Front Cover Analysis

AS Media Front Cover Analysis

This particular magazine is aimed at people who want to join a college so mainly people aged around 16 – 18. I would say that the college magazine is aimed at people who maybe more interested in creative studies such as art or product design.

The masthead is in white bold text and stands out from the rest of the magazine; this is done to make sure that you know what magazine you are reading the second you look at it.

The strapline is giving the reader  information about the college and what magazine is about but it is straight after the masthead so you could possibly see it after taking a deeper look it the magazine, the text is like this because it shows the importance of text as the larger the text, the higher importance the text is considered. 50^TH Anniversary is in large italics and is very large on the cover this is done because making it large and putting it in italics makes it more pleasant to look and attracts the reader’s attention, this can also be done to point out something of very high importance and the 50^th anniversary could be considered important.

The colour scheme of the magazine is very plain with lots of greys and white with a picture of a girl with paint on her hands, the paint is the only really colourful thing on the entire and it stands out very much.  The greys and white suggest that the college is very professional and follows very high standards, while the paint on the girl’s hands represents the college as also being full of creativity and happiness.

The sell line ‘The Future Is Hands-On’ links very heavily with model and the cover as it is showing that the future is in her hands in this case and her hands with paint on show creativity which would show off what the college has to offer in a very simple but effective way. This would make people consider this college because of how effective it is.

This magazine is less professional and more casual than the previous one and I believe that it would be aimed at females aged around 16 – 18 either just about to join college or have been in college for some time. This magazine is less specific

than the previous one and I believe that people who like

gossip magazines would like this type of magazine. I also

believe that this is a female oriented magazine because

some of the largest text writes about ‘Beauty’ and women

tend to be more concerned with their beauty and looks than

men.

The colour scheme of the magazine is very bland and plain

but the colour white can also represent purity which

would link to the model as it is showing her as pure and

even the magazine as pure and honest.  This  is also

done to make the woman in the middle of the magazine

cover stand out as much as possible, it is also done to

make all the text stand out. The magazine masthead has

been blocked out by the woman in the middle of the

cover suggesting that she is a very important person and

may even be a model or famous person of some sort;

this again refers back to the gossipy vibe of the

magazine, this could have also have been done because

it showing that most people who read this magazine are

regulars are already know the name of the magazine.

She is also wearing a very bright coloured dress which

again makes her stand out more than anything on the

cover and this is again reinforcing the fact that she is important.

Some sell lines around the woman is in a bold text

suggesting that it is of more relevance than text with smaller

text, since this magazine seems to be very gossipy these

bolder text are about gossipy things such as ‘Sean Kingston’ 

Like the following one this magazine seems to be less serious than the first as it is the same magazine just a different issue. However this magazine wouldn’t be solely for females as I believe that if would be for both gender aged around 16 – 18 as it is for college students.  Again I think that this magazine is quite gossipy and a lot less professional than the first as the texts are about gossip and things like ‘thank god it’s Friday’ which again shows that magazines supports other things than just college.

The house style of this magazine cover is unlike the other two magazines as this one is very bright text on a dark background which makes all the yellow text stand out more than anything on the page and this make the reader look at the yellow texts first before anything on the page.

The male on the front cover is again in front of the title which makes him seem more important but this time he doesn’t stand out as much because he is wearing a darker clothing that matches the colour of the background suggesting that he isn’t as important as the last woman. This magazine doesn’t have a specific gender audience as it has used a male model and he is particularly famous which suggests that the main focus is on him.  More important texts look to be in the same colour as the masthead, a bright yellow which makes them stand while less important texts look to be in a white colour. This is done to make you look at yellow texts first to draw you in.

Than man on the middle of the cover is shown wearing casual clothing and holding work books which is representing college life and what it is like, it could be also representing what the magazine is like. The magazine is shown as casual but still about education.

The magazine cover seems to have somewhat of a balance especially with the colours as there doesn’t seem to be too much of any colour of the cover but also the amount of text to the size of the model on the page seems to be in balance.

Contents Page Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

 

 On the contents page there is only really one main person. The picture of this person is a long shot and the person is called Ciara and she is a famous song writer, this shows that she has had quite a large story in the magazine as she covers a large portion of the magazine it suggests that she is important and will be the first thing people see.

The house style for the magazine is prominently black and white. The background is a black/white fade and this is done so the text can follow a similar pattern and stand out really well. The title of the page has an extremely big font size and is in bold white and a black background which makes it stand out, and the single world ‘CONTENTS’ is split up into 3 separate lines, this is done to make you take your time to read the title and in the process of reading the title you will begin to notice other things on the page which will make you more interested.

Behind the title there is an outline of a ‘V’ which stands for the name of the magazine ‘Vibe’, this is done to remind the reader what magazine they are reading. This is done again with the woman on the front as her legs are in the shape of a ‘V’ again representing ‘Vibe’ this is done to reinforce the reminder that this magazine is Vibe and you should expect quality from it.

The magazine uses quite a few font types and sizes to represent different things of the page, for example the title uses a very bold text to make it stand out while each of the categories use a different font type to provide a variety between fonts and this is done for nearly all pieces of text of the contents page and this is done because it shows that the magazine has more variety and is not plain.

The target audience for this magazine would be a majority of males as the woman on the page is shown in a very provocative way and would entice a lot of males to look at this magazine as it is more likely to attract a man’s attention rather than females. The expression on the woman face is again supporting this view as she has a seductive gaze; she is also wearing quite a short dress and is putting her legs up in the air to again entice the male reader.