FRONT COVER ANALYSIS

My magazine shows the convention of a magazine by a number of things;. Masthead , Strap line , contents page , double page spread , consistent layout, Target audience , Barcode , Price , Date of issue , Interview , Images , Features


I used these conventions because of audience expectation. The audience of my magazine would expect a magazine to have all the conventions listed above.

Use of colours by using a bright colour like red I made my magazine eye-catching and therefore attractive which to help consumers purchase your magazine. Most Hip Hop magazines like XXL and VIBE mostly also use red as the main colour in their chosen colour scheme. This is because the colour red easily draws attention. I also chose these colours as my target audience chose red as a main colour for the house style. As a result of my questionnaire.

The main image also follows convention as the front cover image is a medium close up, which most hip –hop magazines use in order to show face expression, the body language of the image portrays a ‘bad’ attitude which is something that most hip hop artists would portray on cover page. The artist in my magazine wears and uses props and clothing such as chains, hoodies, bandanna and a microphone.

Hip hop is a male dominated genre of music but I have challenged that by using a female on the front cover. But I tried to make her image look as strong as male artists on the cover which will make my magazine stand out from other hip hop magazines.
Puff In my magazine I used a puff as I wanted to add to my magazines brand identity. Adding a puff also makes the magazine more trustworthy and reliable giving more reasons for consumers to purchase the magazine as I am trying to attract young Hip Hop fans as they are my target audience. This represents my magazine as the best in the Hip Hop genre, so Hip Hop fans will be interested in buying my magazine. Other well known Hip Hop magazines also do this like XXL


I used language such as “exclusive” and “best”. These help to attract audiences as they make the magazine seem more trustworthy and interesting. These are used in other magazines to attract target audiences. E.g. The source, XXL and VIBE all use these words on the front cover as this is what persuades most audiences to buy the magazine.

My magazine is priced at £2.30 which I think is an ideal price for my audience as they are aged between 14-23 and mostly still in education and some would not want to buy a magazine which is over priced which means it costs less than other hip hop/r ‘n’ b magazines which will attract my target audience