analysing front covers, contents pages and double page spreads

Analysing front covers, content pages and page double spreadsBy Alisha Muller

Analysing magazine front covers

Selling line

Masthead

Left third

Main image

Cover lines

Bar code and date line

Main cover line

Main image

The main image includes 4 male singers which are members of the band Kings of Leon. The main singer is in the front and the rest of the band behind him. It is a simple black and white shot which puts the focus on the person in front. The high key lighting exactly shows their facial expressions.

Main cover line

They have chosen a bright green colour in order to attract the reader. This colour stands out because of the dark background. The word “exclusive” represents the fact that its about a well known band. If something is exclusive, it will make the reader interested about the topic.

The masthead is simple in white which makes the person or in this case persons stand out much more. Over the white masthead there is a small text written in green which suits the green in the other texts.

masthead

Masthead

Main image

Cover lines

Left third

Main cover line

Bar code and date line

This main image is not just a picture of a random person, it’s lady gaga who has a big influence on young people. Whenever teens see that lady gaga is on the front cover of a magazine they will buy it, no matter the content. On this image lady gaga is not wearing a lot of clothes (she’s literally naked) Her outfit suits the topic of the magazine which is mostly about sex. She’s chosen as the main image because in the magazine there is an exclusive interview with celebrity Lady gaga.

The sentence of the main cover line “the sex article we can’t describe here” is supposed to make the reader curious about the content of the cosmopolitan magazine, as they make it look like a big secret more people will buy it.

Main cover line

The masthead of the cosmopolitan is red. Red is the colour of passion, sex and love which is a huge topic the cosmopolitan always talks about. The main image covers the masthead which makes a few letters hard to read. They do this because the readers know that it’s supposed to be cosmopolitan as it is a very famous magazine.

masthead

Cover line

Main image

Left third

Main cover line

Bar code and date line

Cover lineThe cover line is in a simple black which looks luxury on the light blue background. The words fashion, treasures and diamond queen makes this magazine more attractive for women rather than men. It shows that this magazine is about high class fashion and haute couture.

Main image

This main image shows the luxury content of this magazine as they choose supermodel Kate Moss wearing a beautiful and branded dress which completely suits the background. The little gold pigments show that there is a topic about gold in the magazine as the main cover line says “Going for Gold”

Analysing contents pages

Masthead and main heading

Subheadings

Band index

Main image

House style

Main story

flashes

Analysing magazine house style: NME has a busy house style which seems to appeal rebellious and a little informal. They use black and red as the main colours instead of light and soft colours. The colours they decide to use are strong, therefore the whole genre looks stronger. The page looks very full and there is not a lot of spaces between each paragraph. There’s a full pack of information.

Analysing the main image:The main image is big compared to the band index and headings. It takes lots of space which makes the reader more interested about the picture. The main image includes black and red colours such as the colours which are used for the rest of the contents page.

The flashes are used to point the different topics such as features, news and reviews. They help the reader to find those topics. The colour is in a simple black which suits the black used in the text and subtitles.

Masthead

Main image

Subheadings

House style

Main storyBand index

The main image attracts someone who is interested in fashion. There are 7 pictures of fashionable women which shows that this is a fashion magazine (vogue) Different styles are given you give a quick look about what is inside of the magazine.

The main story/cover story looks interesting as there is a small image of a mysterious woman next to it. There is a little shadow which covers her face, which they made to make the reader more curious about who about this article could be.

dateMasthead

Flashes

flashSubheadings

House style

Main images (5)

Main story

The main images in the mojos contents page are entertaining such as Kermit the frog and the cartoon the smasher. This shows that this magazine is serious but doesn’t want to loose it’s funny bits. The images are in simple colours as the mojos layout is simple.

The subheadings are written in a black and bold writing. The structure is simple and accurate which makes it easy to understand. The only colour used for the subheadings is black. In front of the subheadings there are numbers.

Analysing a double page spread

Font type

Subtitle/Kicker

Stand first

Headline

Main image/cover model

The main cover model of the double page spread is superstar Rihanna with her fire red hair. They took a close up to put the main attention on the hair because its fire red and suits the red title on top left. Mis en scene is used. Next to this picture there are a few other pictures where the reader sees Rihanna with black hair. I think this article is about hairstyles and colours as they put her hair in focus.

The main image

The subtitle/Kicker shows immediately who this article is about as they write “Rihanna interview” Rihanna fans will buy this magazine immediately.

Subtitle/kicker

Main image

Fonttype

Subtitle

Standfirst

headline

The font type is design very informal because the white words are covered with a black frame in order to make the article look rebellious because of the words “but I’m just honest”, punky and a little crazy. The main point is to make the article look different than other articles.

The font type

The main image/cover model is Lilly Allen. She wears a red and black striped shirt and her make up is very punky and dark such as her hairstyle. Her attitude seems like the sentence which is written next to her. She seems to not care what others think about her and that she shows with her style and face expression.

Main image

The stand first is made very simple in black and white as they want to put the whole attention on Lilly Allen.

The stand first

Fonttype

headline

standfirst

Main image/cover model Subtitle/header

The huge L in the headline shows the reader that the person of this article must have a L in their name. In this case it is Lady Gaga. The L is coloured in a very bright red, but still the words written under the L are visible to read. The red doesn’t cover the content as it’s simply a nice decoration.

The headline

The main image who is Lady gaga is already an extraordinary character to look at, but they dressed her quite simple compared to her usual outfit. She is just shown in a simple black and white mid shot with a long neckless and dark eye make up.

Main image

The font typeThe font type is made very simple in black with a light background. High key lighting is used and the name Lady GAGA is small written on top right. Lady is written in small letters and GAGA in capital letters