MIXMAGFRONT COVER ANALYSIS

TITLE:Having ‘mixmag’ as the title creates a strong brand identity, as it makes it clear to the reader straight away that it is a music magazine due to it sounding rhythmic. It creates a laid back tone as it is simple and relaxed, which hints that the magazine demographic is teenagers as this is their stereotyped attitude. This demographic is also implied by the abbreviations used (instead of ‘mixture magazine’ its just ‘mixmag’) which is common for teenagers to do. The word mix gives connotations of music with reference to mixtapes and club or DJ music. The alliteration of the ‘M’ shows a fast pace, which is sharp and snappy to read reflecting the lives of the demographic, how they are highly involved in the partying and clubbing scenes.

MASTHEADThe masthead is displayed in a young, playful typography which adds to the clubbing, dance vibes the title itself gives off. The bright and bold lettering and the purple font give off a sense of a young and more playful tone, this appeals to the demographic of middle class male and females between the age of 15-25The colours used are not the typical colours that would be associated with journalism such as red, black and white as this supports the idea of the magazine being for a less sophisticated audience who are not particularly interested in long article pieces but more visual content. The masthead is eye-catching to young people, as it is exciting and interesting which establishes a fun and energetic mode of address, which suits the magazine genre of club and dance music.

FEATURE ARTICLE PHOTOThe photo is conventional as it is a medium close up and gives the reader information on the contents of the magazine. The denotive features of the photograph show a young male holding his hand to his ear in the shape of a phone. He is wearing a black cap which shadows his face which gives a mysterious look to his eyes. He is wearing a pink jacket which almost matches the colour of the masthead. These pieces of information help us understand the connotations of this photograph including why/how it was taken. The position of the photograph is unconventional as it is to the side, however the model is leaning in towards the centre which still makes the cover strong and eye-catching, even if it’s not conventional. It also appeals more to the demographic on younger people as they do not always ‘follow the rules’ and like to break them and do what they want.

FEATURE ARTICLE PHOTO CONTINUEDThe models pose adds to the slightly ‘rebellious’ mode of address that was originally enforced by the position of the photo, which represents the attitudes of the demographic. The cover star is making eye contact with the camera to suggest he is interested in and of equal level to the reader.

COVERLINEThe cover line stands out as the font for it is a lot larger than the other plugs and it has been bolded which connotes importance. The white also clearly contrasts to the turquoise background. The position of the cover line is not very conventional as it is more central than usual, however this works as the model is to the side of the page rather than the centre so it stands out clearly and covers a large amount of the negative space.

PUFFThe puff states that mixmag is ‘The Worlds Biggest Dance Music & Club Culture Magazine.’ The fact that it is capitalised draws attention to it. It is used in order to boost the magazines status. As it is written in a sophisticated, serious font it makes the statement seem more believable, encouraging the reader to buy it. The hyperbole is used as the magazine knows that younger people like to feel involved in social events and the latest trends so the target audience will believe that this magazine has to be a ‘must buy’ so they stay up to date. As it is positioned above the masthead it will be one of the first things they read as they will see it when they look at the masthead. The fact that they have specified two types of music genres expands the demographic as their will be a larger audience interested.

PLUGSThe plugs on this front cover are unconventional as plugs are usually meant to fill up negative space, yet due to the lack of plugs and the small font size of the few there are, they fail to do this. However I believe this works for their demographic who don’t care about following ‘conventions’ and ‘rules’ and prefer big pictures to loads of writing. The typography of these plugs connotes importance as they are underlined which emphasises them to the reader. The language used is very simplistic such as ‘can’t do without you’ and ‘on the line’ which shows that it is to the point and easy to read which again highlights that the demographic are more interested in the visual parts of the magazine, such as pictures compared to the writing.

SUMMARYThe front cover portrays that the magazine is fresh and content, which is emphasised through its minimalistic, laid back and slightly rebellious attitude. From this I believe that the demographic is 15-25 year olds who thoroughly enjoy dance and club music, and want to keep up to date with it, they will also be very social and enjoy festivals and partying. They are likely to be in the social group ‘Emerging Social Workers’ which means they are relatively poor but are young and have big social and culture lives, therefore the money they have is spent on music and arts.