5 Font Covers

Total Guitar – front cover (rock)

Total Guitar magazines front cover is set out quite specifically to catch the eye of the more ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ audience. This is shown by firstly the picture, which is of the band ‘’Lostprophets’’. This is a three-long-shot of the band members standing with their guitars. The background of the image is a dark sky with lightning strikes meeting on the horizon of the image which almost shows that the Lostprophets are meant to be god like, almost like Zeus.

Secondly, the sub-headings around the page are very famous names in the rock industry with names like, John Mayer, Led Zeppelin, Queen and one of the most famous rock and rollers, Jimi Hendrix.

The colour scheme is very obvious as it is sticking to the blue and white theme on a black, smokey background. The most important info is in white bold text, for example the magazine title and the name of the Lostprophets (main story), whereas the titles for the other articles are in blue, for example John Mayer and Jimi Hendrix.

The layout of the magazine is very clever as it shows the main picture over lapping the main title to show importance. At the top of the page there is a banner advertising that there is 11 tracks to play inside the magazine. Music enthusiast will jump at the chance to have these tracks. Along the side of the banner it names some of the more famous songs included, such as Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to heaven’ and Queen’s ‘Crazy little thing called love’.

Along with this, at the bottom of the page it has a list of songs you can learn on the guitar.

The whole page is still a similar colour scheme, apart from one yellow bubble on it advertising ‘Alice in Chains – learn how to play their 5 greatest riffs!’

Overall it is a very well laid out magazine and is quite eye-catching, despite the dark colours. For my music magazine I will be styling my genre around the rock n roll area, very much like Total Guitar have done. I think it is nice how they have one image on the whole of the front cover as it really dominates the reader’s attention and I think looks really professional. Their colour scheme is excellent as well as they use only two bright colour on a dark background which contrasts against the text and grabs the readers attention.

KERRANG! – Front cover (heavy metal/punk)

The front cover of Kerrang! Magazines are always quite image dominated as shown by this magazine front cover. Kerrang aim to catch the attention of the more heavy metal or punk type of audience. This is shown by the main image on the page as you see a group of young looking men all in suits however you still notice all the tattoo’s on show and the fact that they all have the stereotypical hair cut of a punk rocker. Out of the three images on that page you see people with either the tattoo’s or the punk hair style which really helps give an idea of the kind of music magazine this is. The Kerrang! itself is meant to look like smashed glass and look quite messy. This fits into the conventions of this magazine quite nicely as people think of heavy metal music to be loud and very fuzzy and sound quite messy, so with the Kerrang! sign being all in capitals and having an explanation mark at the end of it, it helps give the idea that the title is been shouted at you or thrown in your face. Another thing to point out is that Kerrang sounds like the sound of a guitar string being plucked. This shows it is a music magazine because the title sounds like a dominant instrument in the heavy metal music industry.

The text on this page is all in sans-serif and very bold writing, again giving out an aggressive vibe when reading this manly magazine. There isn’t that much text on the front cover with this magazine, as they seem to let the images do most the talking. This gives off the idea that the magazine is more aimed at people who aren’t interested in “a great read” and more interested in following their favourite band.  However looking at the text that actually is there gives off again, an aggressive vibe with the use of sentences like “Northern Uproar” and “Storm the UK”. The only kind of punctuation actually used is an explanation mark. There are no commas, no full stops. Only this !

The colour scheme is sticking to three basic colours; white, red and black. I believe they have chose to pick these colours to avoid taking attention off the main images, whereas at the same time still trying to make their titles as eye catching as possible.

The layout of this front cover is quite chaotic and messy, which links back to the title and genre. There main image takes up the whole background, as does most magazines however they have smaller images that are in different size boxes and not inline with each other and the outline of these boxes are different colours as well. Although it seems there is no organization, this will all be laid out specifically to give that idea of freedom and that Kerrang don’t have to follow front cover guidelines.

Overall this front cover is a successful front cover for its genre, as it really gives of the idea that people in this magazine and readers of this magazine can do what they like to do and don’t care about organization. If I were to use any techniques from Kerrang for my magazine I would probably use there memorable title. I believe out of all music magazines, Kerrang has the most recognizable title, simply because of the cracked font and that vital explanation mark at the end.

Q – Front Cover (alternative music)

Q is an alternative music magazine, and is only published monthly instead of weekly. This magazine will be quite main stream and follow the trends and keep as up to date as possible. The front cover shows this simply by the wide range of genres seen on the page. For example you have the dominant picture of Cheryl Cole, who is actually pretty unlike in rock magazines where they will stick anyone on the cover, then the subheadings show there is “Vampire Weekend”, “Muse”, “Snow Patrol”, “50 Cent” and “John Lennon”. I don’t think there could be a wider range of music there if they tried. I believe this is the case because Q was originally published, aiming towards the older target audience as this was a niche market in the music magazine industry. As I slightly touched on before, the main (and only image) on this front cover is a close up of Cheryl Cole, a woman who won #1 two years in a row in the ‘FHM 100 sexiest women in the world’. This shows that magazines like Q rely much more on presentation than some other music magazines. They also show off their success by stating at the top of every issue “the UK’s biggest music magazine”.

The front cover’s picture is almost over shadowed by text, as this magazine is more for an older audience, who will generally prefer a better read than just looking at pictures. Most the text on the page is in serif as well which is a very formal approach unlike Kerrang’s sans-serif text everywhere. Other than the title, at the bottom of the page the magazine says “3 Words. . . Cheryl Cole Rocks” which has a few talking points. One point is that the “3 Words. . .” is a play on words at that is one of Cheryls songs. The most important point about this subheading is that they have got Rocks in capital letters on the bottom of the page, which most people would expect to see in a NME magazine or a Kerrang! However Q have taking this clichéd phrase and simply by keeping it in serif font, they have fitted it to there magazine perfectly.   

The colour scheme is very interesting on this Q magazine as they have used exactly the same colour scheme as the Kerrang magazine however they have used those colours differently. Q is written in white (again in serif) on a big red square which really dominates the page and actually overlaps the main image which is unusual for a music magazine. Most the text is white on a very dark, almost black, background. There are little splashes of red text now and again which stands out along with Cheryl Cole’s bright red lipstick.

This magazines layout is a lot more organized than other music magazines as It is aimed at an older audience, so it does look more like an intellectuals choice of music magazines with lots of articles. This again is shown as the image is background to every bit of text on the page. The image doesn’t overlap any text which gives the idea that this is going to be more text than images in this magazine.

In making my music magazine I really like the organization of this magazine, and the very bold colour scheme matching the models. I would love to add this into my music magazine however it won’t be as obvious as it is here because I am sticking to a rock theme so this might not go as well.

Top Of The Pops – Front cover (pop)

This Top of the Pops (TOTP) magazine is obviously in the genre of pop and aimed at teenage girls. Every model on this front page is a male pop singer and are all classed as “heart throbs” to this teenage girl audience. The only image of a woman on the page is of some fashion guru in the top left advertising her “65 style essentials” for sale. One of the headlines says “Lush Lads Stripped!” Judging by the type of stories and the fact that they could be classed as taboo subjects (i.e. “Pregnant at 13”) this magazine will be aimed at the older teenage girls, probably around 14-16.

This music magazine is hovering on the line between being a music magazine or a gossip magazine, as some of the subheadings are as if you are listening to a group of teenage girls talking. For example the main story is called “OMG! It’s THE WANTED! Who’s ready to date a fan?” The text on this magazine is extremely informal and the magazine title is all lower case sans-serif font which doesn’t usually work for a music magazine however this magazine has a famous TV show which has made this title a well recognized font so he it is an exception. There are so many different fonts on this page it gives off the idea that instead of being a front cover it is more a girl’s diary.

The colour scheme for TOTP magazine is very feminine with all the pinks purples and yellows on a white background. There are only two or three sections of the front cover with black font. This gives the magazine a really laid back feel to it.

TOTP front cover is very hectic with its layout; however in reality it only has three images. It is the way they laid out the text, because they have angled all text boxes, overlapped some text boxes with images and crammed it all in one small space because of a dominant image of “The Wanted”.

When I make my music magazine, quite honestly I don’t think I will be adding anything that links back to TOTP as this is a very feminine magazine, it is much more likely to be categorized as a gossip magazine and I just think it looks really cheesy.

XXL – Front cover (Hip-Hop)

XXL is a very Hip-Hop based genre magazine. Out of all 5 magazines front covers I’ve studied I prefer this front cover as I feel it fits its genre the best. XXL have kept their magazine front covers very simplistic and always use one dominant image to show there main story and the focus of that issue. In this XXL you can see that 50 cent is the center of attention. Literally. Using the rule of thirds, 50’s eyes are smack in the centre of the magazine and there is nothing else at all on the middle row. This really makes the audience focus on his eyes which give of an intimidating look. This fits the style of genre as you normally hear of the hip-hop kind of guy to be someone that will walk arounds streets in gangs and intimidating others.

On the whole of this front cover, XXL only put three sections of text. This keeps the magazine at its most simple and tidy form yet still gives all the relevant information needed about this issue. The text is all in sans-serif which gives it that laid back, informal touch. In the top left hand corner the colour of the font switches between white and black to show different articles featured in this magazine. i.e. “eye candy of the year” (stereotypical sexist term meaning women used by American males who would read this magazine), “Lil Wayne” and “Max B.”

There isn’t much of a colour scheme with this magazine apart from the black and white font on a dark blue background. These colours don’t really stand out. The only thing that stands out is the XXL in the red box. However this is the house style for the magazine and will always have one large red box or some sort of red colour somewhere on the page.

The layout of this magazine is very neat and has made sure that all text is in the top third or the bottom third in the rule of thirds. The middle third is kept clear to bring attention to the eye contact, which because of the way the image was taking; 50 Cents eyes will follow you around as you move, as if the magazine is trying to intimidate you. Very much like the Q magazine, XXL feel the top priority is the actual magazine logo as it is overlapping the main image.

Overall this magazine is brilliant, as it is so empty on the front that because of the rule of thirds people have no choice to see the image as the photographer intended you too. When making my music magazine, I will try to use the rule of thirds to the extent that XXL have here to make sure that the audience really knows where to look.