Thursday 29 November 2012

Q Magazing Front Cover Analysis

Analysis of the Lilly Allen Magazine Cover

Firstly, colours of any magazine cover are extremely important as the visual side is just as important as the actual contents as the customers need to be drawn to it. The colours of this magazine are bold and bright to make it stand out to the customers. The red around the ‘Q’ which is the head line of the magazine makes it stand out and immediately draws your eye to the main headline so the customer can recognise the magazine they may buy frequently. ‘her wicked, wicked ways…’ this kicker shows examples of red on the word ‘wicked’. The red signifies passion, love and lust which links to the whole overall image of the magazine cover as Lilly Allen is topless which reinforces the male gaze. The cover line ‘exclusive!’ is also in red which draws the reader eyes to this as it stands out from the more basic colours surrounding it. The main colour within the magazine cover is black which is quite a grown up colour resembling class and showing that this magazine target an older audience as younger magazine would have brighter and more of a range of colours such as pink and orange. There are jaguars in the cover which are also black which helps draws the colours together. There are examples of blue within this cover which helps break up all the writing and advertising going on and allows reader to be drawn to the main bits.
The font and positioning of the text is also an important attribute to the magazine cover as it draws the attention to the main parts. ‘Lilly Allen’ is in san serif due to the font and ‘Wicked, wicked ways’ is in serif as the decorative pieces on the ends of each character resemble to almost a devils horn. The main head line ‘LILLY ALLEN’ is in bold and large texts. This is because it is the main head line. Lilly Allen is also a celebrity and because it is a music magazine it will appeal to many music fans. The logo of the magazine ‘Q’ is unusual to others as it is in the top left hand corner of the page which is consistent through every Q magazine which previous dedicated readers can easily spot the magazine without having to look variety of magazines. The tag lines at the bottom as placed there so they can give the audience further knowledge of what expect and look for within the magazine.
This magazine targets an older audience from late teens to late 20’s. This magazine holds a male gaze as Lilly Allen is posing provocatively topless which will attract the males. Above the ‘Lilly Allen’ headline is a cover line ‘sexy beast’ this is ambiguous as it refers to Allen herself but the beast part also resembles the jaguars.  ‘Her wicker, wicked ways…’ this head line shows repetition and alliteration allowing the phrase to stick and make the reader want to find out more. Allen’s pose is also inviting as she’s got her back to the audience but she’s turning which can be inviting to the male eye. Q has created a sexual image throughout the magazine cover hoping that this will grab more people attention.
Within magazines there are often double meanings within the words to allow the reader to without realising think about the individual wording connecting them to the magazine. ‘I am a tiger’, is within the kickers on the top rights which links to the jaguars on the bottom of page. As I have already mentioned; ‘her wicked, wicked ways…’ is ambiguous in that it relates to Lilly Allen and the jaguars. Under the logo ‘Q’ is stated ‘a differed type of music’, which allows the audience immediately to know that is a music magazine. The different type of music implies that it is not a main stream music magazine suggesting that the readers may be attracted to the magazine through curiosity. The sticker, ‘the 25 greatest rock movies’ shows that the magazine also covers movies as well music furthers the readers knowledge on what to expect.

No comments:

Post a Comment