film's spy thriller genre. Elements like the title in red and images of Daniel Craig as James Bond grab readers' attention and communicate what the issue contains.

2. Empire is a film, television and gaming magazine from Britain, and is one of the biggest magazines for film. It is published monthly, where they showcase and promote any
released or upcoming films, along with reviews from critics and interviews with both cast and crew. This is what helped Empire become so successful in Britain as this is what an
audience of film lovers, or even interested customers, usually look for – as Empire contains pretty much everything you need to know about soon releasing/current films and TV
shows. Furthermore, the aesthetics of the magazine are eye pleasing as they use a selection of colours that compliment each other to the main film’s genre. For example, their
magazine for INCEPTION (show below) is a science heist thrill film, so shades of blue, red, white, grey and black are the main colours used and match with the theme of the
genre. The title of Empire magazines are commonly seen in red too, which helps grabs attention of readers. This is important as the first thing majority of people spot with a
magazine is it’s title, and because Empire’s one is of a bold, vibrant red colour, it is sure to capture any viewer’s attention.
Their first issue was released in July 1989, and was edited by Barry McIlheney. Before being bought Bauer in 2008, the magazine was published by Emap. Empire is also
distributed internationally, involving the United States. Other European countries included Australia, Turkey, Russia, Italy and Portugal.

3. MASTHEAD
MAIN IMAGE/MODEL
COLOUR SCHEME
COVER/SELL LINES
FONT STYLE AND LAYOUT
The masthead is in a bold, vibrant and red colour in
capatalised text and is the first thing that captures the
reader’s attention as it stands out amongst the other
colours involved for the front cover. To follow
conventions of a magazine, it is placed at the top, with
a skyline right above. The use of the colour red could
also suggest a ‘meaning behind’ to it, as usually this
colour is commonly associated with danger or love –
which is exactly what James Bond film’s theme is as
not only is Bond always in some sort of danger, but he
always has a woman to accompany him being his love
interest. Adding onto this, the masthead is also behind
the model, which perhaps could imply how he is
superior.
The main image is of Daniel Craig, a famously known British actor
who’s role is playing as James Bond for the last couple of years.
Since Bond is such a successful and globally known film series
(based on the novels), readers would straight away know who he
is and the film the magazine is promoting. In this image, he is
wearing a suit to make himself appear professional and business
– like. However below you see he is holding a gun, which breaks
the idea of him being an innocent/normal man as he is a spy. The
black suit also helps the model appear more bold and powerful
against the light grey background, adding authority too. Further
there are bullet holes over the magazine, giving an illusion that he,
or an enemy, were shooting at the magazine itself but is protected
by it. This added editing gives the front cover a more unique look,
and really brings in the theme of police crime to the readers. Little
images of other films such as fantastic four are also added to
show other films included in the magazine, but are smaller in size
as Skyfall is
the main one.
The font used varies in size and style that go well together, to look
aesthetically pleasing and prevent the front cover from looking boring if
they were to use the same font style. The cover line ‘SKYFALL’ is in
white, which contrasts against the model’s black suit. It is also slanted,
giving a sophistic look and feel to both the magazine and genre of the
film. “New pics! The full story” and “50 years of 007” are inside a red
box, matching the colour of the masthead and also separates these sell
lines so that readers will know it is specifically for anything to do with
Bond. The barcode is situated at the side, next to the cover line. Usually
this would be placed more towards the corner, but in this case it would
look odd as the the bottom section of the magazine is dedicated to 50
years of Bond. The issue number and date is paced in-between the ‘M’
of Empire, allowing to make full use of the gap, and is also small so it is
not very distracting.
The colours used are simple: red, black, grey,
white and a hint of gold. All this compromised
creates a modern and sophisticated
appearance, which matches with the genre of
the film as it is a modern Bond film. Adding on
to this, the target audience for this magazine
would be more aimed at those of a young adult
and over age, manly because of the colour
scheme used is more associated for a mature
age. Additionally, the use of the red colour also
alerts readers and grabs attention more as
suppose to if the colour were red – as red is
usually used to ‘break news’.
Cover lines are usually placed within the middle of the front
cover, commonly placed above the main image. It is the 2nd
biggest font seen here, so can still be read from afar and the
white colour helps readers see the cover line more easily from
a distance too. The sell lines are placed at the sides of the
magazine, and are used to inform readers what articles can
be found in this issues. Articles in the gold colour, such as
avengers and burgundy, could suggest special articles that
readers can see, since the words special or royalty connects
with this colour. It also separates each sell line, and prevents
the appearance of looking basic and crowded. I think that by
having colours that are not complicated, gives a really nice
effortless look to the magazine, as well as having a polished,
sleek look. I would like my magazine to have a similar vibe to
this, so would take front cover magazines such as this for
inspiration.