LIIAR Analysis Of A Front Cover

LANGUAGE: The main image of this front cover, is a well known band (Mumford and Sons) and they are all looking directly into the camera. This means they can interact with the audience and it allows the audience to feel more connected with them. The magazine title ‘NME’ is short and memorable, which is a convention of magazine front covers. As it is the biggest piece of text on the page, it’s dominant and clear that it is the title of the magazine. The red from the masthead goes with the red of the banner going across the main image, this links the two together. In the top right corner there is a thumbnail of a free poster to attract the audience. They also have other main stories that will be featured in the magazine underneath the main story. It also has the price and barcode linked together in the bottom corner, which is another convention. And teasing contents and free gifts on the top cover line to attract the audience.

IDEOLOGY: The name of the magazine NME, stands for New Musical Express. This gives the belief that this magazine gives it’s audience new music updates, and the use of the word ‘express’ means quickly, so the audience knows that they will be updated quickly (so weekly or monthly). With the main image subjects not looking all polished, it shows that they care more about the music then they do their appearance. With the banner headline going through their outfit as well, it gives the audience the belief that (to them) the music is more important than how they look.

INSTITUTION: On this front cover, the institution shown are the bands that the magazine are advertising. So when they advertise bands new albums and festivals coming up, it benefits the institution that runs these as it gets them known to the public.

AUDIENCE: The target audience for this magazine, would probably be teenagers/young adults who enjoy indie/rock music. By using all males on the front cover and using dark colouring, it looks like it is trying to attract males more than females. However, that doesn’t say that females cant read it, as they have used a young, popular boy band on the front, that could be there to attract a female audience.

REPRESENTATION: The way they have represented the subject of the main image is looking directly at the camera so they can engage with the audience (this is a convention of magazine front covers). The band are quite young, so the audience can relate to them and could appeal to the female audience and the male audience because they might look up to them or see them as role models. By representing them looking not very smartly dressed it gives the audience the idea that they care more about letting people know about their music than they do about how they look.

Evaluation

My front cover uses most of the conventions of magazine front covers that already exist. It has the masthead, main image, cover lines, datelines and price and the main stories in the left third. However, I decided to put the main cover line on the actual main image, rather than around it (which is what most magazine front covers do). I did this because I wanted to let the audience know exactly which cover line was the main one, and by placing it inside the main image I connected them to ensure the reader understands that was the main one.

With my product I have tried to represent most students at college, by placing the model with folders in her hand, which is what you would expect to see a student with. And by using a model who is the same age as the students who go to college then I have used that feature of the model to attract the age group that my product is aimed at. To attract a male audience as well, however, perhaps I should have placed a male student on the front cover with her and made the masthead a different colour to pink (I did this thought because it links with the colour of the folder and the folder is the colour that sticks out the most on my front cover).

The audience for my product would be students who attend college (so around 16-18 year olds). When I was thinking of what to do for my product, I wanted to attract boys and girls but when I was taking the photos I chose just a girl on my own with a pink folder and decided to link the colour of the folder with the colour of the masthead to keep a house style (as many other magazine front covers did that I had looked at). So my final product will probably attract female students rather than girl students, although I have included a sports story to attract boys as well. I decided to have the girl stood on college campus so the name really related to the masthead. Many magazines I looked at featured words like ‘EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW INSIDE’ which I liked the idea of using because I thought that would be a good way to attract the audience, by giving them the idea that this magazine is the only place to get this interview, making the audience want to buy it more. So I decided to do this with my magazine (about the women’s football team), to attract girls and also boys that are interested in sports.

Whilst making my final front cover, I learnt a lot in Photoshop. I learnt how to use the ‘Clone Stamp Tool’, which came in handy when one of my planning pictures wasn’t long enough to fit the page and I couldn’t stretch it anymore. I also learnt a lot about the layering (specifically when I was making my mood board, as I wanted certain things to stand out over other things on it). I also learnt about the magic wand tool, which made it a lot easier (and neater) to cut out around my model and place her on the college campus background as it didn’t give me all the rough edges that cutting it out using the polygonal lasso cut tool did. 

Hand Drawn Initial Idea

My Finished College Magazine Front Cover

DTP Initial Idea

Planning

Initial Idea

This was one of my initial ideas to use for my front cover, however, I decided not to use it as the masthead doesn't really stand out or catch the reader's eye. Also by having the cover lines (which would be in the black boxes seen above) all together, it could confuse the reader as to which one is the main cover line of the magazine. And as the main cover line is a convention of front pages, I need to make sure this one stands out from the rest of the cover lines.