Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Masthead	“GRIND” magazine title. Ambigious-can reference working hard to reach goals (“daily grind” “back on the grind” modern day ‘slang’) or could reference sexual nature. Targets men in particular.
Colour Scheme	Blue and green stereotypically male associated colour scheme. Sense of nature and natural atmosphere, wheat in his hand and field setting. There is contrast however in the pink in his clothing implying femininity.
Fonts / Font Sizes	Sans serif masthead font so less classic and formal, more modern and alternative. It has large text that is serif font, however, which means there is a nice mix of both types of text. Since the magazine is published in Japan there is Japanese text, but this is slightly smaller; perhaps the English is intended to draw in a wider target audience as the magazine is already easily available to the Japanese and therefore large text is less necessary. The mix of both languages looks more intercultural and artsy on the surface.
Main Image	Main image is of Tyler, The Creator who is a famous American rapper. His music is quite alternative though which further supports the edgy look the magazine is going for. The magazine is Japanese, so this broadens the pop culture that they publish and adds diversity. The main image is a man so again this further attracts men to read this magazine.
Supporting Images	There are no other images.
Cover Lines	There is not many on the front cover as it seems they want to go with a minimalistic look to complement the serenity of the field in the photo, and since they have someone with a huge following on the front cover it would be a bit useless to cover that up with text. One cover line is ‘a man with the independent mind’ suggesting therw will be topics about well-being and also hard work, which ties in nicely with the title ‘GRIND’ as it references working hard to achieve your goals.
Main Cover Line	‘Urban functional wear’-suggests the magazine focuses on fashion and that fashion plays a significant part in the magazine. It also could reference that fashion is a regular topic that appears in every edition of the magazine. In the picture, Tyler is wearing brand Comme des Garcons Homme
Dateline / Selling Line	2018 April
Rule of Thirds	Tyler fits directly into the middle third in the image to signify importance as he is central and bold with a fairly plain background to further draw attention and importance to him.
Other Information	-

 

Masthead	‘COSMOPOLITAN’-bold, pink. Women’s magazine.
Colour Scheme	Lots of hot pink and also orange. The pink is stereotypically a feminine colour, so this feminine energy is further channelled throughout all the different fonts and symbols on the front cover. The colours are almost neon and catch your eye instantly, however it is a little overwhelming. These bright colours could suggest a fun filled magazine with loads going on and even juicy gossip as it is primarily aimed at a female audience.
Fonts / Font Sizes	Nearly all of the font is sans serif. This magazine isn’t formal at all, in fact it can be quite taboo with sex articles available in every issue and boldly advertised on the front page. There are a few phrases that are serif fonts but it seems this is just because there is a collection of different fonts on the front cover, perhaps to change things up and keep it diverse since there is an almost overwhelming amount of text on the front cover.
Main Image	Jennifer Lopez ‘J-Lo’. Usually there is a celebrity on every issue of the magazine and there will only be one woman to draw the centre of attention to, central on the page.
Supporting Images	No other supporting images, J-Lo is important and doesn’t need any other images to be a selling point for the magazine.
Cover Lines	Classic sex cover line as shown in every issue in the top left hand corner every edition. This suggests instantly that the magazine is aimed at women of a certain age, probably in their twenties and onwards. It talks about positions for women in particular so a male audience would not benefit much from reading this type of magazine. Other cover lines include feminism but again it makes references to a sexual taboo nature by mentioning going topless for a pay rise. It also mentions cheating men and fashion so overall seems to have typical conventions of a womens magazine and seems quite outdated as it focuses on consumer, sexual and marital roles as a woman and doesn’t empower them or encourage them to do anything else. However, this magazine is from 2013 so this could be why.
Main Cover Line	There isn’t a real main cover line as there are so many titles on the page including sex, fashion and other typical feminince topics.
Dateline / Selling Line	Oct 17 2013
Rule of Thirds	Jennifer Lopez is central in the image and the background is plain white to further emphasise this.

 

Masthead	‘Seventeen’ mag-bold and pink, italics and serif font. Placed across the top of the magazine and behind the model’s head for effects that make the model seem more important and forthcoming. ‘Seventeen’ suggests that the magazine is targeted for 17 year olds and an older teen audience which is primarily female as hinted at by the font colours.
Colour Scheme	Colour scheme is very pink in not only fonts and in the masthead but also the model’s outfit, this suggests a feminine target audience. There are other colours involved such as orange and blue (which is supposedly a masculine colour) so this suggests an attempt at gender diversity, but the pink is definitely more prominent in the magazine cover.
Fonts / Font Sizes	The fonts are not consistent throughout the cover suggesting a more fun and younger magazine that isn’t too formal or serious. Only the magazine title has a serif font, the rest is sans-serif, again referencing an informal magazine aimed at a younger audience. Some of the fonts do come up twice or three times throughout the cover to give some element of consistency. The fonts are a mix of big bold and colourful fonts to fit in with the young demographic and simple more elegant fonts as it is aimed at an older teenage audience.
Main Image	The main image is actress Amandla Steinberg who featured in hit film ‘Everything, Everything’ and is a proud member and activist for the LGBT+ community, hence cover lines such as ‘Activism Overload!’ in the magazine cover. She is wearing brightly coloured clothes including pinks and reds so she is against a plain white background and covers most of the page.
Supporting Images	There are no other supporting images, just text in coloured, filled text boxes to fill space. The one image covers the whole page.
Cover Lines	The cover lines are different sixes, some are bolder than others with little comments like ‘Own it!’ and ‘Activism Overload!’ followed by the cover line or a description of the topic.
Main Cover Line	The main cover line is in the left third and central on the page in terms of height which talks about loving yourself using hashtags for extra branding. This suggests the magazine is promoting activism and good things such as practicing self-love. Social media can encourage people to drag themselves down so using hashtags (#perfectlyme) within this topic is a good way of tackling the issue.
Dateline / Selling Line	Oct-Nov 2018 (recent)
Rule of Thirds	Rule of thirds is used effectively by placing Amandla’s head in the central third and her body across all three thirds. Cover lines are evenly placed where there is space in the left and right third to allow most of the middle to be focused on the main image.
Other Information	-