Analysis of Q magazine cover

On the above…

There is a close up of the main artist in which this magazine is based around, in this case its Jay Z. in this photo he is staring straight into the lense of the camera which is what I have seen on every cover I have analysed. This is because it gives an effect of when it is on the shelf in the shop as it seems like if you make any eye contact with it, the eyes will follow you everywhere in an attempt to grab your attention and get you to buy it, when taking my photo for the front cover I will also get the person to glare into the camera, they have also went with a grey/white background which I will go for too. The facial expressions in which Jay Z is pulling is making him look very serious and giving a mean look to the camera, I’m not sure yet whether I want the person to have a mean/serious expressions on his face like this one or have a relaxed face as I think they both have different types of effects. Also they have positioned the photo in the right hand side of the page, out of the four others I have analysed, this is the first one in which I have seen where the image has not been centralised, I like this style so I may choose to put mine on the right hand side as it looks unique and I like it.

This cover has a colour scheme involving four colours which are red, black, white and brown. In all of the magazines I have analysed they have either went with a colour scheme of using either three or four different colours, most often it is only three colours. When making my magazine I will try using both three and four colours to see which one is most attractive to the eye. Sometimes I think using four colours looks un-neat and un-professional but not in this case as they haven’t used the colour brown too much but they have spread it out across the page which makes it look like more has been used. Before analysing this magazine I was only planning on using three colours, not knowing what they are, but since analysing this magazine it has changed my perspective so I may use four colours but at this moment in time I’m not quite sure so I’ll make my mind up by trying different colours and amounts when creating my magazine cover and I’ll make my mind up then.

The layout of this magazine is different to most others, which is what i just touched on slightly in the first paragraph. It makes the cover look original and unique which is what will catch the audience’s eye. I do like how they have placed the image one side and then the text on the other. When designing my cover I try this design out and see if I like it.

This magazine has a banner at the top of it which my cover will also have, this one says “the 10 most exciting people in music”, usually with banners on a magazine they tend to brag about how good their magazine is which is probably hat my magazine will have but I like how they have not followed the crowd and again it makes the magazine more unique and original, although it looks like a general music banner when you get closer and read you’ll see what I mean.