Analysis of Rock Magazine Front Cover

 Analysis of Kerrang! Magazine Cover

1. The Mast Head of the magazine contrasts with the background, being white over black. It stretches  across the entire top of the page, but is placed beneath the main image, showing the order of focus. As the magazine is so well known it is therefore acceptable that it cannot be read as the target audience will be aware of the product already and will be attracted mainly by the images of their favourite artists instead.

2. The house style is black, white and yellow, and is coordinated through different areas of the front cover. For example the plugs and promotional offers are in yellow, which catches the eye in a sutble way and makes the reader notice them. The colour red is reserved for the title and several small boxes of text as this would decreases the simplistic colour scheme and take up too much focus in large amounts. As a result the importance of text is conveyed to the target audience, and makes it easy on the eye, allowing them to differentiate the types of information.

3. As the magazine is covering stories about embarassing moments involving artists, the imagery on the front cover includes only the artists who will attract the target audience effectively. The layout of this incorporates a lot of smaller images circling the main image. These are primarily Medium and Close Up shots of the artists, to keep as much focus on them as possible. It also suggests to the reader the range of groups that are featuring in the magazine.

4. Along the top and bottom of the page are strips of colour which stand out to the reader, but are not too close to the main images and therefore does not detract focus. These strips feature plugs, which are in varying colours which keep in with the house style. Therefore, the content of the magazine is promoted subtly, and will be easy for the target audience to differentiate form the other text.

5. The main cover line for the front cover is red in colour, and over a white background over the image. This is placed in the centre of the page which makes it quick to spot. The colour coordinates with the smaller cover lines and plugs along the bottom of the page, which suggests a different style of information to the other aspects of the front cover. The font style is sans serif which is easy on the eye and similar to the rest of the magazine, suggesting a hard edge.