Thursday 17 February 2011
How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?
The name of the magazine I have chosen is “ Four-Four-Two”. Four-Four-Two is a very popular football formation. using this as the title makes it easy for customers who have an interest in football to make the association between the magazine and football. The intended target audience of this magazine is people who have an interest in football.
There is a football player, (Sneijder) on the front of the cover posing as if he is striking a football. The picture is a long shot of him, so you can see his whole body. The picture has been taken at a low angle as we are meant to see him as a powerful individual, so it is like we are looking up to him. In this case as this is a football magazine we are meant to see him as a good footballer and will be influenced to read the magazine to become more like him on the football pitch. The back ground is very plain so the main focus is placed on the writing, but more importantly the image, which has been placed in the centre of the cover.
On the cover there is a colour scheme of red, black and white. All the subheadings on the cover are placed around the outside in red font to draw attention to them with a small sentence about them in black placed just underneath. The main heading still sticks with in the colour scheme, but to make it more appealing and different to the rest of the text the colour of the font is white with the red and black background to the text. This text is also bigger than the majority of the rest of the text, as the publishers wanted potential buyers to make sure they see this. As well as this the text has a special effect to make it look as if it has been kicked by the football player on the cover.
Wednesday 16 February 2011
3 Double Page Spread Analysis
This is a double page spread from Vibe magazine. The magazine has lots of text and also has several images too. The over all colour scheme is quite plain, using only black white and blue on the text. These are all natural colours which makes it appeal to both sexes, which helps to increase the appeal to audience. Solange Knowles is wearing a short red dress with high heels. This image represents that body image is important within the R&B genre of music. Wearing the red dress makes the artist stand out and become the main focus of the article, also with her name being the only other thing in the article. With lots of text this shows vibe aims to educate readers not only entertain them.
NME is the best selling indie music magazine represents their audiences in my different. They used a well known face in the music industry here, who as a large fan base. This being Lilly Allen. Lilly Allen is closely linked with the indie genre of music. The writing used is very bold which represents the artist, Lilly Allen personality. Although this is a music magazine the article is not based around music, but just around the musician. The theme of the article mainly being about the artist is emphasised by the most of the article being in simple colours, e.g. white and black, where as the artists herself is dressed in mainly red to make her stand out.
NME is the best selling indie music magazine represents their audiences in my different. They used a well known face in the music industry here, who as a large fan base. This being Lilly Allen. Lilly Allen is closely linked with the indie genre of music. The writing used is very bold which represents the artist, Lilly Allen personality. Although this is a music magazine the article is not based around music, but just around the musician. The theme of the article mainly being about the artist is emphasised by the most of the article being in simple colours, e.g. white and black, where as the artists herself is dressed in mainly red to make her stand out.
My Indie Magazine
My Indie front cover features a big photo of a stereotypical indie boy. He is wearing a blazer, skinny jeans, scarf-tie and brogues with scruffy hair. The pose is also stereotypical and quite feminine which immediantly shows the readers the genre of this magazine. The spelling is correct and appears formal as there is no slang; this again informs the readers on the music genre, as Indie magazines are usually in full english. The headlines are in different colours to appeal to males and females and the content can also apply to both genders, for example men and women would both want to read '100 albums of the decade'. So therefor the target audience would be men and women with a wide age range. I chose the title 'newcomer' as the magazine is new and it seems as if listening to Indie music is the latest thing. The magazine also includes bands such as 'My Chemical Romance' and artists such as Rihanna; who is turning more Indie and rock, the latest news on them can attract more readers. In comparison to the r&b magazine there is more choice of colour in the Indie magazine. The r&b magazine colours; pink and black are simple and represent the laid back, more feminine and body image craze music genre. Overall I think this magazine appeals to the target audience, but if I had to do this again I would spend more time looking at other examples of Indie magazines- as they feature more colour, images and text and create my own closely using their layout to attract the right readers. My Heavy Metal Magazine
My Heavy Metal Magazine has a colour scheme of black and red; which are stereotypical dark colours that mirror the music genre. The font is informal, bold and in capital letters to show the agressiveness of metal music. The font also seems quite gothic but not too childish. The colours can appeal to and attract male and female audiences, aged from about 16 onwards. The photo is very effective as its eyecatching, bold and dark which again is projecting the stereotypical image of metal music. I chose this photo because the guitar is important as it establishes the music genre and again its black which is a stereotypical colour of metal music. If I had the chance to do this magazine cover again I would look at other metal music magazines and use some of their ideas; as they already have existing customers and audience for that genre. So therefore it would be somewhat easier to create the metal music look. I also think if I had a better editing programme I could have developed more of a proffesional look. My R&B Front Cover
My R&B magazine appears the most simple yet most sexual out of the three. The image is the main focus and attracts several readers through this; which is stereotypical for an r&b magazine. R&B music is very much associated with appearance and body image so I used this image of a famous woman with an amazing body and a confident striking pose. Men would love this photo but women could be very envious; so both genders could be readers. I think this photo would appeal to a target age of 16-24 as younger people are more interested in this music genre and body image. I also featured a smaller photo of a very popular artist Nicki Minaj and a headline for her; this would attract readers. The colour scheme is just black and white; very simple yet creates an effective sophisticated look. I chose the title 'Obsession' because it reflects the r&b music genre; again r&b plays an important part about an obsession with body image. I think the cover looks quite smooth and similar to an r&b magazine but I could have made it much better by adding more images and content and perhaps a different colour scheme. I think it would be much better if I could have used a proffessional program and if I had used more ideas from existing r&b magazines.
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