‘Fabulous’ magazine deconstruction

Masthead

The ‘Fabulous’ magazine mastheads consist of one basic colour. This colour varies depending on the main feature which is displayed on the front cover for example, the characterisation of Victoria Pendleton is quite dark on front cover 1 and so the colour of the masthead is black. In example 3 Holly Willoughby is portrayed as innocent and almost angelic and so the masthead is kept a plain white colour to reflect this.

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Superimposed image over masthead

The use of a superimposed image over the magazine’s masthead allows the ‘star’ of the front cover to become synchronised with the magazine’s identity. Since ‘Fabulous’ is also a recognisable brand they do not necessarily need to show the whole of their masthead.

Cover linesThe cover lines on the front covers of ‘fabulous’ magazine tend to be situated across the front cover image, anchoring the ‘star’ to the cover line.The cover lines also tend to be quite short, not giving too much of the content away but also suggesting enough about it to gain the audience’s interest.

Star Image

1)CU 5) MS4)5 Shot MLS3)MLS2)MCU

‘Fabulous’ use a range of camera shots on their front covers. I chose to use a shot similar to example 5 on my magazine front cover.

By using this Medium shot I can show the intentions of the star and easily make costume visible on the front cover.

Star Image/Cover line

The stars on the cover of ‘Fabulous magazine’ are always linked to the cover line. Sometimes they will be given their own unique name as we can see in both examples, this forces the audience to wish to understand why the stars have been branded as “The Iron Lady” or “Wild Thing” etc.

FeaturesThe feature on the front cover of ‘Fabulous’ magazine tend to have a sub heading outlining the content of the feature. This sub heading usually follows the colour scheme of the front cover, this is visible in the example. The features themselves are a simple black/white font, it is the heading of the features which attracts the audiences' eye.

Backgrounds

‘Fabulous’ front cover backgrounds almost always consist of one colour, which fits well with the colour scheme. This allows the star image, cover line, and features to be much more ‘eye-catching to the audience however the background is still effective, and relevant to all of the other front cover content.

Colour schemeA colour scheme is essential on a magazine front cover as it establishes a clear link between the features, cover line and star. In this example the masthead, feature heading, cover line and even Mollie King’s lips are colour coded, all are pink and therefore represent femininity. By making Mollie’s lips part of the colour scheme, ‘Fabulous’ have effectively linked her directly to their brand.