Analysis of magazine/poster covers

Introduction

When creating our magazines we thought it would be important to discuss and plan our use of colours and pictures, as we are a girl band we wanted to emphasise our fun care free characteristics, which is portrayed through the use of vibrant colours, each differentiating and determining our varied characteristics through colours. However we also thought it was important to further experiment with different ideas in order to reveal diversity through different thoughts and plans. Therefore for my poster I wanted to experiment with colours such as golds and blacks as it attracts attention and gold can be conveyed as successful, although we are not a well known band it shows our aspirations.     

  How did your group share your ideas and designs around?

When analysing my groups magazine covers, I think they appear successful in appealing to our target audience ....

Jessie's magazine cover 

Jessies magazine reveals simplicity, allowing the audience to concentrate on the key points and not be distracted by irrelevant information. I like they way she has captured our attention through the large images of the cd cover and our photo shoot in order to engage the audience, familiarising us as artists to the audience. This conforms to conventions of the pop genre as a general expectation would be to be able to .. However I do think that Jessie could have made the text stand out in order to add attention and significance, perhaps if it was enlarged or bold, as this highlights the importance of our CD release, if it is unclear and not large it may lack attention, we need to draw an audience in. There is added emphasis on the album name 'closure' suggesting it is out now, this is good on informing the audience but could have informed further by perhaps adding itunes etc, although the people we are aiming to target would already know this, it is basic and effective. The 'Chic' title on the image needs to have a greater contrast against the red as orange tends to blend in slightly. 

This is Jessie second magazine poster cover, we will be using this as our final, decided poster. She has concentrated and put thought into the font styles which enables them to appear more prominent. This is important as each text information is as important as each other and therefore because it's varied it all individually stands out. She has continued to add emphasis on the album name 'Closure' and 'Out Now' in particular, detecting the key information. I like the way she has added extra detail such as 'following us on twitter' as this attracts and makes apparent our target audience as the majority of teenagers and young people today use social networking, artists do also to promote themselves, encouraging fans to follow our actions.

The black background adds importance to the poster making it appear increasingly professional, which makes it specific when informing, as it seems serious. She has put a white glow around each member of the band which still allows us to stand out and not blend in with the background. The white lines which surround us adds to the quirkiness and prevents the black from overshadowing and surrounding us completely as it is fragmented, which adds to the liveliness and adds focus to our picture. The image in the corner of the poster summaries our album, the golden glow making it appear prominent, offering importance and what we inspire to be 'golden' and successful, again highlighting the album name and artist name.    

Evaluate the magazine-

Evaluate each the group member’s designs by commenting on the following:

·     What do you like about the magazine?

·     How is the magazine conventional to your music genre?

·     How can the magazine be improved?

Selina's Magazine cover 

As you can see the colour theme has been carried forward through Selina's idea, this magazine poster appears to reflect our carefree attitudes through the fun use of colour and smoke effect at the bottom which further attracts us to the picture. A disadvantage of Selinas design is again the font, it does not appear to stand out, although she had made attempt to highlight key words and add emphasis on the single itself which is positive. She has also informed her audience that this is an album poster by having the words 'Debute album' up the top followed by Closure along the side. I like how she has experimented by creating a different layout, however the writing and picture, to me, appear equally, as the colours seem a slight distraction. 

Jenna's magazine Cover

Jenna's magazine cover is extremely similar to Jessie's through the structure, with the picture at the top, prioritising the band image, again the background is vibrant, lime green is an appropriate colour in allowing us to completely stand out, the font is clear and matches our black outfits which make it appear independent and powerful, standing alone. 

Reflection-

·     Which magazine will you submit and why?

Currently we have decided to submit Jessie's poster, the editing influenced this as she has cut out images accurately and used a smudging effect in order to make the image appear smoother.To conclude I think Jessie's magazine cover is successful in conveying a professional structure to a poster/magazine cover of a CD. However all designs are successful in appealing to an audience which would probably majority consist of teenagers, but I think the over use of colours can at times make it appear less professional and modern. I personally think the font should be bold, basic, detecting key words through specific colours and underlining.