textual analysis of heat magazine

LAYOUT

The overall layout of the magazine is very ‘in your face’ and is packed full of lots of things that show what is inside the magazine, the layout isn’t very neat. Heat magazine is an entertainment magazine mainly for celebrity news and gossip but includes beauty and fashion, film reviews and what’s on t.v.

The mast head is all in lower case and in a bright red colour, the letters aren’t joined up and it is the name of the magazine ‘heat’ this enables the name of the magazine to stand out and be recognisable to regular buyers or to customers who have seen advertisements for the magazine. The cover line text is just as big as the mast head’s but it is in capitals instead, asking a question ‘is posh pregnant’ there is many other tag lines on the front cover promoting the other stories that are in the magazine such as ‘cheryl’s tour’ ‘plus! Jordan’ ‘hot boys strip!’ etc.



COLOUR

It doesn’t really have a colour scheme, as it uses mainly random colours all over the cover. The name/logo of the magazine is its iconic red, 3d text so can be easily established. A lot of the text is in white which contrasts with the bold colours that surround the text.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This magazine is generally aimed at 14-24 year old women as it has articles that would mainly interest women. It is mainly targeted at UK people because all the people featured in the magazine appear to be British (by looking at the cover) and there doesn’t appear to be any American celebrities in it although people from other countries who are interested in British celebrities would also feel that the magazine is targeted to them too. It could be targeted to many social classes – mainly middle class and down as it focuses on celebrities, fashion, music etc.

PEOPLE

There is a lot of models on the front cover, the main one being Victoria Beckham, it is a medium shot which is very much like a paparazzi shot as she does not look ready/posing for the photo this links with the story line of ‘is posh pregnant’ as it is uncertain. The other models are all celebrities: Jordan, Tom Daley, David Beckham, Cheryl Cole and some of this years X-Factor contestants. All the photos are natural shots and not taken from photo shoots which links with the idea of the magazine having lots of exclusive stories. The models all represent different things such as music, fashion, sport, t.v reality etc.

CLOTHING

The clothing on the models in this magazine isn’t very significant as they are natural photo’s so the clothing hasn’t been specifically chosen for the photo. This shows the naturalistic nature of the magazine.

OVERALL STYLE

Straight away by looking at the magazine it is easy to tell which genre of magazine it is as it fits into the stereotypical ‘girls mag’ e.g all over the top headlines and paparazzi shots of celebrities, not so much about homelife, cooking, gardening etc. It appears to be a very chatty, casual magazine as the colours are bright and bold and they link with the colour of the text – mainly white – enabling it to stand out.

Textual Analysis of 'Q' magazine front cover                                                               

Layout

The masthead of this magazine is just a single capital letter 'Q' which is the name of the magazine and is situated in the top left hand corner of the page and stands out as it is a very big and bold 'Q' . It is a white Q on a red background which is a square in the corner, the rest of the background is white. (white and red appears to be the theme of the magazine.) The cover lines are situatued on the left hand side under the mast head and are written in capital letters. The text is a light red/pinkish colour, continuing the colour scheme. A bold font is used so that they stand out as the main points of the cover there is more information on the cover lines under each one which are underneath the cover lines are still in capital letters but are in a smaller font and black writing so they still stand out but not as much as the cover lines and masthead. The strap line at the top of the cover draws potential customers in to buy the issues 'The 10 most exciting people in music now' it is written in white, capital text on a black background (which is just a strip along the top of the magazine) so that the colour contrast really makes it stand out. 'exciting people' is in bigger text situated at the top in the middle this part of the sentence is in black text on a peachy/pink background emphasizing the fact that they are 'exciting people' the pinkish background is a unusual shape - a kind of semi-circle with zig-zag edges emphasizing it even more and catching peoples attention.

The main colour scheme of this magazine is redish colours and white. The background is mainly plain white except the strap line and the background of the masthead. By having a white background it enables the text and images to stand out more and catch peoples attention.

The magazine looks as though it is aimed at older teenagers and up to the 30's as it has Jay-Z on the front along with Lady Gaga and Dave Grohl who are artists who aim their music at older teenagers and not necessarily the younger teens. The people on the front represent different styles of music but are dressed to look like they all produce the same genre of music which could be decieving to people who havent seen/bought the magazine before. They are all wearing dark, mainly black (with the exception of Jay-Z's jeans) clothing and pulling serious faces making them all look similar in many aspects and linking to a style of music that some readers may be attracted to. Jay-Z who is the main artist (in the middle of lady gaga and dave grohl) because he is the most famous out of the three and is known internationally this draws the attention of people as they will see Jay-Z and the other artists and be drawn to the magazine if they want to read about these certain artists. There isn't a background as such as it is just plain white so the artists are not in a scene meaning it doesn't really represent where they are from or what type of music they make, there is a small section of a guitar in the bottom right hand corner which is the only indication as to what sort of music it could be about.

The text used on the front cover is quite informal as the words 'apocalypse' and 'jackass' are used showing straight away that the magazine is informal and chatty. It uses really short quotes under each artists name from what they have said in the interview which is a good selling point as it gives an insight. There is no alliteration or puns on the front cover, basic language is used to draw the reader in. The 'Q' which is the name of the magazine is an iconic symbol and would appear in the same place on every issue of the magazine, it isn't really a memorable symbol but does stand out from the rest of the colour scheme as the background for that bit is red.

The image of the three artists is a full body shot from a high angle as it is slightly looking up towards the artists and all three of them are slightly looking down at the camera with hardly any expression, Jay-Z's head is tilted up a bit making him look quite intimidating. Lady Gaga is saluting to the camera but also covering one eye whilst doing it which could make the reader think that she is opening up in the interview maybe. The image is the main attraction of the Magazine as it is the biggest aspect and draws the readers in.

Front cover and contents page

This is my Front Cover for my magazine

This is the contents page for my magazine

evaluation of magazine cover and contents

Evaluation

For my preliminary task I created a front cover and contents page for a magazine, which I named ‘Your College.’ It is a magazine for the students and teachers of Farnham College as it is very casual and has a specific style and colour scheme which would be carried throughout the magazine. I chose a specific style so that the magazine is recognisable for when future issues come out and so it has its own style which the students and teachers will be able to identify as their ‘own’ college magazine.

I went out and around the college to take photos for the front cover of the magazine so that the images were genuine and linked directly to the college itself

My target audience is any age or gender students and teachers who attend Farnham College, it has a wide target audience as it mainly focuses on current issues which are happening in and around the college. Another main target audience is secondary school students who are thinking about attending Farnham College in the new term. The image on the front cover, I think, appeals to the wide audience because it is a quite blurred image and doesn’t focus on one student/teacher in particular which would make the target audience feel as though they are all equal when at the college. It shows 3 students from the college talking to one another showing friendship and a relaxed atmosphere. The masthead of the magazine ‘Your College’ makes the magazine very personal to the person reading it. If they are not a student of the college yet but are looking to become one it would make them already feel part of the college family. I didn’t want to just focus on one subject at the college as it has a diverse range of subjects to chose from and I didn’t want to be biased towards certain ones, this is why I chose a casual photo from the field of the college instead of one from in a science lab or mac room.

The masthead and main cover line are the same colour text as to stand out from the rest as those are the headlines in which I want the audience to be drawn to first. The other cover lines also stand out as they are matching colours (yellow and white) but alternate. A few of the cover lines also have a piece of information about the event or spread underneath the cover line. This is useful to anyone who is going to read the magazine as they can not only clearly see what the magazine contains but they also get a little bit more information on the headlines before they even open the magazine.

My contents page continues with the theme of the front cover by carrying out the grayscale colour scheme. It also has a ‘principles note’ which is like the principle is directly chatting to the person reading it, making it less formal and personal. There is also a photo of the ‘principle’ which will show potential students the friendly face of the staff who work at the college. The main event is also carried from the front cover to the contents page (battle of the bands spread) as it both stands out on the front cover and contents. This draws the reader to the certain event and hopefully interesting them into reading more about it. The note from the principle is in a different, less formal font making it even more casual and chatty towards the reader.

Before I started the task I had never used a mac computer or photo shop before. I had to quickly learn the basics of them both to produce the cover page and contents page. I have learned a lot about photo shop and how to create interesting pages by added different size texts and putting a effect on a photo, there is still a few things I need to work on for my main task such as; how to rotate images, how to edit photos in more detail and how to match colour schemes better. There is also a lot of unknown things for me to discover on photo shop.

I think the overall success of my product is quite good for a first attempt. I asked my peer group for feedback and have been told that the colour scheme is good and looks modern which links in with college as it is full of modern teens.

To improve my product I would have probably chosen a different image as it isn’t a medium – close of a student but overall I think it was quite successful.