Double Page Spread Analysis

Article title

Body text

Drop cap Caption

Anchor Page number

This double page spread breaks convention as it doesn’t have most of the features of a double page spread. Such as: by line, white space, gutter, slug and leading text.

Eye Flow

I thought the eye flow was like this as I looked at the artist and went back to read the body text and finally the caption.

How does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?

By just looking at the double page spread you can see who the target audience are, which are rock lovers. You can tell this by looking at his dress sense and the prompts surrounding him. He is wearing piercings and there are a lot of guitars around him. They are probably aged 15-25. the target audience will be probably 18 and over as Lenny Kravitz (the model) is a middle aged man and so will interest people the same age as him. Target audiences choice of band will be the artists such as on the double page spread which is Lenny Kravitz or similar artists. This shows their choice of band as these artists are of the rock nation.

Target audience- people who are of a rock nation and love to party. However they are still respectful and formal. They can be young however most of them are older aged for instant 25 year olds. They are cool and keep up to date with fashion.

What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine

The article starts of with describing what Lenny Kravitz is doing as a artist. As the target audience is for older people the magazine uses formal language. The language fits the style of the rest of the magazine as throughout we see formal language. The mode of address for the article mostly uses indirect mode and doesn’t change in the article. This is because it is a article of Kravitz life and what he is going to do next and so indirect mode is used as it is not directly speaking to you.A few examples are:

“Lenny Kravitz is supposed to be getting back to the basics”

“Preserving his voice with a near-whisper”

“Back then, Kravitz was an anomaly”

How is colour used?

The colour of the magazine is kept to a minimum making it give a serious image. It looks professional as it is colour co-ordinated making it look simple but yet appealing to the audience. ain Black/brown is the background colour. The brown fades into black at the edge. This gives it a rocky theme. The text is white as it stands out against a dark background making it readable to readers. The background for most pages are white however this one isn’t making it stand out and appeal to readers. The image has the colours white, red , brown and black. Kravitz outfit is red and his shirt is red and black. Also the guitar he is holding is red and the guitar case is brown with a red and white sticker scratched of on it. The colours are all coordinated and the scratched sticker on the guitar case may show the rocky grungy theme such as being messy and scruffy. The white was used to give a bit of brightness as all the other colours were dull and also the white brought out the image more as you can see his face clearly. The colours are used effectively as they match the theme and are coordinated making it look professional.

What style of text (font type/colour/size) is used?

The article title and page number uses a serif font whereas the body text and caption is a sans serif font. Usually a serif font is used for large amounts of text as it is clearer to read and a sans serif is used for short text such as a headline. However Rolling Stone does the opposite of this and it works really well.

Article titleThis stands out the most as it is the biggest text in the article. This gives the high importance of the title and is clear for readers to notice. The colour is white and the size looks to me like a 60 or more. The sans serif makes it stand out and more sharp from the ligatures.

AnchorThis was in white and is the smallest text on the page. It doesn’t stand out much and the font was sans serif. This works well as a anchor is not meant to be large and noticeable.

Drop capThis stood out as it took up the first three sentences as it was large and also the font used was sans serif which stood out against the body text

Page numberThe text is really small but readable. The font is a serif font and in white

CaptionThis text was the only text written in brown. It didn’t stand out as much as the colour was dark and so was the background colour. The font was a sans serif font. The size looked similar to the body text which is 12 or less.

What style of text (font type/colour/size) is used?

Body textthe body text was in white and was a plain font of sans serif it was easy to read. The different fonts made it clear and appealing. The body text was of a size 12 or less. It was the fourth largest text.

Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience?

Most of the double page spreads in the Rolling Stone magazine aren’t so similar to each other. However there was another double page spread in the magazine which was similar. As you can see they both have serious expressions looking into the camera. The layout is similar and they don't have much text. Also the same type of font is used such as both have a serif font for their title. However the double page spread I am comparing to has serif font for all its text except for the caption. Both pages have their images as a background.

The image of the magazine says its ‘stylish’, ‘musical’ and ‘grungy’ this is shown through the layout of each page and the images and how they are presented in the magazine. Showing that the audience is of that type and want to be stylish etc.

How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they

value?

The image is given as a background for both pages and the writing is on top. The image takes up most the space. It takes up one and a half page as the article is only two paragraphs and short. This shows the audience are visual readers and this is typical for people who like to party all the time they like to look at images rather than text. This is why the text has been kept to a minimum.

How is the artist presented to the audience through the image? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis?

Lenny Kravitz is presented in a grungy way. He is wearing a shirt with a t-shirt underneath and casual jeans. He is also wearing accessorize such as earrings, nose ring and necklaces he is also holding a guitar and grungy boots. The clothing looks scruffy and casual showing his rock and soul as that is a stereotypical rock person. They wear clothing such as rough shirts. Also the hat and jewellery show the rock theme. wearing as much jewellery as possible makes it known he his of a funk and rock nation. Also the guitar makes it noticeable that Lenny is a stereotypical rock artist. From looking at the image you can straight away tell he is of a rock nation.

How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover?

Both the front cover and double page spread create a serious look from the images. They both have kept the use of colour to a minimum by just having 2-4 colours. The text of them both are simple and a serif font however the double page spread includes some san serif font.

Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples

Audience do not need prior knowledge as the article is giving us knowledge about the artist and what he does and what type of artist he is.

By Fatema Johara