Magazine cover evaluation 2

In this evaluation, I'll be starting off with the 'Masthead' ^This is usually found in the same place each week, it sometimes is the same colour each week to, just like KERRANG!’s mast head is yellow or white each week. This means that it maintains brand identity i.e. it is easy to find at a newsagent each week (The TA knows what they have to look for). The font is all in uppercase, which I think is relevant to the word “SHOCK”, it stands out and seems to look like you shout it out when you say it. This links to the magazines genre of music too, it is obviously ‘Rock’ as, for example a pop magazine wouldn’t have a ‘loud’ kind of masthead. This would also reflect on the TA’s personality and interest to this type of music, they must enjoy their music on a loud volume and they like to stand out from other people, just like this magazine would- to other types of music magazines.

The main sell line is promoting the band on the front page, called –ayabie-. I notice that the colours in the text allow the band to stand out, it is using a kind of effect where it is a brighter colour, on top of the band members, in the spaces where it isn’t, and it’s a darker colour. I believe this is pointing out whom –ayabie- is. This would tempt the TA to buy the magazine too, they would automatically be attracted to the band on the front cover (being fans of them) and then seeing their name below them, including another minor sell line beneath the main sell line saying “Special font 20pages Edition!!”. The TA would automatically believe that the magazine is giving it a ‘special gift’ as it were, just for the fans (TA) of the band on the front cover. The magazine is trying to tempt the reader to pick it up and even buy the magazine with this sell line, I’ve also noticed the way it says “Special” at the start and a couple of exclamation marks at the end of it, the sell line is trying to put across a type of message to the TA, saying for them to buy it while it’s here, limited edition and obviously special edition, which the magazine has put there, just for the TA.

I believe the TA is female and most likely between the ages 15 to 20. I believe this because of the colours, text and layout of the front cover on the magazine which is supposedly meant to attract a certain type of audience, in this case, a female teenager. The colours of the text in the Sell lines are different shades of pink, with a white ‘outer shadow’ which is meant to make the sell line seem more bold and appealing for the TA to notice and read. The front cover also gives off, to me, a type of ‘young’ look to it, the colours clash everywhere, everything is bold and highlighted and also, the background allows the images of the main band to stand out, as they are wearing dark colours whereas the background is a sort of pattern in neon yellow, white and neon green. These colours would force the main image to stand out from the rest of the text in the magazine, supposedly allowing the image to attract to the TA first, right after they noticed the title of their preferred magazine.

I have also noticed that all the Sell lines on the front cover show how many pages the article gives to the audience, this urges the TA to turn over to the contents page inside, to see what page they would have to go on to read more about it because of the ‘teasing’ sell line “the GazettE 14 pages”. It doesn’t say what page number it starts on; it just shows how many the magazine is giving to the TA to read about this certain band. This excites the audience as if the magazine was giving them a sort of surprise gift inside. Unless they buy the magazine, read the contents page (Which would show the page number, where this article starts) and then they can read about it.

On the front cover, the Sell lines are all the same colour apart from a few obscured sell lines that just attract the audience to look inside and ‘find out inside!’ it is obvious that a person wouldn’t read a magazine in the actual newsagent, as that is not allowed, so the TA would be severely tempted to buy the magazine; they would be interested and provoked enough to buy it from certain sell lines. The type of ‘gift’ sell lines that I noticed are very continuous, none of them give off what page number the article is on.