Salford City College Eccles Centre AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio

Masthead

The masthead for this magazine cover is the easily

memorable ‘NME’ logo. Despite the fact that the

masthead is obscured slightly by the main image, it is still

easily recognisable and the audience know straight away

without having to see the whole thing.

Main image

The main image of this magazine cover is a picture of

Lady Gaga. She is making eye contact with the reader so it

automatically has a bigger impact. Lady Gaga is an easily

recognized celebrity that will appeal to most age

demographics and the slightly sexual pose makes the

magazine appeal further

Model credit

The model credit of this magazine cover is the quote on

the left hand side of the cover. The quote is direct from

Lady Gaga which will appeal to her fan base. It also

contains swearing which will appeal to the audience as it

could be seen as rebellious.

Coverlines

The cover lines are placed at the sides of the main image

to not obscure the picture or draw attention away from

the main target of the magazine. The bold font helps

them stand out more so that they are not lost behind the

focus of the main image.

Main cover line

The main cover line is the largest writing on the cover.

The words Lady Gaga are in Blue and over shadow the

rest of the writing. This will draw audiences in. Also, the

main cover line could have an ambiguous meaning as it

says unzipped which in magazine terms could mean that

we are going to find out about her more private life that

she would not normally share. However, when paired

with the image of her wearing numerous zips, this creates

a slightly humorous yet slightly erotic outcome.

Colour

The magazine uses bright colours mainly light blue and a

pale yellow. These colours make the magazine stand out

amongst others of the same genre appealing to the

audience. The blue in the main cover line where it says

Lady Gaga make it the first thing you see when you look at

the magazine.

Typefaces

The typefaces on this magazine are constant throughout

except from the odd word that is in italics for impact. This

gives a formal quality to the overall playful cover.

Photography Lighting

The photography lighting used makes the image very

bright. This emphasises the prosthetic lines on her face and

makes them stand out. This enables the artist to appear

different to others of the same genre and targets the

demographic more by making it seem unusual. The lighting

also focuses the attention towards the head and torso

which could be viewed as rebellious, again appealing to the

target audience.

Target audience

I believe that the target audience for this magazine is males

and females around the ages 15-20. This is because the

music genre expressed in the magazine is mainly pop, rock

or indie music which appeals to a mainly younger audience.

Also, the main image is Lady Gaga who is a popular pop

singer so this will target a certain audience. Furthermore,

the use of profanity in the model credit could again target a

younger audience as it is seen as rebellious. The brightness

of the image is also key to the target audience as because

this magazine cover is bright and Lady Gaga’s hair and face

etc. is brighter than most magazines that would typically be

found in shops.

House Style

This magazine cover has good house style. The fonts remain the same throughout even though the

writing varies in size. The bright colours will help the magazine stand out amongst the many of others

that it will be next to in stores and make it eye grabbing. The magazine has an overall slightly childish

appearance to it. This tells the audience that it will be a less serious article and may be humorous

contrasting with other music magazines.

Design Principle

This magazine makes use of the Gutenberg design principle

in that the masthead is in the Primary optical area which

makes it the first the thing we see. The flow of the writing

is from left to right again relating to the Gutenberg

principle.