3rd magazine cover analysis

For this magazine cover the colour scheme is mainly white, with black red and gold to highlight the text. The title 'Vibe' highlighted in red gives the cover life and energy. The main image of the person displays him wearing plain white and black clothing which coincides with the colour scheme. All these colours work well together, the all are not the most vibrant of colours and does not follow the general colour themes of other issues of this magazine.

The main title 'Vibe' is in block capitals placed at the top of the page. It is situated behind rap artist 'TI' which ensures that his entire head is fully displayed. The title is highlighted in a red, this with a plain white background portrays an old styled magazine. The publishers feel that they can afford to have the title covered up a little as they are already a big name and the audience will still be attracted to it.

The sub-title of the main focused story is placed underneath the main title to the left of the page and image, the text is in block capitals. The text of the subtitle 'TI' is highlighted in black and is larger than the rest of the title, but the rest of the title is coloured in red and has been made slightly smaller, by doing this it draws the readers attention to 'TI' so the audience know what or who the main story is about.

Other sub stories are placed on the right hand side of the page, midway down the length of the cover. The text for these smaller stories are highlighted in black and gold, and are also significantly smaller than the main title and sub-title. These sub stories do not stand out as much as a result of the colour they are highlighted in e.g black and gold.

The main image is of rapper TI, he is dressed in a white suit jacket, white shit and as an untied black bow tie around his neck, the background of the image is completely white, therefore his jacket almost completely blends into it, making just his head the most outstanding part of the image, these light, bright colours portray a calm feeling, which people generally would not relate to rap music.

A PUG is used in the bottom right hand corner of the page, it is coloured in white and the text inside it is highlighted in black and red. These colours allow it to blend in with the general colours of the magazine and does not really draw attention to itself.

The bar code is situated in the bottom left hand corner of the page, this is discrete as it blends in with the white background, as a result the readers eye is not drawn to it and the price of the magazine may be the last thing on their mind, therefore they are more likely to buy it as they have already taken an interest in the magazine because of its attractive design.

2nd magazine cover analysis

This front cover has a lot of different, contrasting colours. The colour scheme consists of quite dull, dark boring colours e.g grey, white, black, brown and grey in the main image and the background. The text on this page contrasts with the main image and is what makes the magazine stand out through the use of more vibrant colours e.g. light blue, yellow and red.

The name of the magazine 'Vibe' is placed at the top of the page, it spreads across almost the entire width of the front cover and a gap between the name and the top of the page is left so that a skyline can be input, the font is in block capitals and is highlighted in blue, this colour contrasts with the background and image colour scheme and therefore catches the eye of the audience, even though some of the text is situated behind Ushers head it does not matter as the magazine is already a big name brand, therefore the designer of the magazine feels that there is no risk involved in having part of the magazine name obstructed. 

The main title of the main story is placed underneath 'Vibe' to the left of the page, this overlaps the title 'Vibe' slightly which shows the use of layering on the cover, by doing this it enables certain/specific text or objects to stand out more than others, the main title is highlighted in black with a yellow outline which corresponds with the plain, dull and darker main image.

Other sub-stories are placed on the right hand side of the magazine in a column, most of this text is highlighted in light blue with a white outline, at times this alternates and white is used to highlight the main text with a blue outline, the use of these vibrant colours makes it easy for the reader to read and pick out specific or important information . Just like the title VIBE they contrast with the colours of the main image. These substories are situated in front of the main image and cover the left shoulder of the singer. One sub-story ' 15 shocking celebrity 'sex scandles' is however highlighted in black and is bigger than all the other smaller stories, this tells the reader that this is a big, important and very interesting section in the magazine, second to the main story about Usher.

The music magazine website address is displayed at the bottom of the page on the right, the text is highlighted in white has been made slightly transparent, even so the text is still clearly readable but it doess not grab the readers attention immediatly.

The main image is of popular R&B singer Usher, he is wearing a white shirt, grey jacket and dark sunglassses. He poses with his ring finger sticking up, this would most probably catch the readers eye as they would at first think that he was making a different, rude gesture.

Straplines have not been used on this cover to contain advertisements, instead the text is simply highlighted in black with a yellow outline and is placed at the very top of the page, this is clearly separated even though there is no strapline.

The barcode is placed in the bottom left hand corner of the page, it doesn't stand out to the reader as it blends in with the background colour of the main image, this is a clever idea as this doesn't make the audience think about the price.

I feel that this frontpage is quite good, the contrasting colours of the main image and the text make the magazine look interesting and attractive.

1st magazine cover analysis

Magazine: NME

The core colour scheme of this front cover is mainly black with a combination of white and gold in the title. White, gold and a hint of blue is used in the background as stars to make it look magical, this coincides with the main person on the cover 'Michael Jackson'. The main image of the singer is the only one used for this frontpage, this is to show the audience that this magazine is only focusing on Michael Jackson. The theme that the cover portrays relates to the aura that surrounded the singer, presented through his music, his dancing and in his personal life because even though he got older, he still behaved child like.

The title ' Michael Jackson' is in capitals and is highlighted in white, it takes up the entire width of the page. It is not as large as the name of the magazine 'NME' which is short and easy to remember, it is placed underneath the title on the left hand side, the text is in block capitals and is highlighted in gold, with a white outline. For this the title is situated behind the singer on the page, this is done to ensure the entire image of the person is displayed, and shows us that there are 2 or more layers used in the design. To the right of the NME title is ' Tribute special', this title is the smallest out of the three and is highlighted in gold.

On this frontpage the main focus is clearly on this singer, there is very little in the background to distract the reader from the main image. There is very little other text on the cover, except a sticker of what features inside the magazine and text in the bottom right hand corner of the page '1958-2009, therefore nothing really supresses the main image.

The website, date of the magazine and the price of the magazine is displayed under 'NME' and is the smallest sized text on the page making it quite discrete, this text alternates between white and gold. There are no sub stories at all on the front cover as this magazine is focused on just one man and one main story.

The image used on the front cover displays a medium shot of the singer Michael Jackson , and shows the singer with his thumb up, giving the impression that throughout his life he always tried to be positive in his music career and his private life, he is looking straight at the camera and even though he is wearing blacked out sunglasses, the audience still know he is making eye contact with them. As this a medium shot of the singer, the audience are able to see his emotions through his body language being displayed. 

The image shows a more light hearted, child like theme the background harmonizes with Jackson's clothing, by doing this it shows that they want to target this magazine for people of all ages, children who would be drawn to the magazine as a result of the theme, also teenagers and adults who would be old enough to know who Michael Jackson is and love his music, therefore would most probably buy the magazine because of the singers interesting and headlining life. The colour of his clothing corresponds with the colour scheme of the page, the singer's black jacket almost blends into the black background, the gold design on his clothes coincides with the gold coloured text and the white glove stands out dramatically. His head overlaps the main titles slightly.

A PUG is located on the left hand side of the page just underneath the title 'NME', it is highlighted in red and contrasts with the colours on the rest of the page, by doing this it would almost immediately draw the readers attention to it, the text inside alternates between coloured black and white. 

The Bar code is placed in the bottom left hand corner, it is not very big and its positioning makes it discrete, it doesn't draw the reader's attention and ensure that the reader does not have the price of the magazine come to mind straight away. 

Preliminary Task. Contents page

Overall i feel that my contents page was okay, not brilliant by any means. There is no real colour scheme as the page consists of 4 photos which relate to main stories included in the magazine, these photos were expanded so that they covered the entire page, each photo was placed on each corner and met eachother in the middle.

Colour

All of the text was highlighted in black, which does not relate at all with the front cover as the text on the frontpage was in red, the font style is different as well and therefore the reader would not think there is any real link between the two pages.

Again like on the front page the images have not been edited at all so we do not see any real colour scheme.

Titles

The main title 'contents' is placed in the centre at the top of the page, this is the biggest piece of text on the page. The contents of the magazine have been placed on the left, the sub- titles of each of the different sections e.g. Goffs Gossip are slightly bigger than the contents and are still smaller than the main title, but the reader will not be able to clearly distinguish between the different sections. All of the text is in 'Agency FB' font and is highlighted in black, which is a problem just like with the front page as the text is not easily readable on this background.

Design

Much like the front page, the contents page is  quite plain and boring. Again the whole of the page is not being utilized fully as there is a lot of free space on the right hand side and at the bottom of the page. The contents are positioned in a column. Also the two images on the left hand side are almost being completely covered up by the column of contents and therefore the reader will not be able to clearly see what the images are showing. 

Preliminary Task. Frontpage

This was the the front cover i designed in the preliminary task, overall I do not think that it was very successful. Firstly I feel that the layout of the text e.g. titles and sub titles was not the best, and the colours used in the design made it look boring and plain.

Colours

I used the colour red to highlight all of the text, the font used for the subtitles was made different to the main title ' Goffs Gossip' this may confuse the reader as the main title font gives the impression of and old fashioned magazine, whereas the font used for the sub titles made the magazine look modern. The red text allow sub titles to stand out on the background of the main image, but red text for the title on the blue banner at the top of the page does not stand out very well and therefore would not catch of audiences eye.

Image

The main image of the front cover of the model walking out with a computer, this is quite a basic and plain image as it has not been edited in any way, this makes it look very boring and the audience would  probably not be very interested in reading any further than the front cover, however some people may be a little bit interested to continue reading as the image gives the impression of crime, and the audience may find this funny or shocking. As the image is of the most of the model's body, it will not catch the reader's eye as the distance between the camera and the model is too much. Another problem is that it is not clear that what the model is holding is a Mac as his body is almost fully turned away from the camera and is blocking the reader's view of he object. 

Another problem is that the two smaller images are different sizes and look out of place, they blend in too much with the background of the main image

Titles

The text on the cover was not typed or designed very well, the most outstanding problem would be the fact that the main title for the main story is the same size font as the sub stories, so the reader would not be able to easily tell which of the stories that is being mentioned on the front page is the one that the magazine is going to be focusing on.

The size, style and layout of the text is quite poor and would therefore not stand out on the shelf in a shop. There aren't many sub stories displayed on the cover, so the public won't have a clear idea of all the things the magazine will consist of. The red highlighted text is not easily readable on this background. 

Design

The overall design of the page is quite poor, there are some areas of the page that have not been utilized properly e.g. there are two banners at the top of the page, one which is blue and contains the magazine name inside, the red banner underneath does not contain any text or images and is therefore just taking up space for the sake of it. 

The pieces of text are positioned in poor areas, they are not in any sort of column and again taking up areas of space where other pieces of information or other images could go. 

Introduction

Hey , my name is Luke, I have created this blog for my Media Studies As level coursework. We have just started working on our coursework and it will all be displayed on this blog. The objective of our coursework is to produce a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. The genre that I will be focusing on will be Rock