Q Magazine - Front Cover Analysis

Q magazine is a magazine directed at young adults, it covers a lot of genres but its main focus is on rock music. The mast head is a large white Q over a red square, in this issue the bottom of the mast head is being slightly covered up by one of the band members heads in the cover article photograph. Q magazine are able to cover up the mast head/logo slightly as they are such a popular and well known magazine, people will notice the colours used and the layout of the cover and instantly recognise that it is Q magazine. The magazines colour scheme usually sticks to red, white and black, they are both rocky and sophisticated colours to use in a magazine and it works well and draws in their target audience. The cover article photograph is of four men, their heads are shown in a diamond shape with the tallest band member at the centre back and the smallest at the centre front. However, although the band member at the bottom is being portrayed as the smallest out of all four of the men, he is the only person who is looking in the eyes of the reader and so this conveys to me that he is the main band member, the singer. As the reader I feel slightly intimidated by the main band member staring in my direction because eye contact is key and in awkward situations one tends to look away, and so it is making me feel slightly uncomfortable. The eye contact conveys to the reader that these men are famous and they know it, it shows that they are not afraid and no one can scare them. The two men behind the main band member are looking at each other whilst the man at the top of the page is looking down at the man on the left as though he is talking to both band members, this conveys to the reader that the men are close friends and although none of them look like they are saying anything, their eye contact with each other shows they know what the other is thinking. All four men are either wearing a black shirt, t-shirt or suit, this conveys to the reader that they are professional with what they do whereas there slick haircuts and gelled hair styles portray a rebellious characteristic within the band which links in with their band’s music which is rock. The main ban member is wearing a black shirt which conveys to the reader he has a lot of money and is professional, but the top few buttons of the shirt are undone with a silver chain necklace peeking through underneath, this shows the reader their rebellious side as a band. A cover line is included at the bottom of the page flush left reading, ‘Arctic monkeys’ in a bold white font, this conveys to the audience who the artist is that Q are focusing on in this particular issue. The background is a stylish grey, the same colour as some of the plugs, this fits in with the formal and professional look about the magazine. A blue strip is included at the top of the page advertising the seventeen page spread article about the ‘Manic Street Preachers’, a picture of the front cover of the article is included flush right of the blue strip and also a grey circle which reads ’17-page special’ inside it, the blue strip links with the blue plus sign included at the bottom of the page.