Clash Magazine Analysis

Clash is a monthly magazine that features on new and popular music of most genres so has a very wide circulation for the music magazine industry (40,000 approx. circulation) and has won countless awards.

The design for the front cover of Clash magazine has been kept simple compared to some of its previous covers. The cover has a theme of grey, white, red and black, and has no other colours featured, and the main image of Dizzee Rascal, is also wearing a jacket matching the colours of the cover.

The background is a light grey, but not a grey that is light enough to not contrast with white. The title Clash is in large and at the top of the page to signify that it is the title, its text is white and an effect has been made on the a and s which I presume is their trademark effect. Yet some the title is overlapped by the main (and only) image. But before the title, at the top of the page you have a cover line; the text is again white and has the main part in bold, then the body of the text unedited. Moving to underneath the title you have the biggest cover line, but not as big as the main headline for obvious reasons. It follows the theme colours strongly by using red black and white. The cover line is about something featured within the magazine, with the ‘100 most outrageous rock star quotes’ from my understand the stereotypical rock star would have make statements that may turn heads or shock people, so this gives and insight into the magazine featuring all genres as this cover line is a contrast to the main headline. The word ‘the’ in this cover line is the smallest piece of text on the whole cover, its black and italic. The second line with ‘100’ is the biggest past of the cover line, is also italic and red. The third part is black, a largish font in comparison to other parts of the cover line, fourth part has a white font, slightly smaller than the third part but bold. The last part is italic with the word ‘quotes’ You could presume that the editors or creators of the magazine used a variation of size, fonts and colours to create a theme to make the cover look attractive.

Moving down to the next cover line it entails that it is offering 12 free music downloads, which is attracting to anyone who downloads music and know that buying many can be expensive. The word ‘free’ is in bold whereas the rest is standard font, making the word ‘free’ bold highlights its main feature, the fact is that the downloads are free, and legal. Underneath this is the barcode and price, then a page separator, and at the very bottom of the page you have the final cover line with 5 artists of different genres that are featured in the magazine, the fonts for all 5 are the same, but for every other artist name, the font is slightly faded for contrast.

Moving on the main headline, it is clearly identified as the font size is the largest upon the page with some parts in bold for a similar effect. The headline begins in red, but with a smaller font than most parts with ‘The Saviour of British Pop’ with underneath the largest font of the whole cover and changes to white colour-wise with the name of the artist Dizzee Rascal. Dizzee is a pop, grime and rap artist which helps with the magazine’s aim to be about all genres of music. Underneath this the font becomes much smaller on contrast to Dizzee’s name with ‘The definitive interview’ this signifies and gives the reader the idea that this could be the most detailed interview Dizzee Rascal has given and if the typical reader is a fan of Dizzee Rascal, they’d be automatically interested.

The cover’s main image is of Dizzee Rascal, which obviously links to the main headline, this trait is common and mostly used for all sorts of magazines and newspapers. He is wearing red and white, which interlinks into the theme of the magazine, giving the cover regularity along with the fact his pose is of him saluting, which signifies the magazine portraying him a ‘saviour’ of British Pop.

Audience profile

Since this is a much generalised music magazine I have found it hard to identify what would the typical audience be. So from my own assumptions I would say this magazine would appeal to teenagers to adults in their early thirties who have a keen interest in many genres of music. With interests and hobbies such as listening, appreciating music, buying music, attending festivals and gigs, and socialising with people who have similar tastes. I’d say when it comes to class the typical audience would fit into C2 and below categories.

Smash Hits magazine analysis.

Smash hits! is a pop music magazine that is aimed at young teenagers and was published fortnightly. But is no longer being produced which begs the question as to why it isn’t being produced anymore.

By looking at the design of this magazine it is easy to distinguish that is a pop magazine. The page itself is very ‘busy’ with the way it have so many things e.g. the main image and multiple cover lines and competitions. The background is white with a pink strip on the left hand side for the cover lines; the use of pink is one you would associate for younger people. Along the bottom you have a yellow strip for more cover lines. The colour theme from which you can gather is pink, yellow, green and blue. With the usual white and black.

The title ‘smash hits!’ is divided into one word being green, and the other white. Both have a black border around the lettering to create an affect; the font itself is bold and quite large to have the impact of people knowing that’s the title. It is followed by the main headline, which isn’t very easy to tell due to the amount that is on the page it. ‘Avril v Pink’ is the text of the main headline and by using a large, bold font with black text with a yellow and blue border for each word highlights it, and since this is the only piece of text where this style is used also guides its importance on the page. The main headline also has a cover line ‘Who’ll win the battle of the rock chicks?’ this is slightly smaller and the text is white, it also has underneath the page number in which this article is featured. The main image is linked to the main headline as most magazines do, it has a picture of Pink and Avril Lavigne who are pop artists, with their songs being ‘rocky’, both artists are imitating punching something or even someone, by having their fists pointing to the camera, this you could presume that their imitating a battle, and henceforth linking with the main headline. Due to the amount on the page the cover lines overlap most of this photograph, as it’s actually a page length photo.

The rest of the cover is taken up by the cover lines, promotion of free gifts and a competition. The first cover line if starting on the left hand side after the main headline, you have a very small photo of the Sugababes, a girl band who sing pop songs, and a cover line about an interview with them about ghosts and supernatural things, the cover line itself is a square with a black background the Sugababes in red, the main part of the cover line in pink, and the secondary part in yellow, overlapping a cauldron to help the aim of their interview.

Moving down is where the magazine features the free gifts with their magazine, so presumably this magazine would be in plastic wrapping to hold the free gifts, either that of the free gifts themselves are in plastic and cello taped to the magazine, but this can cause some of the cover being ripped. The word ‘Free’ is large, bold and yellow, contrasting with the background of that part of the cover. Then in bullet points which are stars have a white yellow white pattern in text colour. The text for the free gifts information is slightly smaller than the ‘Free’ It also features a photo of one of the free gifts. In a personal view I find that unnecessary as you’ll be able to see what the free gift(s) are.

Moving to the bottom centre of the cover you have a cover line that is highlighted more than the others, but being a in a circular text bubble, with the theme green background, and a white border around it. The largest words being ‘Aaargh cringe!’ draw attention to what could be being mentioned. The feature is a pop band called ‘Blazin’ Squad’ who too produced pop music, and the feature is the band reflecting on their most embarrassing memories. To help with the cover line the magazine has featured two photos of various members of the band which overlap and not framed into the circular text bubble.

Then on the right hand side, there are two further cover lines. The first one is about celebrities ‘misbehaving’ it comes in 3 sections with the theme colours of pink yellow and blue. The second cover line begins with a quote, the writing is small but not small enough to be unnoticed or unreadable, the text is pink which contrasts with the background to draw the reader in, then underneath in white you have ‘Britney’ in block capital, then in even smaller font explaining that an interview is featured inside. At the very bottom on the page, you have a blue triangular box with a discount offer; this is good for advertising and promotion. Even though it’s small the use of colour is used well to make it noticeable.

On an overall basis I believe this is a very vibrant and ‘pulling-in’ magazine but I believe that it features too much, which makes the page look crowded and almost confusing, it gives the effect where you don’t know where to start due to similar text sizes so you don’t automatically distinguish what’s the main headline or not.

Audience profile.

For this magazine I’d say the audience would be female, aging around 10-14/15 at the most. They would be in secondary school education and keen when it comes to socialising and music, to them the music they would listen to be important in the views of others, at that age you can be penalised for just the way you have your hair, so following the stereotypes in music taste would be important from personal experience. The typical activities for the audience would be ‘girly sports’ such as hockey and netball, and hobbies would be of course listening to music, using social networking sites such as MSN and Facebook to talk to their friends their most prised possession would be things such as laptop/PC, iPod and stereo so carryout their hobbies and would spend any money they have on buying the latest singles from the shops or on music buying websites with the help of their parents/carers.

This magazine links with the typical audience really well with its images being of the latest (at time of publication) artists with new music out on the charts and the use of fun bright colours, focusing on pink which is a stereotypical colour for girls. The language especially is suitable and acknowledged by the age group with words such as ‘Aaargh’ and ‘Cringe’ to a typical adult they may not have an idea into what that word may be or means.

MixMag Analysis

The genre of Mixmag magazine is dance and club music, and is clearly identified by having their genre labelled at the top of its front cover on every issue I came across. From my own knowledge and understand the club and dance theme are popular in some type of teenagers after leaving school and into the age of going to clubs for the first time, it is also known that at this age it is known that many experiment with drugs, hence almost the whole front cover focusing on this topic.

The design of this magazine is quite simple. It begins with a purple background; the shade is dark enough for contrasting colours to be used well but vibrant enough to make it stand out in a typical magazine rack. The title font is white and lower case, the ‘I’ and the ‘x’ are altered to which I presume is their trademark look for the title, the text is large enough to spread across most of the top part of the page with room for a small cover line which has a yellow and pink border. Again contrasting colours against the purple background but not bright enough to become painful to the eye.

Then moving down the page the main headline is centred and takes up a good third of the page, the font is ‘funky’ which you associate with clubs etc. The main part of the text is yellow with half the lettering's border being blue and the other pink, again vibrant but not at a high level. Moving onto the right hand side of the cover going towards the bottom you have 5 cover lines which still link to the main headline, the sub heading is a paler purple text and ¼ of the size than the main headline, then each cover line varies into a pattern of yellow and pink, the text is the same size as the subheading and not bold. The font is different from the main headline and cover lines for obvious reasons. Then the remaining space of the magazine is taken up by the magazines free gift, a CD of an artist producing club music.

The bar code is also on the cover along with the date of publication. Since the magazine is a monthly one a common trait is to have it a month ahead from the actual publication. The price is also shown, £4.20 which would be seen as a reasonable price for a monthly publication.

In my opinion I believe this is a good magazine cover, but its weakness for me is that it could of featured more on the front cover which will be included into the magazine, although its headline is important, the cover lines could’ve of been changed to have the magazines other features.

Audience profile

For this magazine I believe that the target audience will be both males and females, age ranging from 17/18 to mid-twenties who have a deep enough interest in this genre to buy this magazine, they would either be in c2 or D category when it comes to class and I’d presume their occupation(s) would be either a university student, a part/full time work with jobs such as a DJ for clubs or works in retail that sells things related to this genre of music or just unemployed yet wanting to get a job in this genre of the music industry. Their interests would be this genre of music, socialising with friends/meeting new people, going out to clubs, gigs and maybe even raves, and to live their live, even it means doing things that are illegal such a drug taking, as at this age it is know that people do experiment with things like drugs, sex and alcohol. Their style clothes (on an overall assumption) would be those associated with rave music such as multi-coloured tops and maybe combat clothing, but on the contrary a person fitting the target audience may have a completely different style. The target audience of this genre would have a care-free attitude on life and free to ‘go with the flow’ and gain life experiences early on in their own lives.

I think this magazine fits the target audience well by the use of bold colours, having a headline that would make a typical reader think twice and may want to find out what’s in the drugs that they may possibly be taking whilst on a night out to improve their night and maybe even not remember it in the morning. Also by featuring the free gift (A CD of a clubbing artist) may also be appealing to the readers as they may like this artist, or a reader who wants to find new or more artists to listen to and having this CD will be a brilliant opportunity for them.

Weekly Magazine Analysis - NME

The most eye-catching part of the magazine at a first glance is its title, NME its red, bold font with a white and black border also contributes to this factor. This preset of colours run throughout the page, including its main image. Which hints that these colours regularly associate with NME and therefore part of its trademark look? With some of the fonts being bold this could suggest that the nature of this magazine is to be loud, to be noticed and to make a statement.

Coming away from the title you see that at the very top of the page a before anything and also at the very bottom of the page you have the names of 4 artists/bands and separators between them, this you could presume means that these artists/bands are featured in the magazine, they too are bold and are in white which contrasts with the background colour at that point.

After the title which I have already mentioned you have the selling line. NME's selling line is what NME stands for (New Musical Express) which explains that the magazine is one in which talks about new/recent and current music, artists and bands. After a separator it labels its price which is £2.30 which for a weekly magazine in my opinion is a reasonable price. The font size is small in contrast to the title but is still big enough to be noticeable.

Along the left hand side continuing down the page are the cover lines which include articles about what is featured in the magazine itself. These include: ticket scans, The Strokes comeback, the main headline about The Courteeners and lastly an awards announcement. As well as being displayed to see what’s inside the magazine these cover lines are also uses of advertising. For example you may see a band name and remember that you want to purchase their newest song. The headings for these are in red with the body of the text being white, the font for the cover line and its body are different, the cover lines are bold whereas the body is slightly more sinister and not bold. With these being on the left hand side there are noticed if layered on a shelf in a newsagent as just an example.

The main headline is signified hugely by the jump in font size, it begins with a quote in a white coloured font from who you discover is the front man of the band which are the main headline, after the quote the font changes to block capitals and red to the band's name 'The Courteeners' and then on the third line returns to the same as the quote with the line 'Britains biggest cult band break out'. To me this suggests that they are trying to make themselves more aware of than they already are or after the quote mentioning critics, trying to overcome them. This headline is linked up by the main image, and is the only cover line to overlap the main image to some extent without affecting the proportions.

The main image as mentioned is linked to the main headline, and is of the lead singer of the band featured, his facial expression is a serious one which could interlink with the quote of ignoring the critics. This could also show he is a serious man and is serious and dedicated to his music, along with his dress (a black leather jacket and red top, which could also have been worn to go with the theme of NME, along with jewellery) and with a hair style which is relaxed could show another side to him.

I believe judging by the bands featured on the cover, the main headline and image and the overall image that the genre of this magazine is one of rock/indie. The bands featured are mostly bands that write and play their own music and tends to be rock or indie, they live performances are referred to as 'gigs' instead of 'concerts' and mostly have the same objective, if they were a band for years before they became more widely known it could be a massive massive achievement.

Audience profile

I believe that the typical audience of NME will be male, aged 16-25 and either at sixth form or university, his interests would include music, playing an instrument such as guitar, acoustic guitar or drums or may have an interest for singing, along with fashion and possible photography. He may have a part time job to fund his interests and hobby and would be the type to either have a partner, or hoping to find one to have the typical band life style. He may be in a band that are interested and have high ambitions in making it into mainstream music and would be the type to have 'band practise' several times a week. Where style is concerned and money permitted, he would shop in places such as Topman to create an indie, up-to-date yet individual look.

Where the magazine is involved this type of person would buy this as it features new and upcoming bands in which tell how they got into the industry and could be used as guidance for that person(s), its up-to-date, they can keep in touch with the bands they like and it isn't too steep price-wise but if the target audience were that passionate money for things such as this.

Contents Page Evaluation

Along with my front page I also composed a contents page, which will give the contents page function; to give details on what things are on what pages.

I decided to have 3 photographs at the bottom of the page and have a photo centred so my page numbers and text can fit around it. I chose the 3 photos at the bottom as ones that link to my stories, I have re-used the photo of the head teacher from my front page as it is the main headline. My centred photo is one of a stained glass window that is in the school, again like my front cover highlights the religion of the school and brings colour and vibrancy to the page.

I chose red as my background colour, which is also the schools colour of red, which interlinks well and shows relevance to the magazines theme. My text is again yellow, another of the school colours for again the same reason but for the contents page I used a single line border on the right hand side purely for decoration. The font is the same throughout but has different sizes e.g. the title and the page numbers are different. I have again used the school logo to show consistence.

I feel to improve this piece I could of spaced out my page numbers more to shape around the centre image, and another idea could be to continue the bored around the page completely.

Front cover evaluation.

I have completed the parlimary task of creating a front cover & contents page for a school magazine. Since this is a school magazine in which the school is secondary and a sixth form my target audience are the students, with their ages ranging from 11-18. I link the target audience by my selling line 'Your school's monthly feed' so this pinpoints them and shows that this is targeted at them.
I started my front cover by placing a photo of the holy cross with the school's ties on it, this also shows that the school is focused on religion for it is a Catholic school. I have also included the school logo witch is also a cross. I edited the background photo so the cross was the main focus and framed my text around it. I used the same text throughout and the school colours for the cover lined etc to give the cover a theme. And to co-link with the school.

For my cover lines I have placed an article purely for sixth formers and one for the entire school, this could show that the magazine really is for everyone, and have placed other images linking to the cover line e.g. for the sixth form article I have included a photo of the school's new block and some sixth form students.

For my main image I have a close up shot of the schools current Head teacher, and since he is retiring I decided to do an artcle on his retirement. I have made the main image bigger to emphasise its importance and with a headline which will grab anyones attention.

I feel I have done this piece of work to a high standard but after analysing it I noticed some things that I could've improved on:

- Date line: I feel that I could of made the text size bigger and possibly add a font style such as italic, it'd make it more noticable and in proportion to the cover.

- Main image: This is the part I feel I could of done a lot better. It seems that I've quite literally just stuck it on the page, to improve I think I could shape the photo more and edit the colours slightly so that it blends in and still have the same impact as what I intended it to have, also I would place the photo better, as it stands now it completely blocks part of the school tie which looks untidy

Front cover & contents page

I bring good news, I found my memory stick! So I was able to complete my work, double good news!
 Here is my completed work, my evaluations are to follow.

Small problem.

I have discovered this morning that I have 'misplaced' my memory stick. At this point this causes me a big problem as it has all my media work so far on it. My photos that I have used thankfully are on my school computer but haven't been edited. I am hoping when I go home tonight I will find it and all will be fine.

This will teach me for not backing things up! :(

Contents page plan

For this part I found it slightly more difficult than the front cover, I couldn't think of many ideas for the photos I wanted for I have planned to have three at the bottom of the page. Also thinking up things I can say I'm putting in the magazine was harded than it sounded! Hopefully when it all comes together it'll look better than the plan.