This is the front cover for the music magazine NME. it is a weekly issued magazine and judging by the statistics, the total of people that read the magazine is 388,000. this is around the middle of the popularity renge of genral weekly magazines. the statistics show that more poeple in the classes ABC1 by the magazine than classes C2DE which is interesting as more than a third of those classes that buy the magazine are people between the ages of 15-44. for my target audience i have afound a balance fro my age group and made it between the ages of 14-37 to attract a younger and varied audience.the front cover has an informal feel as it using sans serif fonts. this creates an attractive and enticing way of appealing to an audience of the ages between 15-44. the masthead is block fonts and red which all the front covers of every issue of NME have creating a memorable layout for the audience as they know it is NME for their style of writing and colours. they also use yellow fonts which creates a formality as the ausience can see it is NME. the main sells titles are all in bold and red and the information about the articles are in black and smaller fonts. this creates a stylish and effective way of bringing an audience in about what is in the magazine as it is clear and bold. the main cover image is on the right side of the cover with the title of the interview in white font. this is cleverly contrasted as the band on the front are wearing black, and the information is in red font which is attractive as it all matches. the fonts are in italics for the quotes used and to make it more exciting, because ot was the bands first interview, they are in italics so that as it is the first interview, people will want to know what it is about who like that particular band. they have used shapes such as a circle to attract the audience of a nnew album and used yello font within a black circle. it looks bold and would attract a reader who likes that particulr artist. on this particular front cover, it hasn't got any strap lines along the bottom compared to others that i have looked at. i think this is because the band are so well known to a particualr genre of music, they didn't need anything esle as they are quite popular. instead, on most issues i have looked at, they have a headline above the masthead which gives extra information about what elese is in the issue. it is bold and striking and looks attractive so you immediatly know what is in the magazine. underneath the masthead is i would say a tagline which is the "New Musical Express" which is also what NME stands for. this is exciting as you instantly know that the magazine is about new music and news on upcoming bands.
this is the front cover for smash hits magazine. i decided to analyse two contrasting magazines as i want to create a magazine that combines with both of these genres of music and also things like gossip columns on particualr artists and pages where the audiecne can send their views in on debates and news on artists. compared to NME, Smash Hits has a very informal look on the front cover as it looks more appealing to an audience between the ages of 11-19. this is a much smaller spread audience to NME. it looks between these age gaps as the main sells and images are placed randomly and roatated slightly which gives it a more informal edge and feel. similarly to NME, smash hits uses sans serif fonts and formats like word art to create an attractive and appealing image to the audience.the masthead looks bright and exciting using italics and two different colour to make it stand out so the audience know what magazine it is. similarly to NME, there is also a headline above the masthead which is an add on of information that the reader will see. this attracts the reader to be drawn in as it is a different block colour to the rest of the shapes and images on the cover and has a popualr TV show interview in it. there is a logo and a tagline above the masthead,. the logo is colourful stars varying in sizes and the font of the tagline is in simple black sans serif font. unlike NME, Smash hits has main sells on either side of the main cover image which ae in all different shapes and sized boxes and colours with images. this looks fiun and exciting to a younger audience which is what i want to create on my front cover, something exciting but attractive for an older audience also. the title of the main cover image is simialr to NMe's issue as it is right in the middle of the image and stands out by using contrasting colours that look great together. unlike the NME cover issue i picked, smash hits has strap lines runing along along the bottom of the cover with a pink box next to it saying "plus" which indicates what else there is in the magazine. equally, for both magazines their barcodes are in the exact same place along the same way which indicates that there has been the use of the rule of thirs within the designing process of the covers as they are less poigniant and seen to the audience's eyeas they are more likely to be attracted to the points of power which would be the right and left side of the main cover image and the main sells.
i decided to analyse the contents page of the NME magazine as it supports my point of a magazine keeping formality through the colours, colour and style of fonts and layout by using shapes. this makes it look more professional as it is using the same colour throughout the magazine. they have used the same format of the magazine name as on the front cover and used the idea of a headline above the name of "this week". this indicates it is the contents page as it is in bold black lettering with a date underneath which is used as a navigator to show the audience what week it is released. along the left hand side of the magazine, they have a band index to inform readers of new and upcoming music/gigs. there are navigators next to these as they have page numbers for each band. to ensure that the reader knows what paget hey want, all the pages are under sub headings all in the same format and style to make it clear where each story is. these are all navigation elements within a magazine. these are there to haelp the reader know where they are going for a particular story. there is an advert underneath the the cover story information which is a relevant advert as it is for the audience to subscribe with the magazine.all the colours of the images and fonts and shapes match which makes it look professional. the cover story title is in bold and black writing with an introduction to it on red italic font. this coordinate well an makes an impact of making the story seems more intersting and impressive.
for this double page spread from NME magazine. on one full page there is an image of an artist which shows that they are new and exciting as the headline on the top left of the page tell us it is new. this is also a navigation element for the reader to know that they are on the right page for this particular sub heading from the contents page. overlapping the image is a blue box sontaining text with a bold title saying "need to know" which the reader will be drawn to read as it is clear and easy to see as it is near towars the point of power on the gridlines. there is a new set colour scheme of black and blue and a varied style of fonts used as the headline of the page is in serif font. this in no means doesn't make the page informal, but gives it an edgier feel and sends importance to it as it stands out to grab the attention to the reader that it is a new band. along the left hand side of the next page is the text body of the main story with another image along side it and a caption to indivcate what it is there for. there are quotes which are in white font with a blue box surrounding it. at the end of the text is more information about the article on the website whch is a navigation elemnt used for the magazine as it is showing their website address. next to the text body is a black box with images and snippets of information inserted into it. it gives new information about new upcoming bands. i would like to use this feature on my double page spread as it give extra information.
