Front cover research 1

This is a Kerrang music magazine which contains information on rock bands and their artists.

House style/Masthead

Firstly, in this magazine "kerrang" is the masthead of the magazine and is always placed in the center top half of the music magazine. House style is when the same continuous logo, colours, fonts and shapes are used to create a brand. The housestyle of this magazine is also young and the genre is reflected in teh house style and created by the masthead, this is because "kerrang" is a main brand identity/ logo.

Colours 

Secondly, in the magazines front cover, colours such as Red, Black,Yellow, White and grey are used. Red has been used to help the magazine associate with energy, war and determiation. This type of atmosphere works very well with the rock theme. The black colours are used to associate the front cover with power, death and evil. Black has a very horrifying atmospheric theme to it and suits the magazine genre well. The designer has used yellow text as it is associated with energy and is very good for attracting the attention of someone walking past.

A lot of small subheadings on the front cover are in yellow, which can be associated with caution, sickness, decay and jealousy helping the front cover to fit the rock theme. Yellow is also a colour which can be seen as very attractive and eye catching.
The dark background contrasts with the white headings and red detail of the articles. The dark background, with blood red and white fonts link to the rock music genre. Rock artists tend to dress in dark clothing, their album covers are dark. Kerrang reflects this on the front cover of their music magazine.

Other related rock band Advertisements 

As well as this, on the front cover there are articles advertising other Rock bands. This again links the magazine to a Rock theme. It would also open the magazine up to a larger target market as people who are big fans of one of the bands would buy the magazine for that one band.

Positioning

The main artist is positioned directly in the middle of the magazine, with the rest of his band further back, creating the idea that the rest of his band are like his sidekicks. As well as this, they are placed farther away to show an attitude, which links them to the rock genre as "rock" music is seen as an angry, rebellion music genre. Due to the band further back it shows the star in main focus of the magazine. The artist's face covers the middle of the mast head. When well known music magazine companies do this, it shows their brand is well known, reinforcing that they do not need to use their whole logo, because most readers would know it as the 'Kerrang' magazine.

Headings/Fonts

Furthermore, the artist and the band are covered by the band name and subtitles, one being "HEAR THE NEW MUSIC. READ THEIR FULL STORY" this causes the reader to want to buy the magazine and read about the bands story. As well as this the main parts of the magazines front cover are towards the top of the magazine. they have done this as a marketing technique. When a magazine is for sale in a shop, the shop companies sell them on shelves which hide 1/3rd of the magazines front cover.

Finally, the fonts used in this magazine are sans serif and serif. The magazine writer has used "sans serif" with the bands name. They have used the "serif" font in the rest of the font on the front cover. Magazine editors and front cover designers tend to vary with the fonts they use. This is to show importance in text and help catch the readers eye.

Promotion

Also people who have designed this front cover have used words like "free" and "win" in large letters on the front cover. This causes the magazine to persuade more people to buy the magazine as it is making out like they can win things if they buy the magazine.




In addition, the magazine has a bar code in the bottom left. This is so that the magazine has originality and so that the magazine can be sold onto a customer.

How this Research has Influenced my Planning and Creativity 

I like the style and font used in this magazine.
I also like the rebellious atmosphere given from the red and black colour scheme. \