Analysis of a front cover of a music magazine 'Q'

The masthead on Q magazine has always been the same and is well known, for its white font on a red background. The red emphasises the font and makes it stand out more to the audience. The colour red is symbolic of many things, love, passion, danger, blood, its a very widely used colour as it can mean many things. The white text on top of the red background causes each to stand out and attract attention from the target audience. The header is only a small white blocked out part of the main image and is advertising the ‘50 best albums’ this uses two types of colours, orange and black, both of which contrast each other and make each other stand out. The black part of this header is written in a serif font whereas the orange part of this header is written in a sans serif font, this helps to draw the potential readers attention to the magazine. The colour scheme is simple with red/orange, black and white being the main colours other than the one line in light pink, which is the main cover line, making it stand out more than the others. The contrast between the red and black and white and black is clever as the words stand out more and more against the main image. The one line and only part of pink on this front cover (going against the colour scheme) helps to draw the attention of potential readers, as it helps to make the front cover of this magazine stand out against others. The main image is of Kings of Leon themselves and instead of a typical band pose the image is a crazy glass breaking stance of them. This image of the band ‘breaking through’ links to the main cover line in pink. This is a clever link as it entices the reader making them more interested. There is a small amount of font on this front cover as the main image is the main part. There is a small list of some of the artists that feature in the magazine in a small and white font. The other cover lines are in medium font and the main article ‘Kings of Leon’ in the largest font. There are not as many cover lines featured on this particular front cover as the main story is the main attraction, there is a small list of featured artists in small white font and a medium font size cover line ‘play time for The Killers’ visible with the main cover line being ‘Kings of Leon’ in the largest and most visible font making the magazine appeal largely to King of Leon fans. The text is continuous throughout this front cover with being a sans serif font, which links in with the cover image as the image is informal, with the exception of the text that reads 'the killers' which is wrote in a serif font.