Analysing Magazine Covers

I have annotated some examples of music magazine covers to get a sense of what music/ pop culture magazines often feature, from mainstream magazine Billboard, to hiphop magazines such as VIBE. I found this exercise really useful as it gave me inspiration for my own magazine cover and made me think more about how I would like to design my layout.

The use of purple is reflected in different tones, on his jumper, the background and the title, as well as the indigo gem on his crown. Usher is staring directly at the camera using a direct mode of address to catch the audience's eye. The white writing in the bottom right stands out from the purple and the two different fonts contrast between the two texts

The title stands out without taking the attention away from Usher, the focus. It is bold writing and matches the purple colour scheme. 

The masthead of 'billboard' is bold and black and the words “The Big Score” stand out against the cream background. The photo used doesn’t appear to be edited harshly, which fits with the natural theme and with the band dressed very casually and posed naturally, complementing the informal setting.

The orange words “one direction” stands out against the cream and grey background, and so without being the focus of the cover draws attention to the name of the band, and what is most likely heavily featured in the magazine.

The blue background is very dramatic and forces the white writing to be accentuated, however Bruno Mars remains the focus of the cover, with the words behind him. The yellow contrasts with the blue background, and the yellow writing matches his ring and bracelet. 'Billboard" is written with the holes in the letters 'a' and 'd' coloured in, which is something often featured on the magazines front covers, and the words 'Bruno Mars' are just roughly the same size as the word 'Billboard,' despite being the cover line and Billboard being a headline. This is to draw attention to Mars, and inform the audience that he is in the limelight in this issue of the magazine.

Chance the Rapper is on the cover of this Billboard magazine. The contrasting yellow and purple on the background forms a different and unique looking cover, coordinating with the mesh pattern that is being projected onto his face and hood. Chance is staring straight out to the audience, a common theme in many magazine covers, and this is because it is attention grabbing and dramatic.

This is a very attractive cover from VIBE magazine. Ciara is seemingly naked aside from her high heels, and is positioned in a suggestive way to come across quite striking to the audience, but she also looks very beautiful and the lighting makes her look as if she is glowing, complimenting the bright background and white and black writing. The colour scheme is very basic, simply red, black and white, and the words are different fonts to stand out. "CIARA", is the biggest caption on the cover aside from the masthead, however her arm is covering the corner of the "A", painting Ciara as the main focus on the cover. This follows  the codes and conventions of magazine as the convention for cover lines is that there shouldn't be any covering the main image.

This front cover is immediately eye catching as it is brightly colored and the lights surrounding the focuses are very light, making the band dressed in dark clothing stand out. The writing is in white, contrasting against the darker floor, and because of this the line 'Coachella's Breakout Kings' is the more prominent then the masthead, and the cover lines in the top right corner. 

The symmetrical lit square box around the band is replicated in the symmetry from the word placement. The band are at the core of the cover, 

This cover is instantly striking due to the brightness, and I think this is something I would like to imitate in my work. The symmetry is also very aesthetically pleasing, and I would like to explore the use of geometric shapes on my cover.

The colour scheme is grey, black and white. The focus is Drake and his name is printed boldly across the cover, in capitals and spread the whole way across the width of the cover. It is also in white, standing out from the dark grey background and his black t-shirt. The quote is placed around the edge of his face and the circle on the right is placed away from the focus to draw attention to it, while the focus remains on drake. The words “Drake finds happiness” are eye catching, as is the circle with the words 'full preview'. The puff and cover lines along with the quote to the left of Drake are included to make the audience want to buy the magazine.

Drake isn’t maintaining eye contact with the camera, but his expression is very happy, matching the words “Drake finds happiness”

This is a more serious cover featuring Drake, the eye contact is very dramatic, shadowed by the black and white colour scheme other than the contrastingly bright yellow mastered and strap line at the top of the cover. Drake is taking up most of the space, effectively drawing in the consumer. The words frame his face, making the powerful photo the main focus. The words 'This year Drake became King' harmonize with the dominant expression on his face

From this research I have decided I would like to feature a female at close up, either holding eye contact with the camera to create a dramatic, powerful cover, or angled away from the camera laughing/ smiling, like the first Drake cover I analyzed.