Front Cover Annotation

This is the front cover of Brit - Asian, this is a magazine from the Bhangra genre. With the close up shot of Jay Sean it shows the significance of his artist lifestyle the sunglasses, leather jacket this also shows the importance of these to the readership. His image has been placed over the main title of the magazine which draws the readers straight to the image of Jay Sean. The colour scheme which has been used for this front cover is basic, keep a small range of colours. The colours are Black which cool, sophisticated; gold which represents luxurious, precious. This would attract the readership because they would be influenced by this style of clothing and his lifestyle, too many colours would make the cover look too crowded; keeping the colours simple attracts sophisticated readers as it looks more professional than the colourful front covers from other leading music magazines, particularly from the pop genre. The quote underneath Jay Sean’s name is “I came, I saw, I conquered” this is a quick and easy quote to remember and eye catching for the reader as they would want to read more about Jay Sean and what he has been up to in the past and what the future plans are, this quote is something that is said once but remembered always. Brit-Asian is a different magazine compared to the NME or Kerrang. As I am creating a Bhangra magazine myself I will be looking into the characteristics of this particular magazine to help me with me with my magazine.

Denotation and Connotation of a Magazine Front Cover

Different magazines use a several different types of denotation and connotation in order to be a focus for their proposed audience. The way that they do is by using pictures, text and quotes. Mixmag uses the connotation ‘Baby oil or techno tache? Which is the Ibiza party for you?’ although this is in a small font it may attract readers to that particular spot of the magazine, directly above that is a ‘FREE MIX CD’ this is that main purpose of the denotation and not the fact that it is outlined in yellow and black lines.

The denotations of the words ‘FREE MIX CD’ and ‘ANNIE MAC’ is that it is there to attract its intended audience straight away. The connotations of the cover is that there are a number of small print quotes on either side of the magazine; ‘LEGAL HIGHS BANNED; WHAT NOW?’ this would attract any male or female of which are taking legal or illegal highs. Many magazines use connotations as their sub-headings this would possibly widen the intended audience as they will see the front page on shop shelves and by seeing what is on the front page would encourage them to buy it.

 

This is my front cover for my RnB magazine; I chose to use one big image to take up the whole page as I have got a big title on the left another smaller text. The black and white theme of the image is similar to what other music magazines have been using. This particular image would fit into other magazines such as Kerrang. The image I had chosen to use for my cover settles in well with the stereotype as it shows the influence of females in the RnB music industry.

 The cover is simple and easy to read, I did not over crowd the page with lots of information. I kept to the black and white theme and added some grey onto the page. The font type and size I used appeals to both male and female genders. Overall in my opinion I think my cover looks good, however if I were to do this again I would move the title of the magazine to the top of the page and maybe add some colour.

Indie Music Magazine

Negus Magazine

This is my version of the Negus magazine, I decided to use a large image as the main focus would be on one image rather than several different images, also using too many images would inflict the cover to look over crowded with pictures.

I had used the new school building plan as a logo on the top right to attract attention from the intended audience which is the Negus students. I added extra colour to the cover to make sure the page does not look dull, boring and not appealing, I order to do this I added a article snippet and used the sub heading ‘Breaking News’. This would attract the intended audience to read more about the article. I have also included a promotion on the bottom left hand corner ‘WINT tickets to THORPE PARK!’ my intended audience are college student so therefore they would not hesitate the fact that tickets to Thorpe park can be won in college. With the ‘Negus sixth form’ title I added a different font to give the magazine a unique look.

Image Analysis

The intended audience for this image is women. The camera shot of this advertisement is over the shoulder shot, this makes the image seem real as there is no additional edited imaging added to it, the image also shows that the model has a association with the audience and makes the audience feel the feel to purchase the product to feel the product for themselves rather than seeing an advertisement on television or in a magazine. The colours that have been used in the advertisement are basic, which does not make the image look too over crowded; the colours used are Red, Navy, Beige and White. The other products that are also in the advert are alternative colours the product is available in, depending on customer likes and dislikes they would think about which colour to buy. Using a dark background brings out the skin and hair colour of the model the model is wearing a navy vest top to equal out the colours on the image. The name of the product ‘Dolce & Gabbana Lipstick Roses collection’. By using a fair skin coloured model brings out the colour of the product which is eye catchy for customers as that would be the first thing they look at.