Research for Magazine - Front Cover

Research for Magazine - Front Cover 

Genre = Music & Fashion

Other Fashion Magazines (including music) to base research upon:

- W Magazine

- Dazed & Confused Magazine

- Wonderland Magazine

- i-D Vice Magazine

I tried to choose 4 very diverse magazines, aimed at different target audiences (all within my 16-24 age range) in order to get a wide range of connotations and similarities between a wide range of magazines, as well as see how different magazines can target different audiences in unique ways to others.

W Magazine Example

In this front cover, a popular music icon (Beyonce) is used as the model. She is making eye contact with the camera while not giving much facial emotion in order to create an idea of power for her. This is a medium shot of her with centre focus, where the audience cannot see below her waist. For the background, a deep and regal red colour is used where it still shows depth to the image by not being a flat colour.

An all capitals and thin font is used in all the text, with only the size of the text and boldness changing - even with the name of the magazine. This is done in a white colour to go stand out against the background, this technique is often done in tabloid newspapers to make writing stand out. The main texts which stand out are "Beyonce Dressed To Kill", "Music & Style" and "Listen UP! Fashion's New Beat". All 3 of these include both music and fashion connotations.

Dazed & Confused Magazine Example

In this front cover, there are 2 photographs of a model which are merged into one split photo. One of the photos is a very extreme goth-like character whereas the other is a bland looking and normal boy. One way you could interpret this would be that there is always rebellion within all youth, as the boy on the right wants to become like the one on the left. The other way you can interpret this is that within rebellious youth, they still hold the want of wanting to live a normal life. Both of these interpretations target different audiences of youth at the same time. Behind the boy on the left is a plain black background, and behind the one on the right is white. This use of black vs white both makes the magazine give a very extreme polar opposite, as well as stand out to an audience due to its originality of non-generalised characteristics of a colourful cover.

The fonts are all in capitals and keeps the same black vs white colouring that the pictures have. The only text which stands out is "Not Everything is Black and White" which once again expresses a very subtle and vague meaning.

Wonderland Magazine Example

I chose both of these front covers as examples as they both contain the same model but both feature different types of shots to advertise the magazine. In the top cover, Shawn Mendes (famous singer - songwriter) is slightly left of frame in an extreme close up shot. He is looking slightly to the left of camera too, not making direct eye contact with the reader. The colours in this cover are very light focused, with a white shirt and a white background being present. This overall presents him as a fun character.

In the second cover, a further away medium shot is taken of him being to the right of screen. In this he has his head slightly tilted upwards to give a smug representation, and is making eye contact with the camera. Also the general colour of this cover is a lot darker, with the background being a dark grey beige and him wearing denim with dark jeans.

In both covers, a very minimalistic design is taken upon, where there is next to no external text apart from the name of the magazine and the name of the model. These are both again in a white colour, with the name of the model being in all capitals.

i-D Vice Magazine Example

In this cover, once again a famous music icon (Rihanna) is used to model. The photograph is a close up where only her chest and head is in camera view, and where she is posed in centre screen. The model is making eye contact with the camera with a very displeased/aggressive facial expression, this creates the representation of fear for the reader. Her hair is styled in a way to go against general fashion conventions of long and non-tied up hair, however this adds to her facial expression again, with one strand of it covering an eye to almost break the eye contact.

The text used is very minimal again with the only noticeable text being "play loud". This is once again in a white font, however unlike the other magazines is in complete lower case with no punctuation.