Textual Analysis - Layout & Design

Kerrang!

Layout>>> The page element is put together again, by the conventions of magazines, with the masthead at the very top with the largest, boldest text. The main focus point, is the image, which is based in the middle making it the most noticeable item on the page, followed by the headline which according to the conventions should be underneath the image thus supporting the story, the sub headline is then underneath that in a smaller text, holding more information into the story, these again are all conventions which a lot of other magazines use. These are a good technique because the audiences are used to seeing these codes and conventions everyday and if one magazine suddenly decides not to use them; it's confusing for the audience. The colour is used to establish the genre and reflect the seriousness of the magazine and how they feel about music.

Colour>>> There only seems to be one particular genre represented within this front page, which is rock music for it's is only featuring rock artists. The genre's which aren't included within this front page are R'n'B artists, dance artists, pop musical artists etc obviously because the institution would only want to inform the audience on one particular genre of music, which is part of their values and beliefs. The stylistic features of the genre include the dark colours on the title's font and their tagline which they've used; these are all the stylistic features which give a “grunginess” feel towards the magazine.


Vibe

Layout>>>The layout of the magazine is a light coloured background of the blue sea and faded white clouds with the picture of Mariah Carey in a black bikini as the main focus on the page. This indicates that this is a summer issue of the magazine
This obviously indicates that she is on a beach. She is wearing a black bikini with a background that clearly says this is a summer issue, due to the beach. In doing this it immediately attracts attention of readers because of the bright colours and Mariah Carey.

Colour>>> The font colours used on this cover are very bold, bright and quite girly, as in this issue they opted for pink, yellow and orange as well as signature vibe magazine cover colours, such as black and white. It is obvious that this is a summer issue. They follow the urban style of lettering, all the letters stand out individually and the words and letters are framed around the celebrity Mariah Carey, who is the main image of this cover. The colours used are bright and bold; for example the use of pinks symbolizes and represents femininity. All of these colours stand out against the sea blue background; the blue background compliments the use of font colours.


NME

Layout>>> The central image of this magazine is the band members from “The Automatic”. They are all looking directly into the camera, which then makes the audience they are looking at them, which makes them feel they have an interaction with them. This is an issue of NME magazine, it contains a masthead, a picture of the main feature of the magazine and tells the audience everything that is inside the magazine. The masthead is in the top left hand corner and is the same colour like it is on every issue, this makes it easy to recognize and people who want to buy this particular magazine can easily tell this is NME. The font used for the NME masthead is used throughout the front cover and inside the magazine, this is another way to make it recognisable to people looking to purchase it.


Colour>>> The colour is important as each genre can be identified by their colour scheme or layout. For example, rock and emo music tends to have dark colours usually black associated with it. This is done to create a certain image or ideology that that music genre likes and associates with. There’s only four colours used on the cover; red, black, white and yellow, this helps the audiences recognise that this is NME because these colours are used on every cover of NME. Even the big picture in the centre of the cover is mainly black for example, their clothes. The background is also dark which continues the colour trend.

>Gina