Cesca Haig

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NME (The New Musical Express) is a music magazine first started in March 1952. It first started as a music newspaper and in the 70s was named best selling Music Newspaper. During the 80s it changed to a more magazine based style. NME is styled more towards younger fans of music, although they have bands and artists of all ages featured.

• The logo for NME has always been the big red lettering, because it is in such a bold font and bright eye catching colour, people will see and remember it as being the logo for NME. When people see it for the first time the bright colour will draw their eyes to it and the selling line, ‘New Musical Express’ which is what NME stands for will make anyone who is interested want to buy it.

• The main image on this copy of NME is a black and white photograph of Ian Curtis, the front man for Joy Division, smoking a cigarette. With the image being in black and white and the NME logo still being in red, the logo stands out more but as the image is quite well known people will still recognize it and be drawn in by it. The main image on this cover is right in the middle, it is the first thing you see and what will make people want to buy. Usually they would have a few small images but as this is a special anniversary edition, they have just used the picture of Ian Curtis and a smaller one of the Joy Divison album cover.

The main selling point for this copy of NME is in big black lettering, this is so that you can see exactly what you will be reading about and also to draw anyone in who picks up the magazine. Other cover lines for the magazine are done in a less noticeable font, but still a little bold. The font could be seen to resemble the type of music that you will find in the magazine, it is in a handwritten scrawl , which could resemble a gig list, autograph or just general laziness which would relate to teenagers as that is who the magazine is aimed at.

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Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. The founders of the magazine Mark Ellen and David Hepworth felt the music press of the time was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs. Q was first published in October 1986. The magazine was originally going to be named CUE but they decided on Q as it would stand out more on a newsstand. Q is aimed at older fans of music.

The masthead for Q magazine is the well known white Q in a red square, always up in the left of the cover. A reason for this is that when the magazines are stacked up on a newsstand all you really see is the top left corner, sometimes restricting half the logo. With Q this doesn’t happen and the logo is in full view making it easier to find and stand out more. The selling line of the magazine is ‘The worlds greatest music magazine’ gives a hint to what the magazine is about and also makes it sound like a decent magazine to buy, so people seeing it more the first time will be more likely to buy it.

The main image on this copy of Q is a picture of the Stone Roses. The image on this cover isn’t right in the middle, although it is still quite big so it is still the first thing you see and what will make people want to buy.

The main selling point for this copy of Q is in big white lettering, this is so that you can see exactly what you will be reading about and also to draw anyone in who picks up the magazine. Over topics that will be covered in this magazine are done in a similar block font in different colours and slightly smaller, you are drawn to the text as it is different than the main selling point and is accompanied with small images.

Both these magazines have similar styles as they are about similar things but aimed at different age ranges. Both magazines have the bold logo with red and white in the top left corner of the cover and the main image is quite large and centred. And all the other topics are done in a different but similar text the main selling point, linking them together.