Front Cover Analysis

Lighting is used in this cover to over highlight the obscurity and intensiveness of the central image. This band member has no shirt on and his costume mainly consists of jeans, a heart and a bullet wound to the head. This gives a totally insane look along with his facial expression. The purpose of this is to make him look madly insane and possibly to show that they are more ‘hardcore’ than the majority of other bands. This is why his eyes have been edited to look more devilish and menacing. Also, the captions add to this persona. The words ‘Fucked up, the beating heart of the underground’ shows the madness of the band and it also adds to the obscurity. As well as all this, the caption ‘Our shows are orgies of destruction’ shows how the band would like to be represented, and the caption is broken up in almost a destructive way.

The fact that the band this person is from is not shown is interesting. It means that the editor has such faith in the image that he believes he doesn’t need to put the band name or anything else that appears in the magazine. This is because the editor knows that people who recognise this man will want to read about him and possibly the band, but people who don’t recognise him will want to know more and what band his is from because of the obscurity and madness of the image.

The setting of this image shows this madness even more magnified. Aside from the fact that he has a bullet wound to the head and a heart in his hand, all this has taken place in a regular supermarket a traditionally safe and normal place.

Front Cover Analysis

Lighting and costume is used extremely effectively in this magazine cover. Firstly he is wearing no clothing. This shows him as a simplistic innocent character. This could possibly show in this interview he has been stripped of his shell and defensive barriers, and the real him may be shining through. This effect would definitely appeal to the readers who want to know more about the ‘real’ Pete Doherty. This is further enhanced with the fact that the imperfections on his face have not been removed. This definitely adds to the effect of him being the real Pete Doherty in this interview. This is also the case with the caption beside him that says ‘In the raw.’

The rest of the cover is positioned around the central image. Other information about the magazine is positioned around him so that his bare chest can be seen. The title is also almost sidelined by the image showing the importance of him in respect to the actual magazine. This may show that the editors think they can sell more magazines with the image of Pete Doherty as appose to their actual logo.

The ‘new music’ section of the cover may be to attract readers who are sick of hearing about the same old people, for example Pete Doherty.

The colour scheme of the cover is mainly pinks and purples contrasted with whites and blacks. This works quite effectively especially as Pete Doherty’s skin colour is a very bright colour that contrasts to the purple background and pink writing.

Front Cover Analysis

The lighting on this cover is very interesting. The members of the band are very well lit, apart from curtain specific areas of their faces. However, the lead singers face has more shadowing than the faces of the other two members. This, along with his tattoos and hood show him as the more dangerous or possibly mysterious member of the band. His white hood highlights the dark areas of his face magnifying this effect. The purpose of this is to obviously highlight the lead singer of the band, this is also done with him being positioned closer to the camera and being over the title of the magazine, whereas the other members of the band and positioned behind it. This shows the difference in importance of the different band members.

The strap line banner simply says ‘massive download ticket give away.’ This would encourage people to buy the magazine if they think there is a chance of winning a download festival ticket or tickets.

The bottom strap line and free poster special giveaways are well proportioned and also well positioned. They are eye-catching enough to draw the attention of the reader, but they do not take over the whole of the cover.

Also, the Paramore part of the cover is positioned in a way that will also catch the reader’s attention, and the caption ‘Hayley starts a riot,’ is a play on words from the bands style as they are heavily associated with the word ‘riot.’

Front Cover Analysis

Dark theme shows the gothic style of the band. Very clear title of the bands name, this catches the readers attention and also tells people who are not familiar with the band, who they are.

Title of the magazine as always put to the back almost in arrogance of not having to make it perfectly clear.

The singer of the band is obviously bigger and stands out more as he will be the most well known and almost a symbol of the band. Therefore, he is closer to the camera than the rest of the band. He is also slightly tilted with a mad smile to make him look more unstable and fanatical. The tour they are promoting is also pressed beside the bands title and slightly overlaps it. This immediately tells the reader where they can see the band and also shows what tour the band is promoting.

The poster offer is well proportioned as it is big enough to be eye catching, but does not take over the cover completely.

Facial expression of Jimmy Urine (far left) along with the caption ‘be afraid Britain, be very afraid!’ gives the band a mad like quality, something they obviously encourage judging by the bands usual persona displayed here.

Good layout, pose of the band members shows the mood as slightly insane and possibly dangerous which corresponds with the quote ‘be afraid Britain, be very afraid.’

Strap line banner shows mostly dark bands that are mostly similar to mindless self indulgence, again showing the genre Kerrang is usually associated with.

Front Cover Analysis

Lighting and costume are used to make the band look like smart ‘scene kids’. Not dissimilar to the 60’s movement known as the ‘MOD’s.’ The Kerrang title backgrounded like usual, shows again the arrogance of the magazine that they don’t need to be clear about their title as they are so well known. Dark colours are used mixed with whites and reds, white because it is the most eye-catching as it is completely opposite to black, and red represents blood, something a ‘screamo’ band is often associated with. The camera angles and positioning of the band members is interesting. The lead singer is at the front and is the most noticeable and eye-catching as he is the most famous member of the band. The rest of the band members are positioned almost in order of importance and the least known members are further away from the camera.

The way Oli Sykes is positioned shows how hardcore he is showing off his tattoos. This is also used as part of the bands persona as he looks almost like a superhero with his tattoos being just visible under his shirt.

The title of the band is in big bold letters to catch the reader’s attention. The other bands on the cover are similar to bring me the horizon as are the bands featured on the strap line banner. This shows the type of music generally covered by Kerrang magazine.

Initial Ideas

As this wouldn’t photocopy particularly clearly, I have labelled the less clear parts of the spider diagram.

School Magazine Evaluation

The style of my school magazine was similar to the style of one magazine I studied. ‘Top Terrace’ magazine had the same front cover set up and overall look as my magazine cover. However, the rest of the magazines I studied had one base image spread across the whole page, something I did not do. I took inspiration from the ‘Bishopbriggs Academy’ magazine when making the title for my front cover and contents page. I made it clear and easy to read against a totally opposite background just like the formally mentioned magazine. I also took inspiration from this magazine when deciding on the single and simple background colour scheme.

Making this school magazine front cover and contents I learned a lot about Photoshop and how to use it efficiently and effectively. I learned how to use the layer system effectively and many of the tools I otherwise wouldn’t of been able to use, I now can use with ease. I was able to cross-design and crop and edit images and texts to make a decent and professional looking magazine front cover and contents. I also learnt a lot about how to take medium close up shots. The shot needs to be taken just above the nipple to truly capture a medium close up shot of someone.