Research

Cover and contents page

analysis
Genre Rock
By Logan Wingate

The title is big and bold, in a very

stylish font. The magazine is
obviously very well known as the
designers covered some of the
masthead with a promotional
sticker. I will not be able to get
away with this when designing my
magazine as it will not be well
known enough.

The in house colours are black

and white which add impact and
focus to the image in the centre,
which is of famous rock
guitarist/musician Jimi Hendrix,
who is dead. The black and white
has a feel of sadness to it, which
means it is very appropriate for a
cover featuring Hendrix

This cover very effectively uses

varying font types and sizes to
prioritise the information, an
example being The mysterious
death of Jimi Hendrix as a title of
a sub section, and anything else
related to that story is in smaller
print. The reason the print is
larger for the title of the story is to
simply draw attention to it.

The composition of the magazine

is very clearly following the rule of
thirds, making it easy to read and
follow, also bringing focus to no
more than one section of the
cover at a time.

I would say the type of shot the

designers have used I a
mid/close up.

The masthead of this magazine is

again big and bold, but it is place
onto a black background with a
contrasting white colour in the
text. This brings focus to the title
and makes it stick in a
buyer/readers head.

This magazine has a colour

scheme of black and white, with
the addition of red on what the
designers want to bring into
focus. I like this colour scheme as
it has a sophisticated feel to it but
it still represents rock sufficiently.

Something else worth noting is

this cover features whats known
as a pug which is an area
featuring little or no information of
any importance at all, the purpose
of this feature is that it gives a
reader somewhere to hold the
magazine by without masking any
potential information. Its more an
ergonomic feature and not really
a necessity however I should not
rule out using one.

There is a banner at the top

displaying information as to the
contents of the magazine. I think
this is an efficient way to prioritise
what is inside the magazine. This
is because in comparison to the
text near the centre of the
magazine reading BIFFY
CLYRO it is fairly small, creating
the impression that the article
related to the text in the banner is
of a lower priority than that of
Biffy Clyro. I aim to use a banner
like this in my final magazine.

This magazine does not follow

the typical conventions of a
magazine cover in that it doesnt
follow the rule of thirds. However,
the layout is still tidy and
understandable, though I do
prefer the rule of thirds
composition.

The image is a mid shot.

This magazine is somewhat of a

black sheep in comparison to the
rest as the cover features very
little information. It might be worth
noting that it is a digital edition,
however the digital edition and
the physical edition share the
same cover (I did my research on
my research).

This cover uses several different

fonts. The masthead HAMMER
is almost un readable as only 4 of
the 6 letter of the word are
actually visible among Mansons
enormous presence, however it
looks tidy and professional. The
other fonts are long and skinny
and look slightly sinister which
relates to Mansons gothic
reputation. Fonts can be used to
portray a darker side of rock and
therefore appeal to a different
target audience.

This cover features a mid shot of

Marilyn Manson, who is
considered a rock legend, stood
very dominantly in the centre of
the cover and spanning about
75% of the cover. The effect this
has is he seems almost godly,
which reflects on his status in the
rock genre. This is a very
interesting approach and I will
consider the sizing of the image I
use.
What seems to be trending with
all these magazine covers is the
colour scheme. Predominantly
black and white with splashes of
red for effect. This seems to be a
convention of the rock genre
magazine covers and should
definitely be included in my cover.

This image was scanned in so

please forgive the quality and
missing segments.
This magazine also stands out
from the rest in that for once the
colour scheme does not only
consist of black, white and red.
Through my knowledge of the
genre I understand that My
Chemical Romance (featured on
the cover) are not a particularly
heavy band, meaning they are
not so easily represented by the
sinister colour scheme of black,
white and red. In actual fact, if
you look at the art of one of their
albums Danger Days: the true
lives of the fabulous killjoys it
presents a very similar colour
scheme. The album art can be
found below:

The text on this cover prioritises

information through size in that
the bigger the text, the more
important the information is. For
example; the issue is clearly
focused on the band My
Chemical Romance, and the text
regarding that band is in a big,
bold and white font.
The image used for this is a close
up oin My Chemical Romance
front-man Gerard Way, further
exaggerating the importance and
presence of My Chemical
Romance throughout the issue.
This cover makes use of more
than one image which is an
interesting way of keeping the
readers interested. No one wants
to read an excessively text heavy
magazine on music and gossip
about bands.

Contents page analysis

This contents page is fairly text
heavy but still incorporates us of
many images which again will keep
readers interested. There is a
small paragraph on the top left
corner of the page and the rest of
the text is to do with the contents of
the page. This is a good approach
to squeezing in more content into
the magazine and I should
consider this when constructing
mine.

The text is mainly black which

contrasts with the black coloured
text. This makes it easy to read
as the colours are opposites.

This is my favorite contents page

image and I aim to model mine
after this in my final piece.
Images in the left and title etc on
the right.

The magazine uses images to

display what will be found on the
relevant pages, I should also
consider this when constructing
my magazine. There is one large
image which is dominant over the
rest containing the frontman of
band You Me At Six which again
shows the over all focus of the
magazine.

Even the contents page uses a

masthead, which is presented in
big bold lettering and layed on a
black background. This is merely
for legibility purposes in that it
helps readers understand the
magazine and what theyre
currently looking at.

I see this page as an extremely

nice layout, the separation of the
text and images make it look
relatively organised, however I
feel if the text and images were
actually integrated it would look
more sophisticated and
professional.

This contents page uses a band

index, which I think is a brilliant
idea as it not only shows you
what sort of genre the magazine
focuses on by showing the bands
it is all about, but it also fills blank
space and makes the magazine
organised. It also makes the
magazine even more easily
navigable by giving page number
to the band so if a reader likes
one band in particular, they can
skip through the magazine and
read up on what theyre
interested in.

I like the way the actual contents

are categorized as this makes it
very organised and sleek. This
magazine comes across as very
easily navigable in that it is all put
together to make it convenient for
the readers.
The magazine also makes use of
advertisements which I believe
are a very efficient way of filling
up blank space and I should
consider using one for a
competition or something similar
on my magazine.

This contents page is my second

favorite and I aim to take a lot of
inspiration from this in my own
page.

This page is very organised and

clean cut in that everything is
placed almost isometric and
parallel to all the other elements
leaving it looking very tidy and
easily read.

The image has a very

contemporary vibe to it and is
suggestive that the magazine is
representative of classic rock as it
seems vintage and retro. This is
because the colours have been
completely desaturated and make
it look old, another thing worth
noting is the mans hair cut is
reminiscent of the traditional
British punk/mod haircut which is
a very old but classic style in the
UK.

This is a different take on the

conventional colour scheme of
rock magazines in that the colour
scheme is still red white and
black, however the dominant
colours are white and red as
opposed to black and white,
which has a less sinister feel to it
and makes the magazine seem
lighter, more sophisticated and
almost uplifting.

The word contents has been

neatly placed on a nice red backdrop with a contemporary black
outline. This further exaggerates
my point of sophistication and
makes the magazine come
across as very neat and tidy. I
aim to use this technique in my
magazine contents page.