Front Cover Research

As the front cover is predominantly the first thing that will catch the reader's attention I had to take into account of how important it was to make sure that my cover for my coursework was laid out professionally and efficiently so it was successful for my target audience.

I analysed a variety of front covers which included Kerrang! MOJO and also Q, the reason is because although they were focusing on either a rock or indie genre they laid out their covers differently in specific ways. All their cover names on the magazine were created in completely diverse ways but it had almost the same sort of font on every issue to make the magazine easily recognisable to the reader. I like the idea of the way Kerrang! has placed the image above the title as its primarily the main image linking in with the main story within the magazine itself; therefore it draws the reader's attention as they are automatically made aware of what the content entails.

In a majority of the magazines I have looked at the publishers have put the important information in the left third as it's usually placed on a shelf of a store and that's the first thing the reader will notice. The main contents of the magazine are placed in this section of the cover to make it more appealing to the readers; this is something I will take into consideration when I start creating my cover as I will put a variety of headlines for stories to attract my readers.

As well as important headlines, the magazines have included a chance for the reader to "Win" something courtesy of the magazine itself, I feel it's a good inducement as it makes the reader feel as if they're getting more out of their money which is also something I will consider when creating my own magazine for my course work.

The magazines appear to have information printed across the top and bottom of the cover, this has given me the idea to think of band names to write at the bottom of the page which will appear in the content and Kerrang! has given me the idea of putting "THE FUSION TOUR: ACCESS ALL AREAS" as this will also be beneficial to my readers.

As I want to make sure my magazine has a professional approach like the ones I have been analysing I will include a bar code, the issue number, price, date line and also the website of the magazine to initially gain more readership as although the magazine attracts the company's audience, the website would as well.

After analysing the magazine it's given me some idea of how I'm going to create mine, I will have a main image taking up a majority of the cover and the idea that Kerrang! used of interviewing two bands which is mentioned on their cover has given me the idea of doing that with my magazine. Also I will cover some of the title with the main image as it would be effective in making the main story stand out more to the readers. In my opinion Q magazine seems quite dull compared to MOJO and Kerrang! as they have a well structured and busy layout to attract their readers. Although I plan to just use one image on the cover I will make sure it takes up a majority of the page with a variety of text to support the content of the magazine.