Magazine Cover- Deconstruction

NME, Kerrang and Q

Here you can see the title of this magazine, NME, and for a magazine, you would think that they would make their name stand out more. But because they are trying to advertise the band more (The Clash) as it is a one off edition, celebrating the past 35 years of punk. They have used the pink masthead as it contrasts with the colour of the main image, which is black and white, and they put it behind the main image as they want to show off the article over the name of the brand.

The mast head of this issue of NME is about “The Clash” who were a huge punk band. It is the main article of this issue, this is why it is so big on the front cover. This draws the attention of the reader by its bold colour and font. It is the second thing the reader will look at after the NME logo (they look at the logo first because it is in the top left of the page, which is where we naturally look at, due to how we read- from the top left to the bottom right. The bright pink colour font stands out against the black and white main image, and it also goes with the genre of the band, pink is a big colour in the punk genre.

The main image in this issue of NME is in black and white, usually it isn't but its trying to show the age of the band its talking about. The clash are an old band so they are showing that by using a black and white image, the hair cuts and clothes in this image really show the age of the band, and fans of them know how iconic they are in punk.

The cover lines keep the same house style across the front cover, with the pink black and white. They have put the more important articles in the pink, to make them stand out more and to catch the readers eye. It has an old retro, punk look to the font, and to the way the words are placed. They draw in the reader to buy the magazine, as well as the main cover line, image and masthead.

Here you can see the title of this magazine, Kerrang, and the music genre of this magazine is rock and metal. So the colours of the logo are black and white, as black is quite a gothic metal type colour, and white contrasts perfectly against the black. The font is very rugged and cracked, implying distortion (the effect rock guitarists use) and cracks because rock is stereotypically very load, and load music can break glass . The main logo is at the top of the page to the left as automatically that is where the readers eyes are drawn to, because of how we naturally read. It is behind the main image because they want to show off the article over the logo, as most people know what Kerrang looks like, the main attraction to this issue of the magazine is “Bring me the horizon.

The main cover line in this issue of the magazine is “Bring me the Horizon” the magazine has put it in a bright yellow font, to stand out against the dark, blacks and greys in the main image and background. The yellow then draws the readers attention to the text. They are advertising this issue with the very famous metal band. The bold font, could show a strong input by them, either with a new album or tour for example. And this will be the main article in the magazine in this issue.

The other cover lines on this front cover are along the left hand side, out the way of the main cover line, but still in one of the first places the reader will look. It is in a blue font, as it fits in with the other colours on the page, is quite bright, but no were near as bright as the yellow in the main cover line. They all have little sub heads next to them, explaining a bit more about the article, and drawing the reader to buy the magazine for those articles as well as the main article.

The sub heads in this issue of Kerrang, are very brief as they should be but are also in key colours for the issue, the white matches the logo, and the blue contrasts with the rest of the colour scheme. It grabs the readers attention after the other key features as after reading the headings, they want to know a bit more about the magazine, so they put the best line out of the article or something interesting, to get the reader to want to buy and read this issue of the magazine.

Here you can see the title of this magazine, Q, as you can see that the logo its self is very simple, with only 2 colours. It is at the top left of the page as that is the first place the reader will look. The bold colours in the logo stand out against the white background they normally use on all their front covers along with a black and white main image, the bright colours grab the readers attention. The logo has their main slogan underneath it. As they will read that second after noticing the bright logo.

The main cover line is placed here as usually they would put a title in the middle of the page, but they want to have the main image of Liam Gallagher's face stand out to you, after the logo and the title. You notice these first as of their bright colours and bold fonts. They have used these fonts and colours so that they stand out against the background.

In this issue of the magazine, the main article is about oasis. And they want to show that more than anything else, as oasis reforming is huge news to the millions and millions fans of the band. So they want to grab the readers eye straight away, by having such a big image, it must mean something big is happening, so the reader will be intrigued to read more and by the magazine.

The other cover lines in this issue are in a black and grey colour, this is because they don’t want them to stand out as much as the main cover line, this is why its a smaller font as well. They use colours that blend with the main image, rather than contrast against it, this shows how important the main cover line and main article is.