My Magazine Cover Analysis

For this task, we were instructed to create a magazine cover for the college. The cover was required to have certain visuals and media techniques which are usually found on a typical magazine front cover. There were particular requirements for the cover in this task, these include: a masthead, a skyline, two cover lines and a barcode.

For my masthead, I titled the magazine as ‘Harlow College’, the title was written in bold letters and was coloured white. Like usual mastheads, the masthead was the biggest piece of text on the cover. This was done to make the reader aware of the magazine they are reading. The bold lettering is used to make the magazine stand out when compared to other magazines; the title is in a particular font to make it recognisable to the reader. The masthead is simple therefore it is easier to remember for the reader. However it could be improved by adding something else at the end to make the magazine more individual, this would make the magazine more memorable and would be more effective on the reader. In addition the masthead is written in white, like the remainder of the magazine, I could improve this by following the complimentary colour theory and make the title a colour which would complement the orange background. By doing this, it would make the masthead stand out more to the reader.

Next, I added a main cover line to my front cover. The cover line says ‘Graphic Designer in the making’; this cover line is written in the biggest text for a cover line. This is done to highlight the importance of this article and to show it is the most interesting story within the magazine. The cover line is written to create ambiguity, it draws the reader in. The words used are there to make the reader want to know more about the person in the interview. The cover line is also written across the middle of the cover so it is unavoidable; the reader will inevitably read it and will be curious about the article. However this can be improved in a similar way to the masthead, the complimentary colour theory suggests that the title should be in blue to compliment the orange background. The cover line could also be made bigger; both of these would stand out more to the reader.

The front cover also includes multiple examples of other cover lines; all the important articles have been written to the right of the magazine cover so it follows the left/right third rule. This has been done in case the cover was covered by another magazine, the important information will still be visible to draw in the reader’s attention.

In conclusion, my magazine cover has covered the magazine conventions and used them to create a professional looking cover; however, the magazine could still be improved. Firstly, my magazines titles could follow the complimentary colours theory to make each article stand out more. The cover lines could be made bigger so the information presented could be more readable for the buyer. Finally, I could change the title so it would be memorable. Changing the title would also differentiate the magazine from other similar titles.