A magazine front cover is very important. It is the thing that attracts the reader; catches people’s eyes and makes people pick it up and choose it from any others. If a magazine front cover is not appealing it will not be picked up from any of the other magazines therefore will not be purchased. Magazine institutions design the magazines to suit a specific audience. For example if the front cover of a magazine had a main image of a car with the colours blue and greens used over the page this would suggest the target audience to likely be a male car lover. I will be analysing the girly magazine ‘shout’.
Colour is a key representation of the audience of a magazine. As seen in ‘shout’ the main colours are pink and white. We instantly think this is aimed at a young teen girl. Girls are stereotyped to liking pink so by putting it on the front cover of a magazine indicates the audience quickly. The magazine has a zoomed in image of the glamorous Taylor Swift. She is a well known music artist therefore when people see the magazine soon realise it should be an up to date read. As a teenage girl, you would look up to her as she is beautiful, she is idolised by young girls. The connotation of this image is girls love glamour and perfection and she represents this completely (the magazine is filled with glamour). They have made it so that her eyes are looking straight forward – to make eye contact with the reader. She has the pose of that of a model, someone who takes a lot of pride and care in what there appearance is. The smaller image at the bottom right hand corner is an image of the types of things inside the magazine. This is an image of a good looking boy which an average young girl is obviously going to love to catch a glimpse of.
In the ‘shout’ mag there are lots of words and phrases which are typical of a girls magazine, such as ‘ glam-packed pages!’ ‘fashion freebies’ and ‘fame, friendships &fall-outs’. These words have been selected for the purpose of grabbing the audiences, being teenage girls, attention as this is what they love. They are in bold fonts so that they stand out from the background making it more appealing. The word ‘hottest’ is used to describe the ‘lads’. Using words in such ways helps to bring across the fact it is designed for teenagers rather than children or adults.
'Shout' have used the direct word of 'you'. This is a very personal word and helps the audience to recognize that they are being spoken to.
Connetations and denotations have been used in the magazines. Where is says ‘£5 is all you need to look fabulous’ this could suggest you pay £5 and you will be made to look gorgeous but it actually means, we will show you products you can buy for £5 to help you get the glamorous look.
The title of the magazine is clearly written at the top of the page, it is written in big, bold fonts to stand out from any of the text. They have also have used the left 3rd rule. This is where by all the main stories, which are revealed in the magazine, are placed down the left hand side of the page so that when stacked in a magazine rack this is what you are able to see giving the reader a clear indication of what they will find inside the mags.
I think the front covers has been delivered successfully to the right target audience. For a magazine to people successful it must be eye catching, and to stand out from any other magazine. I think it does this well, as the layout is simple but everything stands out, is easy to read and appealing.
