Magazine Cover Analysis

Magazine Cover Analysis

Magazine Title

"Cassette"

Magazine Title Devlopment

My music magazine is going to cover alternative music in general, instead of focusing on one specific genre. So to come up with a name I looked up synonyms for the word "alternative", I considered a few such as unorthodox, offbeat and irregular; but was not really liking any of them. I then looked at the origins of the word alternative, and saw that it came from the Latin word "alternare" which meant interchange.

Interchange was the best word, in my opinion, up until that point, but when I thought about it I imagined a travel magazine rather than a music one. So it didn't really work as a title.

Deciding I needed a word that more specifically referenced music, I looked for synonyms for the word music, and found that they were all to technical, e.g. notes, chords, strains. So once again I looked at the origin of the word and found it came from the Greek "muse", bit since that is already the name of a fairly mainstream band, so it wasn't really valid.

In the end I just brainstormed words related to music, and thought of "Cassette" as in cassette tapes, it was a word directly linked to music, whilst also sounding pretty good and not pinning it down to a single genre of music.

Colour Palette Analysis

Preliminary Magazine

Font Mood Board

Magazine Cover Inspiration

I like the style of the magazine above, mainly due to the simplicity, as it still manages to be eye catching and aesthetically pleasing. The juxtaposition of the rusted can against the clean background and fonts creates a striking design. The fonts used are all clean and simple, which I personally prefer to messier fonts. I also like the coloured stripe down the left hand side of the page, which helps brighten the page and provide a boundary.

I liked the magazine above because of the wide range of colours, the contrast between the straight lines of paint and the mix, the simple title in the form of a label. Once again the use of simple fonts appealed to me.

i-D captured my attention because of their bold logo, with different placement to the stereotypical central title. The model also stands out, due to the 'striking' makeup. There is a contrast between the simplicity of the fonts used and the attention to detail in terms of the models costume, hair and makeup, which I think serves to direct the viewers attention away from the more 'mundane' things like the title, and more on the focus of the cover, being the model.

This cover caught my eye, due to the bold, cartoon-y illustrations used on the cover. I just found the art-style attractive and also liked the lack of a bold headline, however this does make it a bit unclear at a glance to see what the magazine is actually covering.

I like the Critic cover, mainly because of the multi-coloured filter that has been applied and the simplistic, rounded font.