TARGET AUDIENCE AND GENRE

The target audience for this magazine is mainly men in their mid-20s onwards as the layout is less chaotic and more sophisticated indicating an older audience while the genre is classic rock and soft rock as well as inclusions of indie and other rock related sub-genres excluding metal and other louder genres which don’t appeal to the audience

MAIN IMAGE

The main image is of the 5 members of the popular American band, the Foo Fighters. The image is very formal with frontman Dave Grohl looking at the audience and is large enough to stand out and catch the eye of the target audience and fans of the band. The band are also quite maturely dressed and Dave Grohl will be more recognisable with men who lived through the Nirvana period as well as younger men who know of the Foo Fighters

MODEL CREDIT

The model credit is in red making it stand out from the white background and is placed in an area that draws the eyes of the audience to it. The inclusion of an ellipsis creates suspense and draws the audience in to the story which is emphasised with the quote from the story. However, the font is small so that it is the lead article that is the focus

LEAD ARTICLE

The lead article is on its own greyed background in large black font and only states the name of the band, ‘Foo Fighters’, which is to draw fans of the band and target audience. The large font catches the audiences’ eye instantly and draws their attention to that area of the magazine. The text also covers part of the image, linking the stories together

COLOURS/TYPE FACES/HOUSE STYLE

The colours and type faces are the same on the cover of every issue of Q Magazine which shows them to have a specific house style so that regular readers of the magazine can pick it out in a crowd of magazines and the colours are always displayed in such a way that they stand out to attract the eyes of the audience to specific articles, especially the main article

MASTHEAD

The masthead is in the top left corner which is the primary optical area and the first place anyone will look at the magazine. This draws the eye of the audience to which magazine it is so regular readers and the target audience know which magazine they are looking at. The colours are all red, white and black, the colours of the magazine. This stays the same to keep the magazine recognisable to all who read it. It is also partially covered which shows that they need not show the logo as people know it instantly

THE GUTENBURG DESIGN PRINCIPLE

Unlike magazines aimed at a younger audience like Kerrang!, the page feels very spread out and organised but also quite empty with very little of the main image covered. The strong fallow area and the primary optical and terminal area have all been filled with the bulk of the information with the weak fallow area containing an add-on to the lead article to try and draw the audiences’ attention. The list of articles has been placed mainly in the terminal area, allowing for the main stories they want to advertise to be seen by the target audience

COVERLINES

The cover lines are all arranged neatly in a single column and keep with the magazine house style. The name of the artist that the magazine concerns is the largest in white to make it really stand out from the red and catch the eye of the audience while the actual purpose of the article is small and in black. This leads the eye of the audience to their favourite artists before they read the story head

BANNERS/FLASHES/BADGES

There are only two banners and flashes but both are placed in areas where the audience will notice them. The first begins in the Primary Optical area meaning that the audience are most likely to see it first and the second is bright red to attract the audiences eye to the flash