3 - Analysis of Covers, Contents & Double Page Spreads

Magazine Covers

'CLASH' Magazine Cover

Here is the first magazine cover. It is an issue by CLASH. It looks great. The big title is easy to read, and is in a very nice font, it instantly grabs our attention. It has a very simple layout which is rather minimal, the title is very big and bold, and fits the overall color palette used in this cover, black and whites, the title itself "CLASH" suggests it's some sort of news-like magazine specifically for fashion, music and film, which you can see just above the title in a much smaller font.

We can see that they've used a Z, (or inverted F) layout on this cover, and some of the smaller text goes down his face, making sure not to cover up his eyes, and to flow with his face in order to make it look more natural and appealing. It kind of makes you want to open the page as well, it's all been put on the right side, and gets slightly more interesting in terms of the graphics when you reach the bottom right hand corner - where you open the book. The first thing you notice is his face and the big CLASH title, and the second thing you notice is "THE 1975" which is placed to the bottom right.

The image of the model suits the magazine very well, it appears that he is wearing some sort of suit, judging from the black and white colors he's wearing, and so we can take a guess that it's quite formal, business like for young adults. It also looks like the photo may have been color corrected to suit the colors of the texts & graphics, his face looks a little washed out, desaturated, and alongside the color pallet, it helps give it more of a business-like style.

In allot of magazine covers, you'll often see that the body text is always big, bold, and colorful, however this cover has gone for a much more classier style, with smaller, thinner, and plain white text, which is what makes it more unique and helps it deliver its style. They've also done something with the bottom with the text, "THE 1975", they've added a hard drop shadow to it, making it ever so slightly retro and themed around the 1970's, this'll once again help to deliver its style and make it look classy.

'bilboard' Magazine Cover

The second cover by billboard, the first thing we can see is that it's based on a purple and blue color pallet, the title stands out a fair amount, but I think it could stand out a little more. The title is big and bold, however the light tone of color makes it blend in with what he's wearing and makes it ever so slightly less noticeable. I've also noticed that they've use what's called a mask (or rotoscope) on the title, this is so that parts of the photo, such as his 'crown' can come in front of the text, and helps give the magazine an aspect 3D depth

They've used a F shape layout on the magazine with allot of space to show off the photo of Usher, it is very simply set out, easy to read (Apart from the small text under his crown which says "Yes, this is his own crown")

The image of Usher looks great, I can see that they've positioned a light above him, so he's looking ever so slightly upwards, and have possibly used curves adjustments in Photoshop to bring out the contrast and to color correct it, and used the burn and dodge tools in order to make certain parts of his face look a little more darker and lighter in areas, giving it an overall more digitized / photogenic look.

The text and fonts they've used go very well together as well, there's a big subheading of "Usher, in a New Era" which is followed by some smaller descriptive text of what it'll be about. It looks very neat and tidy. At the top right, you can see some smaller text which tells us what else is on the inside such as "Musics greatest year" and "Taylor Swifts Message to Haters" and other unimportant related things by overpaid artists that other people might somehow be interested in. The text is very simplistic and that's what makes it so powerful, the cover isn't over cluttered with random unnecessary text in big bold letters followed by half a dozen exclamation marks like alot of other magazines, that's what makes it very nice too look at. With almost no use no fancy graphics on the cover at all, other than the very tiny arrow under his crown, and have not stylized the text in anyway. It is very straightforward and appealing.

'VMAGAZINE' Magazine Cover

Final cover, we can see this is appears to be alot more retro than the other ones, whilst keeping a very modern flavoured style to it.

The Title "V" is clearly the most noticeable and eye catching thing on the cover, having a variety of colors against a gray background certainly makes it stand out and catch our attention. They've used the entire V as a mask for another layer which consists of many flowers, making it as if the V brings life back into the otherwise old and gray magazine cover. Sophisticated would be the word I'd use to describe this title.

They've used a 'H' shape layout on this cover, you have the two boxes of text at each side, and the huge V going across to 'connect' each end. It works very well with the title

The image consists of a model dressed in mostly denim clothing, something that was very popular amongst women in the 1980s and because it was in the 1980s, they've desaturated it to give it a grayscale, in terms of editing, I think they have just added contrast with curves, and smoothened the models skins out a tonne.

The text placement and text really works with the photo and title, the left side text is all very similar, nothing fancy and was most likely done by adding a piece of text on a new line on the same text layer (unlike the right hand side one which was made with multiple text layers) the left side text is very simplistic, and is not overdone. The right side however is slightly different, they've used multiple layers to create this and have made it big and bold, and even transformed it out of scale in order to grab your attention in this area (bottom right hand corner again) and to give you an insight to what the magazine might be about, in this case, someone fails to keep their clothes on for short periods of time.

3X Magazine Contents

'Muse' Rock Contents Page

The title of this page is very clearly placed at the top in bold, it is in an easy font to read, and the layout is very simple, a photo on the left, and the contents and information on the right. It is very easy to follow.

They've used a very big image on this page, it has a color scheme of purple and dark blue, you can see that the person in the shot is playing a guitar, both the guitar and the person are facing inwards to redirect your eyes towards the contents and information side.

In terms of the text, it is very easy to follow, they've set it out so that you can find what page you want, and then underneath it is a little description that has a small amount of information on the chosen page, so that you get a rough idea of what's on that page

'DESIGN' Contents Page

This is a contents page from 'DESIGN' (not confirmed) as you can see, there's no title at all, which is not normal for a contents page, making it unique, it is an extremely simple and easy to read layout

The layout is very simple, numbers on the left, corresponding information on the right ith a small description. Though on the upper left of the left page, there is a block of text, I'm not sure what it's about, but from what we know with previous contents pages, it must be some sort of description / overview about the magazine.

They've used no images for their contents page which is interesting, what makes it stand out is the contrasting colours, black and white, such a simple idea that looks great, and having the pieces of information inverted to the background color, making it stand out much more. And the use of a double page spread means that they can deliberately enlarge the text a ridiculous amount.

'MOJO' Contents Page

The title, simplistic, appealing, and perfectly positioned. The font looks great, the distance apart each letter makes it look really professional, and the text underneath also help give an overall insight to what's inside the magazine.

The photo of the model fits nicely with the background being used in the composition, black and light grays fit together, the red text of the contents also help compliment the colour of her hair and lips. They've also used a mask to bring her in front one of the graphics at the top. So I think that when the photo was taken, they used a white backdrop with lights, or a green screen in order to cleanly mask her hair to fit with the graphics, and then from that, can composit her into the shop and perform editing techniques.

What's great about this one is clear, the way of which the text follows the outline of the models body. It makes it look like the model and the text have some form of interaction with each other, which makes it alot less boring than having them in their own little boxes, statically placed around the composition with no interaction with anything.

3X Magazine Spread

'New directions in Portugal' Spread

The title on this is very interesting, they've made it part of a real life building, and come into the magazine, they would've used 3D perspective to of done this, in a program such as Photoshop, 3DS Max, or similar, they've composited text onto the building in 3D space, and a carried it on and into the magazine, making it look like the text is popping out at you. It is very easy to read and I think it's very different.

The layout is simplistic too, all the informational text has been put into the bottom right hand corner in order to make their work really stand out.

Layout by Matias Corea Double Page Spread

To the left, you can see the very big and easy to read title in red and black, it looks very simplistic which is why it is so eye catching.

Below the title is some smaller descriptive text, as well as the majority of the right side being smaller text too, giving the reader relevant information about the subject of the magazine.

What I really like about this design is how Matias has intentionally made the graphics to make the middle crumpled, as if it was actually a newspaper, it's such a simple thing to do, and yet changed the theme and style of the paper completely.

The layout is also fairly nice, though there's alot of text, it is set out very well, all of it is in easy to find paragraph blocks, and the use of color within these paragraphs helps to make it even easier and nicer to look at and read.

Matteo Gualandris 

The title here is very clear, there's not alot of text on the page which is why the title stands out so well, they've also kind of underlined it by adding in some line graphics.

The layout is again very simple, title at the top, description at the bottom, it allows us to see the whole image in a much clearer perspective.

The image it's self is very nice, it's in the page's spotlight. The vibrant red and yellows in contrast the to darkening grays on the opposite page fit really well.

Overall I will need to take into consideration most of the things that have gone into all of these magazine components, and use this information to make a magazine that meets a expectation, it will vary on what style I choose, but for that style, I'll have information ready and will have a good insight to how it should be looking in order to be a professional magazine.