Both: Magazine Front Cover Analysis: Mixmag

Edition: February 2009

The cover has a large-ish masthead of the magazine title in a sans serif font, like the majority of the text apart from the main cover story 'THE DJ REVOLUTION', and most of the text on the free CD. The sans serif font seems much more modern than a serif font, which fits with the youthful atmosphere of the magazine.

The somewhat simple colour scheme of the magazine consists of orange, navy, white and black. Because these are all the colours on the magazine, it does not appear too garish which it would if there were any more colours. Orange and blue are contrasting colours so go together well, and orange pops out and is eye catching, as it is the only non-neutral colour featured. Also, Orange isn't used much in magazines, so this sets the magazine out from the crowd. Orange text is used to place emphasis on the sell-line, the word 'Revoution' and the cover story headings.

The barcode, date, and price is situated in the bottom right hand corner, probably because tucked away in a corner means it doesn't interrupt with the rest of the magazine design. The magazine also has a poof in the top left corner, informing what is free this edition.

The magazine is based around pop culture, as clubbing and dance music are large parts of popular music, so the language used is quite simple and informal -'Amazing Pictures!'. However, some parts are more formal such as ' A SPECIAL REPORT'. There's also some technical language such as 'Touchscreen Turntables' which a reader educated in dance is expected to understand what it is, and this also means they don't feel like they are being talked down to. To fit with the youthful edge of the magazine, there are some superlative colloquialisms such as 'hottest' and a type of colloquialism where the word 'at' is replaced with the symbol  '@',  meaning the magazine front cover is slightly less cluttered.

The magazine has a sell line, which is: “The worlds biggest dance music and clubbing magazine', which can make it more attractive to a reader, who will want the best magazine for his interests.

The photo background is a midshot of a DJ entertaining the large crowd. Connotations of this are that he is powerful because he is in the foreground, and because all these people have come to see him. He is also under a spotlight, whilst the crowd are shaded dark navy. The shirt the DJ wearing is orangey-yellow, which fits with the rest of the magazine design and helps emphasise him. The navy colour of the crowd also matches this. The DJ seems quite young, as he is has shaved hair; a colourful modern style shirt; he is toned and has no noticeable wrinkles. This reinforces the idea that the magazine is targeted at young people. Magazines normally feature their role model on the front cover (beautiful women on women's magazines, toned men on men's health magazines etc...), so this man could be the magazines idea of the perfect person - someone that can whip the crowd into a frenzy. It isn't as shallow as many magazines, and may music magazines for that matter.


There isn't much blank space on the front cover either, which does look professional.

Callum: Preliminary Skills Evaluation

During my preliminary task, I got re-accustomed to how to take a good photo and I re-acclimatised to Adobe Photoshop.  I learnt nothing more than I did in GCSE but I did end up remembering a few things in Photoshop like how layering works and the select system.  I was also re-introduced to Blogger, a service that I had previously used.

The problems that I currently have are directed at Adobe Photoshop and its general user unfriendliness towards those who aren’t that familiar with the application.  I’m probably going to have to spend some time practising and re-familiarising myself with it if I’m to do well during the course.

Callum: Preliminary Contents Page Analysis

This is a mockup of the contents page.  The continued usage of the contrasting Dark Blue Purple and Pure Yellow continues the brand identity from the front page, but creates a very bright and colourful aesthetic for the rest of the magazine.  The fonts (OCR Standard A for “Contents”, Monaco for everything else) are the same as on the front cover keeping consistency.

The stories I chose are keeping in step with the light hearted formal tone that would make it interesting for Sixth Form students to read.  Since this would be the issue that goes out on September 2011, the start of term, the stories reflect this by focusing on help for those who may not be familiar with Sixth Form.  Stories like “The On Form Survival Guide” and “Teachers Are People Too!” are to help newer students come to grips with the Sixth Form.

Meanwhile, the Interview makes the front cover story mean something.  And the regulars are the sorts of things that Sixth Form students would need and want (News, an Events Calendar) and also the kinds of things magazines usually have (Editorial, Letters, Next Issue).

Next time I do a contents page, I will thoroughly proof read it (the misspelling of “People”).  I will also, probably, reduce the size of the text on the page and not re-use the front cover image on the inside.

Chad: Skills Evaluation

The first thing I would have learnt from the course is a range of photography techniques. I would have learned about such techniques as the rule of thirds, keeping it level, keeping the photo sharp, and making sure the lighting isn’t intrusive. I would also have learned about making sure the background of photos isn’t cluttered, or too expansive, and that there shouldn’t be anything in the shot that doesn’t need to be there.

Like I said, I would have learned all this, however I did GCSE Media Studies, and, any of this which I didn’t already know from common sense, I learnt then.

The next bunch of stuff I would have learned from the course, is the techniques used in Photoshop. I used the magic want tool; magnetic select tool; invert selection; crop; change hue/saturation; layers; and adding text. I considered tweaking the model with liquify, however I decided on saving this technique for the music magazine cover instead.  Unfortunately, I didn’t learn any this on the course either, as, I have known how to use photoshop and other similar photo editing software for years, having had it on my computer at home.

The only things I did learn from this course (though it was mostly common sense) was how to use blogger and its rich text editing tool. It was, however, pretty self-explanatory, though...

Callum: Prelimimary Cover Analysis

I chose the OCR A Standard font for the title because it is both official but, at the same time, it's distinctive.  The shape of the “O” in particular.

The choice of colours (dark blue  contrast each other and create a nice brand identity, particularly inside the magazine.

 The usage of the logo in the "Survival Guide" story title keeps a sense of continuity on the front page and makes the story stick out.

 The date, price and issue number are included in a smaller text in a corner of the cover because my day-to-day usage of magazines shows that's where they usually go.

 By using the magazine's colours on the Spotlight story, it makes it clear that this is the main story of the issue and, thusly, the reader will be more tempted to go to that one immediately.

 I chose this Medium Close Up for my cover photo.  The shot is framed so that there is a decent amount of background featured, giving me enough room to include text, but not so much as to detract from the subject in the photo.  The subject is not looking at the camera, shot from the chest up and the wind just happened to be blowing her hair in a manner that allowed some activity to occur in the photo.  Enough of the subject is also featured in the photo for the reader to get the full impression about the subject without needing the rest of their left arm.

Chad: Contents Page

In the blank space below, would be an advert or photo.

Chad: Preliminary Task Front Cover Analysis

For my front cover, I decided to show a very happy student, which goes with the excellent attendance results. I decided to take a simple smiling photo, and change the colour of the background. I changed the background to a pink colour, because I wanted a simple colour scheme – that of red and blue. Pink is a lighter hue of red which complements with the dark navy of the jacket and font, and doesn't  make the cover too 'in your face'. I've made the magazine logo a darker shade of pink, in order for it to stand out. 

My magazine photo uses the rule of thirds, as the subject is towards the right third of the page. I have made sure I kept the frame tight, with no more blank space than I needed to put the cover stories, masthead and logo on. I chose to use the handwritten style font I did, because it goes with the college and makes it seem more decorative. I called my college magazine 6 magazine, because it is takes the 6 out of Brigg 6th Form, and seems modern and simple.


 I have chosen a mix of cover stories. I made sure to include a mock real life story - inspired from the many gossip magazines out there. This real life story is the ‘Attacked By Chipmunks’ Cover story. I also included a heroic story (‘student saves family from  burning car’), which lots of magazines have. ALL of my cover stories, although taking from a different genre, and a range of serious stories and less so; they all relate to the college in some way. I have also included some more serious stories (’99% attendence’; the ‘3 weeks to amazing grades’ guide) Like all the most popular magazines, my magazine also features a freebie, which, in this case is a study diary.


Next time I make a magazine front cover, I will spend some time in making it look a little better. to start with I would spend some time in photoshop getting rid of the 'halo' around the model, wear the crop wasn't quite perfect. Also I would spend some more time in Photoshop bringing out the colours of the model and her clothes more, and sharpening the whole image. I would spend more time trying to find the right font too, because the current one seems unprofessional. Finally I would have a different colour background, so that it seems less 'girly'.