Analysis of Magazines - FRONT COVER

Q Magazine

The cover of this magazine is very eye catching in many ways. The main image is the dominant feature and very male orientated in terms of who it would appeal to, and of course, males are a big part of the target audience for Q. Her pose is quite sexy and it fits in with what the magazine labels her as -'sexy beast', instantly drawing in a male audience. There is also a reference there between beast and the panthers next to her looking fearsome. The predominant colour of the cover is grey but it is notable that the main colour scheme used is black, grey and red. This can even be applied to what Lily Allen is wearing on her lower half. The red is obviously part of Q's well known logo but is used elsewhere on the cover to make words like 'wicked' and 'exclusive' stand out.

The boldened black font is used for the bands featured in the magazine and this is done because it will be one of the main interests of the reader and something they will check for on the cover. Furthermore, with top rock bands such as U2 and Oasis featured, the magazine will want to make this standout as much as possible with it being a major draw in. We also see the bar of white on black writing at the bottom of the page, showing other bands/articles that will be in the magazine. By using a light grey background, all the black text stands out even more so than it would do on a darker coloured background. This would of been thought through by the designers and is a big benefit of using the colour scheme they do.

The layout of the magazine is quite simple and isnt as 'busy' as some of the other magazine front covers you would see. It only features 1 image and shows the other main articles in the top right of the magazine. The juxtaposition of these maximises the visibility of them to the reader because of their placing next to the main star, Lily Allen.

Kerrang Magazine

The Kerrang cover is much more 'in your face' than Q. It features several different images and alot on what bands are featured in the issue. The main image is Matt Bellamy, front man of Muse, with the feature article being an interview with him. He has a very stern, serious pose which very much fits in with the music Kerrang features, serious music for serious people. His pose is made more clear with his face filling up most of the page and the focus being on this. However the page features 4 other images on the cover with 3 coming in a section showing that there are free posters in the magazine. The other is of a guitarist from a band that is featured in the issue using a very rock orientated pose with his look, guitar and clothing.

The Kerrang logo/title banner is also very much in with the theme of rock. The black text stands out against the white and black is the main colour associated with rock and metal music. The font appears as it has been smashed like a pane of glass. This brings across the theme of anger and also Kerrang has a slogan of 'Life is Loud'; Loud music is stereotypically known to smash glass.

Along the bottom of the page there is a bar showing all the bands who appear in the issue. This is an aspect Kerrang uses in every issue and with it being bright and yellow it is easy for regular fans to be able to see this and check the bands. This is also the same across with the banner at the very top of the page but that shows the bands who are featured in a bigger way.