1. Masthead
House style: Red, white, black
Black connotes power, white is
innocence, Red connotes passion,
danger or even love
Red makes the cover line come to
the for ground so it stands out
more, shows importance.
Gutenbergs Rule of
Thirds
Masthead
House style- Gold and
Black connotes
elegance and power
Gold connotes wealth.
The magazine is a
dance magazine, the
black makes the gold
image stand out
more.

2. Masthead
House style Pink and
Yellow
Primary optical area
C1-E Scale

3. In this essay I will be comparing and showing the contrast between the two front covers of different
music magazines. I will be comparing the Target audience and need for the magazines, the house
style given throughout the magazine e.g. colour and fonts used, The Guttenberg design principle
(Rule of Thirds), the images, the masthead and the lead article and cover lines.
The first magazine I will be analysing is the NME magazine. NME magazine targets a Rock/alternative
audience this is shown through the use of their house style which on this front cover is red white and
black. Red connotes danger which is highly associated with heavy metal/rock genre of music. The
red masthead also makes the writing come to the foreground, showing the importance that Florence
is going to be the main article in the magazine. Black also connotes danger and darkness. The fonts
used are sans serif fonts e.g. Arial, Tahoma. These are used on the front cover of the magazine to
show that the magazine is an informal approach to a magazine, and perhaps for a more of a
masculine audience. The social scale for this magazine is C1 because it attracts students. The
Guttenberg design principle (Rule of Thirds) is used on this front cover on the image of Florence
Welch. Her head is located almost at the Primary Optical Area, which is known to be the first place a
person looks when looking at the front page of a magazine, and the Terminal Area is located at the
end of where it says ‘Florence’ this is the second place somebody looks when they’re looking at a
magazine. NME have cleverly put the images and written words in these areas to make sure the
audience knows who the magazine is about. The images are dull/deep which shows that the target
audience is an alternative rock genre. The image in the top right corner is in black and white which
shows the target audience of the magazine. The lead article of the magazine is about Florence, this is
shown through the use of her being the cover image and the cover line, the red is used to stand out
from the rest of the text to show that she is the main article for the magazine. Other cover lines on
the magazine show the target audience and genre of the magazine with artists such as Noel
Gallagher, the Rolling Stones and Wu Lyf, this obviously wouldn’t attract a Pop and RnB genre
because these artists are an alternative rock set of artists.
The second magazine I will be analysing is the mixmag magazine. Mixmag magazine targets a
generation of an audience who like dance music. Whether they are old or young. This is shown
through the use of the house style of the front cover of the magazine; Gold connotes an old,
wealthy, mature audience, and black perhaps a young audience. There are no images used on the
front cover of the magazine, which shows that it targets a dance audience because most dance
artists songs, you never see the actual artist on the music videos. The gold silhouette on the left
hand side of the page looks somewhat like a person dancing which could also show that the genre of
the magazine is dance. The Guttenberg design principle isn’t used on this cover because there isn’t
an image filling the page, the image is only on the left hand side of the page.
The third magazine I will be analysing is another mixmag magazine due to the first one not having
enough for me to analyse on. The magazine is a dance genre which is shown through the use of
vibrant colours on the front page of the magazine such as fluorescent pink and yellows.
Connotations of pink are femininity and girly which perhaps shows that the magazine attracts a
feminine audience. The connotations of yellow are perhaps sun, which shows that it is a dance
magazine because most ‘Dance’ songs and videos are in places abroad such as Ibiza. The
background of the magazine is a sea blue colour which again promotes the magazine for places such
as Ibiza and holiday destinations. This will make the audience buy the magazine if destinations such
as Ibiza are promoted throughout the magazine. Sans serif fonts are used to show that they attract a

4. younger audience instead of a formal, mature audience. If the magazine attracted an older audience
the use of fonts would be a serif font because this shows that the style of the magazine is
professional and formal. In the primary optical area of the magazine (the place the audience first
looks at when looking at a magazine) has the words ‘Free’ around it which promotes the magazine if
they are giving free gifts out. This will make the magazine become increasingly popular throughout
their audience. The cover lines are placed in the terminal area which is the second place the
audience looks, they are placed here because this is where the audience looks at, so the better the
cover lines the more the audience will want to read the magazine. This gives the audience an insight
as to what the magazine has to offer, it uses the word ‘Plus’ to make it sound like their giving extra
for the audience to read. The image of the woman is placed in the strong fallow area, this promotes
the magazine because this makes both genders want to buy the magazine because the woman is
attractive so girls will envy her and want to be her, and the males will buy the magazine because she
is attractive. The weak fallow area also has words such as ‘Free’ around it which promotes the
magazine more.