Magazine Covers

Here are a few examples of magazine covers that helped influence me into using a brighter colour scheme.

The use of the colour pink on this magazine cover will stand out to the audience. As well as this it also looks good layering on top of the models pink dress.

This ELLE magazine cover has used the colour and pattern from the models outfit in the title. The use of yellow adds something different to this cover. 

This cover page is full of bright colours that engage the audience into different areas of the magazine. I especially like the use of the pink that has been used for the title and also the surrounding shapes and some of the text. You can clearly see that this colour scheme is similar to mine of blue, pink and black. 

Analysis of existing Magazine Titles

For this area I will be looking at and analysing different magazine titles, there fonts, colour decision and style.

This is the first title I will be looking at, it has been taken from the Cosmopolitan magazine which is a magazine about a variety of things including fashion. This magazine doesn't have a set colour scheme for every magazine and they mix it up making every one different. The font for this magazine title, I like, because it is easy to read and is quite bold so would be eye catching to the market. Having all the letters level with each other rather than being slightly scattered is a benefit because it prevents the magazine from looking untidy and unprofessional. If the cover was to have a lot of writing and images, the title wouldn't want to be all over the place as it would need to keep some sense of layout and precision.
The name Cosmopolitan defined means something that is familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures. This is good to have as a name of a magazine as it would look involving to many different countries and cultures which could therefore improve sales.

This is another title example and this is the KERRANG! magazine which is a music magazine for a specific genre of music that is much more defined. This magazine title is a lot less formal and looks more scruffy to me. From simply looking at it I could define who this magazine is aimed towards and I'm sure many other people could develop an opinion of this magazine title quickly. Having the white lines going over the work adds an extra effect to the writing.
When researching this magazine name I gained two results, one of which was about the magazine itself. It said that the magazine was a long running rock and metal/punk magazine which runs an awards ceremony and in recent years has expanded into a TV station and radio station. As well as this it also spoke about how 'Kerrang' is the sound that a guitar makes and this relates to the music of which the magazine talks about.
Overall I think the name of this magazine is clever in the way that it is named after the noise a guitar makes and I can now relate the lines on the name to the strings of a guitar and the way they are long and thin.

For now this is the final title that I will be looking at and it is from the Bliss magazine that is directed and marketed towards young girls.
For all of their magazine issues the title is a different colour and that could be to go with the person on the cover but it is also related to the colour scheme that they have chosen for that particular magazine. The definition of bliss is actually perfect happiness and great joy so having this as the title for young girls to see is very appropriate. It is appropriate because it is positive and will portray a happy style of living from reading the magazine.
On a magazine I think that this bold title that is easy to read is very good because it means that in a shop or online it could get anyone's attention for them to then read the articles and be interested in what it’s about. This then makes the magazine develop and gain more readers.
Overall I really like this title because I think that it is very suitable for the target audience but also because it is clear and easy to read. Sometimes on magazines titles can be difficult read. 

Language Register

Language and its register is important in a magazine and its articles as the companies and writers have to make sure what they have written is suitable for their target audience. I feel that there does have to be a certain level of formal language to make sure people can take a magazine seriously however having it too informal could turn people away through boredom or lack of interest in the text. 

Bliss Magazine

 

This article above is from the Bliss, music and celebrity magazine. In this article Emily Osment is talking about how Miley Cyrus (singer) hasn’t heard her new music. This is a quote from what Emily has said but the way it has been written to suit the audience will have been very specific. Bliss magazine would be targeted at girls around the age of 8-14.  This would mean that the text would need to be entertaining but also easy to read making the language register quite informal when compared to high end fashion magazines like Vogue. When the quote finishes, it says ‘Smile? Check, Moving? Yep!’ This involves rhetorical questions that give the reader something to get involved with and think about, further relating to the informality of the text.

The magazine to the left talks about up and coming stars and in the text by Samantha Castro in the opening paragraph it says;

‘Photographer STEVEN TAYLOR relates to most musicians, and like them, sometimes he has an aversion to publicity and always being photographed. Guess that’s pretty much why he chose to stay behind the lens’.

 

I feel that this text is slightly more formal compared to the bliss magazine article. I think this because it uses much longer and more meaningful words which could suggest how they are aiming this magazine at an older target market. However when it says ‘guess that’s pretty much’ I feel that this is more informal and chatty, especially when comparing it to the text around it. 

In many cases, teenagers, adults and occasionally children too use taboo, slang and words with these relations so some magazines use certain fraises in their articles to relate more to their audiences.
Is this right?
Depending on the magazine style and the target market it is aimed at should depend on what is and goes inside the chosen magazine. If a magazine has a lot of slang and swearing, it should not be marketed at younger teenagers and children. My reason for this is because it would be teaching children the wrong things. Taboo is very distinctive and can be easily avoided therefore there is no reason at all why this should be used in any type of magazine as it is 99% likely that there is a non taboo equivalent.

In the magazine that I produce I will use a limited amount of slang to prevent encouragement of certain terms but I will use some to make my magazine more chatty and informal to some extent relating to the language register of what my text will be.

To the right you can see an example of how swearing has been used on the cover of a magazine. This magazine is the Cosmopolitan and is aimed and targeted towards older teenagers and women. The word has also been stared out so that the cover doesn't look displeasing to the eye. Personally I feel that if it said this taboo language in full it would be inappropriate and could be the prevention of people buying the magazine. All the other language on this cover appears very informative about what is inside and it doesn't give away to much.

Overall language and its register is very important for a magazine and all of the features included in it like images, articles and what the headings are.

Cover Page Analysis

Bliss

This magazine cover is from the magazine Bliss and its target audience is young girls aging between 8 and 14. It has very bright colours which would make it eye catching to the audience it’s targeted at and the title is very bold. On top of this it has a well-known face on the cover – Taylor Swift – rather than a random model. This will again make it more eye catching because any fans of Taylor swift will go and pick it up to read about what she has to say within the magazine.

This layout is almost like a box as you have the heading at the top, writing and images down both sides and then an image at the bottom which spreads slightly across the bottom of the page. You can see from the cover straight away that the magazine will have a lot going on inside from the layout. Another reason why it would be attractive to the audience would be because of the headlining articles. These stand out and again will get the reader’s attention.

The size of the price on the right hand side is very small and this would be a prevention of putting people off due to the price of the magazine. Because of the size of the price, people’s attention will be drawn to the content of what’s on the cover rather than having their attention drawn straight to the price of it.

As you can see, the magazine is set on quite a basic colour scheme of pink, blue, white and a small amount of black and even the person on the cover doesn't really break this as she is wearing a dark blue and white dress. Having this colour scheme is a good thing to have because it means that the cover isn't messy and over the top. It is still full of information about what is inside the magazine however it is still readable and neat. 

Vogue

This magazine cover is from Vogue Australia and it is a fashion magazine. From the appearance of the cover you would associate this with a target audience of women around the age of 25-40. I have chosen this age group of people because they will have more interest in this area of the media and will also have more background knowledge of what this magazine company is.

On the cover you can see a single woman taking up the whole page and it has writing just at the top and the bottom. The colour scheme for the magazine would be blue, black and white. Having the bold blue writing at the bottom of the cover would stand out straight away to an audience of all ages however the lack of writing will interest more people than others. The basicness of this cover is very clever as it informs the audience of what the magazine is about but doesn’t give to much away, encouraging people to purchase it. 

Ocean

This magazine cover is from Ocean Fashion and it is one of the special issues. I feel that this magazine is targeted at older girls and young women so around the age of 17-30. I think this because of the language that is used on the cover and also one of the added images. Again on this cover the title is very bold but the image of Kim Kardashian is over lapping the title slightly. This makes her the main article of the magazine as she is the most upfront feature of the cover.

The colour scheme of this magazine is green, yellow and black. This is an odd choice of colour but the colours work well together, especially the black writing on the yellow. Kim is not wearing anything yellow or black but her dress is very prominent making the green the third colour choice for this cover.

The layout of this magazine is very similar to the F layout. On this cover, there isn’t too much information but what is there is very selective and would stand out to an audience when they were picking a magazine. The use of the large lettering for the number 269 will catch the reader’s eye as they may question ‘269 what?’ I feel this is a good marketing technique as a reader has to take a closer look at the magazine to find out what the number is actually talking about.

Compared to the Bliss magazine, this magazine is very sparse of information on the cover however it does suit its target audience. Its layout makes it look more ‘grown up’ and also the fonts used aren’t too ‘in your face’ compared to the bliss magazine cover. The barcode on this magazine is slightly bigger than you would expect but in this case it shouldn't turn away the market as the target audience are more likely to spend their money on this type of magazine due to their age and finances.