The purpose of a magazine front cover is to attract the attention of potential buyers and through use of different techniques tailored to suit the target audience it will persuade them to buy a copy of the magazine. When designing a magazine front cover, many institutions have themselves in mind a typical member of the target audience, and think carefully about how to make their magazine suited to them. They will take into account factors such as: age, gender, interests, likes and dislikes, to name but a few. Each different type of magazine will have a different audience, for example, Good Housekeeping, will be aimed at women aged 30+ who are will be interested in articles with subjects such as recipes, health and beauty, or family/relationships. Whereas Kerrang magazine is aimed at both males and females from the age of 14+ who have an interest in rock music. Magazine institutions will include subjects that they think their target audience would be interested in, and the front cover will represent this. The colours and images used will be specific to the wants and needs of the audience in mind, for example ‘Cosmopolitan’ uses pinks and oranges and will usually feature a glamorous female celebrity on the front. This is a representation of the young women that will be reading the magazine, showing that they have an interest in celebrity culture, and would be more likely to buy a pink magazine than a green one for instance, as pink is the colour typically associated with girls and younger women. Each magazine cover is different, and this is done specifically as so the target audience will purchase an issue. By having 10 covers for the re-launch, each featuring artists from diverse genres of the music industry (for example covers include artists such as Biffy Clyro, Rihanna, MIA and Foals) , it gives potential for NME to create themselves a wider target market,
The two magazine covers that I have chosen to compare are: Q Magazines July 2007 issue, with Alex Turner as the main image on the cover, and NME magazines April 2010 special edition issue, featuring Laura Marling. I will be analysing and comparing the different visual aspects of the covers, and how these are relevant to each target audience.
Q Magazine uses a recognised corporate colour scheme of red, white and black, which is typical to many music magazines. The consistent colour scheme is used as to create a sense of regularity among the issues. The red is used in certain parts of the text, such as ‘SGT PEPPER CELEBRATED’ ‘MUSE’ and ‘ARCADE FIRE’ and also on flashes, as it is a bold colour that stands out against the white background, catching the attention of the reader. Red is often a colour associated with danger, and that is why our eyes are more likely to be drawn to it, as opposed to a neutral colour. The Headline ‘ARCTIC MONKEYS’ is the only text to be written in grey, meaning that it will stand out on the page, the use of the colour grey links to the cover line of ‘The Reluctant Genius Of Alex Turner’ as grey is rather an understated and subdued colour. However NME magazine has a colour scheme of blue and grey, which is different from their usual choice of red and black. The reason behind this is because this cover is one of ten special edition covers used in the re-launch of NME. Each edition has a plain background, and a different coloured logo and headline. The colour scheme of the ‘Laura Marling’ cover is blue and grey. Much like ‘Q’ the colours used are to reflect the text in the cover line. ‘Talent, Integrity and Self-loathing are three things every artist needs’, and also ‘The State of music today.’ Both have a subtle negative undertone, and this is reflected in the use of the colour blue, which the mind generally associates with sadness and melancholy. It also has an association with calmness and peace, and if you listen to Laura Marling’s music (as the target audience would) you will notice that the blue reflects the tone of it also.
The main graphic on ‘Q’ is a long shot of Alex Turner, the front man of Arctic Monkeys. Who is a recognisable figure for the readers of ‘Q’, and fans of the band or of bands of a similar style (this group of people being the target audience) The image is composed of Alex stood looking directly at the camera, creating eye contact with the reader, giving the image a personal feel, making them more inclined to purchase a copy. He is posed in quite an awkward position angled facing towards the camera with his arms by his sides, and one foot turned away from the camera, again this helps to extenuate the cover line of him being ‘a reluctant genius.’ The plain, simple clothing that he is wearing also helps to suggest this. ‘Q’ also features an image of The Beatles, dressed in the clothing they wore for ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ although this is only a small image it is instantly recognisable as it is iconic to the music industry. NME magazine features a mid-shot of Laura Marling, who again would be a recognisable face for the target audience of NME magazine. In a similar way to ‘Q’ magazine, the clothing is styled, but simple much like Marling herself, stood in an uncomfortable looking position, with her hand across her waist, cigarette in her mouth and a mug in her hand these all help to link back to the cover line and melancholic undertone.
On both covers the title is the name of the featured artist, as this will be the main selling point for each magazine, and will be what catches the target audience’s eye first. ‘Q’ magazine features taglines such as ‘ARCADE FIRE Fun, Frolics & Blood Sacrifices?!’ the strangeness of this will be of intrigue to potential buyers and will make them want to purchase the magazine in order to find out more. The Flash ‘163 ALBUMS REVIEWED’ also has a similar effect, and by showing that the ‘Q’ contains such a vast number of views helps the audience into seeing how vast the magazine itself is. NME magazine only features one other tagline, separate from the main article and it relates to it being a special edition magazine. It also doesn’t include much other information on the features inside, due to it being a new designed issue. People that are unfamiliar with the rebranding, may pick up this new look magazine and decide to buy it because it has their favourite artist on the front, and relating back to my previous point, that as there are ten covers to choose from, it is more likely that the reader will find a copy that is suited to them due to NME diversifying their target audience for the particular issue
The layout of NME magazine is also due to it being a special edition release. Typically magazines tend to have less text on limited edition covers, and have a tendency to look more like posters and less like traditional magazines. A prime example of this would be following the recent death of Amy Winehouse NME magazine released an issue in memory of her. The cover was in black and white and featured nothing but an image of Amy and the NME logo. It is also important to bear in mind that the NME logo itself on the Laura Marling issue is being covered over this is because the brand itself is so recognisable that the logo does not need to be fully seen to be understood.
‘Q’ magazine is set out in a more traditional fashion: the logo in the top left corner, a centralised main image, with text overlaid, and a flash in the corner. Both magazines however are designed with the idea of the Left Third taking the priority for the most interesting and important information on the cover, this is because when the magazines are on sale they are stacked, and generally it is the left third of the magazine that you will see first.
To conclude, I think that both front covers work successfully as they are directly suited to their target audiences, which co-incidentally are quite similar. The two magazines are aimed at males and females, aged from 15/16+ who have an interest in music new and old, the majority from rock, pop, and indie genres. They both have iconic images of figures relevant to the music featured within the magazine, and taglines showing articles which would be interesting for the reader. I would have personally bought both of these issues, because I am a fan both Arctic Monkeys and Laura Marling.
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