Inspirational Front Covers...

LOOK Magazine – June 2011

This is a fairly recent cover of Teen Vogue, which is one of my favourite magazines. I like Teen Vogue as a magazine for its content but also for its covers.

One of the aspects of this particular cover that I like the most is the colour scheme. The combination of purple, orange, red, pink and white creates a very attractive pallet, which is easy on the eyes and compliments the skin tone of the cover model. It is typically appealing to its target audience: ‘teen’age girls, as the colours are very feminine and pretty. Although 5 colours may seem like a bit too much on the front cover of a magazine, each shade is a muted tone of the original primary or secondary colour, and when put together create a very soft, yet striking cover, instead of being harsh. Pink and purple are an obvious collaboration of colours which are associated with girls; however the incorporation of orange and red is what I really find inspiring about this cover. I think I might try to incorporate these colours into my music magazine, as I think they’re individually attractive and also go very well together as a colour scheme.

Another aspect of this cover that I like is the way the chosen colour scheme matches the colours in the main image. Whether the model/celeb was styled in order to match the title and sub-head colours, or whether the colours were chosen around the main image, I think it complements the soft colours and ensures the magazine is both appealing and easy on the eyes. The cover model’s dress is almost the exact same shade of orange which is used for a few of the sub-heads, and the use of pink and red compliment the model’s skin tone and lip colour. This makes the cover very elegant and enhances the beauty of the main image.

The way the text is constructed on this cover of Teen Vogue gives the impression that all of the stories featured have positive content, and aren’t the typical ‘real-life’ celebrity gossip about a celeb who is having a tough time. The way the cover model has been photographed also shows that this magazine is celebrating and in many ways ‘selling’ the cover model and her career, as she has been professionally styled and photographed willingly; the photo hasn’t just been taken of her in public looking sullen or bedraggled. The main sell line ‘YOUR BEST BODY’ has been written to appeal to young women, who often have many self-confidence issues and also issues with their body shape and weight. These issues are brought about by seeing beautiful, thin models in many magazines and advertising campaigns, and many young girls are made to feel inadequate and choose to take drastic measures to look like the celebs/models they see all around them. However, the sell line on the cover of this issue is stressing to young women to love their natural shape, and to celebrate it. One of the subheadings below the sell line also advertises that the magazine features celebrity self-confidence issues, which is appealing to young girls because they will see that celebrities are a lot like them, and won’t see them as thin, beautiful women that they need to look like anymore.


LOOK Magazine – June 2011
This is an even more recent cover of Look Magazine, which is a fashion and celebrity magazine. Look is a magazine that I read regularly because it released frequently, and also features many genres such as celeb gossip, hair/beauty, fashion and music, making it a hybrid of various different magazine stereotypes.

One of the things that I like about this issue of Look is that the masthead is true to Look’s traditional house style of bright pink. In previous issues of Look the colour of the masthead has been changed to another bright colour such as yellow or orange, which in my opinion doesn’t look as effective as the pink. Many of the other items on this cover have been coloured the same shade of pink such as the name of the cover model above the main sell-line and subheadings relating to the main article. This gives the magazine a distinct look and ensures that even if the masthead was removed, the public would still recognise the magazine as being Look.

I love the way the items that are pink lead the reader’s eyes down and to the right of the cover, to ensure they read everything that is inside, and are tempted to buy the magazine. I want to try and incorporate this into my magazine, to ensure it is eye catching and also causes the reader to pick it up and give it more attention than other possible magazine rivalries. Another key feature of this cover is the way that the numbers that are featured in various sell lines are made bigger and bolder in order to stand out. Some are presented as currency and others are just numbers, but all of them are much larger in comparison to the rest of the sell line. I think this is done to attract the viewer to the large number, and in doing so, tempt them to read the full sell line. In my opinion this is a very effective tool to use on the cover of a magazine to attract readers, therefore it is something I plan to make use of on the cover of my music magazine.

The main sell line of this magazine cover is very striking, and advertises an infamously taboo subject in quite a nonchalant way in my opinion. It states that the cover model, Tulisa tried to kill herself, which many people may not believe, as on the surface she appears to ‘have it all’. In the main image, Tulisa appears confident and even slightly cocky, which makes the reader disbelieve the sell line. This disbelief makes women want to buy the magazine and read the full story to find out what happened, as the majority of the female public tend to be slightly nosey when it comes to the real lives of celebrities in the spotlight.

Rolling Stone – April 2011

This is one of my favourite covers of Rolling Stone ever. It is fairly recent but I think it’s amazing, mainly because of its simplicity. One of the things that I like most about Rolling Stone as a magazine is that its covers aren’t oppressive at all; they’re simply a main image of a celebrity, one side of sell lines and subheadings, and then the main sell-line which on this issue, is at the bottom of the cover in the centre.

Adele is one of my favourite artists anyway, which I suppose makes my attraction towards this magazine slightly biased, however, Rolling Stone purposefully use famous artists/actors/models on their covers so that they are recognised by the public and help to sell copies. For this reason, I think Rolling Stone make use close-ups for most of their covers, usually a head and shoulders photo, in order to make it clear which celebrity is gracing the cover. I love the way Adele’s hair engulfs this cover, and is just so wild but still very simple. She isn’t pictured wearing glamorous clothing or looking particularly dolled up, which gives her a slight normality, which readers like and can relate to.

Unlike Teen Vogue and Look magazine, the masthead of Rolling Stone uses a very traditional font and has been made to look raised from the page so it doesn’t look like it’s stuck to Adele’s head. The mastheads of the previously mentioned magazines are very flat and aren’t very interesting. However the Rolling Stone masthead is coloured red with a thin white bored around it to give it more depth and make it stand out more than a flat colour would. I want to incorporate that effect into the masthead of my magazine.

Introduction to my work...

For my AS Media Studies coursework I have chosen between two options: to create the front page, contents and double page spread of a magazine, or to create the titles and opening scene of a new fiction film. Magazine's are something I'm passionate about and I have created a magazine in my Media GCSE, and therefore feel comfortable with the project. Although I do enjoy films and am interested in them, I don't feel that I could succeed as well creating a film trailer as I could creating a magazine.

I am planning to base my magazine on indie rock/alternative genres of music because these are my favourite genres and I feel I will be able to execute my work to a high standard as I have understanding of the genre. My main inspirations for my music magazine as far as content goes are Q and NME, as well as Kerrang. This is because they feature the genres of music that I like and give me examples of what should feature in a music magazine, so I can make my finished product as realistic as possible.

I also have other inspirations as regards to appearance and layout of my magazine. These include fashion/celebrity magazines LOOK, Rolling Stone and Teen VOGUE, which I read regularly and enjoy. Although they aren't the right genre, I plan to take inspiration from them as I like their layout and colour schemes.

This blog will feature all of my work, including my inspirations, thoughts and initial designs for my music magazine.