Mood Board

College Magazine Analysis

The masthead is bold and colourful and gives a warm welcoming feeling due to the yellow text as yellow is often known as a warm and gentle colour. The uses of colour is very important with the magazine itself like with any magazine but this could be more important as college magazines could be difficult to sell and be read by the students. Dotted around the page there are smaller titles detailing what stories you will be finding in the issue itself allowing people to get the better idea on what they are buying and whether or not they would want to buy it or not. The barcode has cleverly been tucked away in the bottom corner of the magazine so it does not grab your attention and is just there to serve a purpose, under the barcode we have the pricing information which is important to note as students often don’t have that much money and magazines are not of their highest priority on items to buy so it needs to be cheap, when comparing it to other magazines sold its price is actually quite cheap. The picture in the centre is relevant as it connects with the main article of the magazine which we know as it has a larger font size than the other articles. 

I am evaluating this front cover to give myself more ideas for my own front cover and get a better look at what magazines can look like in general as they don’t have to be glitzy or glamorous, they sometimes have to be straight and to the point which I find is needed for this kind of magazine. Much of the magazine is to help you around on campus it looks like which seems like a very good thing to put on the front cover as many of the freshmen would love things like this as it gives them a good starting point.

Total Guitar Front Cover Analysis

 

The masthead is large and centred in the top middle of the page, while obscured by members of Metallica you can still assume what it reads.

The Main Feature gives the reader a first glance look at what is in the magazine and will often persuade people on buying the magazine or not. The use of ONLY gives the reader a feeling that this is the only way they will see the interview in a guitar magazine

Under the masthead is a picture of a competition to win a guitar and an amp worth a grand, using slang terms such as a grand and amp gives you an idea they are trying to appeal to the teenagers who want a new guitar.

Dotted around the page are multiple small headings on the other magazine features giving you more of an insight on what we will be seeing in the magazine.

In the bottom right hand corner there is the barcode and a publisher’s stamp which gives us information on where we can contact them etc.

There is 4 colours on the front cover which is the absolute limit you should have but I think the use of these four colours is particularly effective and engaging.

 

PC Gamer Front Cover Analysis

The Masthead is large and varying in colour so to attract the reader’s attention, and features a background and is right at the top of the page to make it easy to read and not obscure anything.

Above the masthead is the slogan “The World’s Number One PC Games Magazine” by calling itself the “World’s number one” makes the assumption that it is the best possible magazine you can buy and by making the text number one you get the assumption that it is the top of the line magazine.

The absence of a barcode could give the impression that the barcode is on the back or maybe on the inside cover depending on where the layout artist determines is the best place to put it.

In the centre is a picture of the games main character and covering part of him is the title of the game he is from giving a sense that he goes along with the text allowing for easy connection between the two

Dotted around the page is multiple smaller titles detailing what will also be in the issue allowing people to buy the magazine for more reasons than just the main feature.

In total there is only three colours for the entire front page, this is a good decision as any more could confuse or put off the reader.

NME Front Cover Analysis

The Masthead is interesting as unlike normal NME it is in white and not in red; this gives the customer more of a reason to purchase it as it is different to the others.

There is multiple pictures but the main one who is the frontman of My Chemical Romance takes priority as he is much larger and in the centre, he also goes alongside the main headline as he is related to My Chemical Romance, another reason the title could be white is that it would clash with Gerard’s hair.

On the right there is a selection of extra articles featured in the magazine to help you make a decision on whether or not you will buy it as you may not be a fan of MCR.

The barcode is obscured in the bottom right hand corner away from anything so the reader will not notice it though it is compulsory to have.

Above the barcode is a selection of freebies to entice the reader into buying the magazine even if they are not great they will still often sway you into picking up a copy.