Magazine cover analysis

The magazine front cover I am analysing is metal hammer, it is aimed at fans of metal music, and its age range is from teenagers to mid-twenties, this can be identified by the style of font, big, bold, and colourful, and the picture has more appeal and size than any other feature on the cover.

The masthead is a distinctive white, which contrasts to the background colour of black, which makes the magazine eye catching for a reader. An aspect of the magazine which will be appealing to younger readers, is the main band featured, as this will always be recognisable to the reader, and the majority of readers say the biggest attraction to a magazine is the cover artist.  The magazine keeps the convention of the artist being the most prominent feature on a cover, compared to my design of the kerrang, biffy clyro cover. The artist feature is almost identical. As readers read music magazines to read about their favourite bands, this feature is important for the magazine.

‘’poofs’’ have also been used to make a certain aspect of the magazines content, to stand out from the rest, a usual convention of a magazine front cover would be that the poof is a different colour, and the text inside a ‘’stand out’’ colour also.   In this case, this is exactly the same, the poof is a yellow, which contrasts the rest of the cover well, and the text is black which reflects off the yellow, meaning the poof is noticeable and easy to read.

Another convention, especially in music magazines, is that of a quote from the main artist/band, this can be from an interview, or a statement inside of the magazine, in my opinion this is one of the most effective features of a front cover, as a quote is the most specific part of the magazine that the reader can read without turning a page.

The list of secondary features in the magazine, are listed downwards to the left, separate from the cover artist, but noticeable for the reader,  and are listed in a way that a reader can pick their feature, and will look inside the magazine for the page.