My Magazine Production

Audience Profile

Create free infographics with Venngage

Automibile Survey

Create your own user feedback survey

Top Gear (Contents page) Analysis #3

This is a contents page from a magazine called 'Top Gear' is an automobile magazine owned by BBC Worldwide and published under contract by Immediate Media Company. It is named after the BBC's Top Gear television show. This contents page is more messy than the 'evo' one last post, as you can tell it aims at younger people, its more run to look at less serious and less formal, due to animated image over lapping and use of vibrant colours to highlight sub-headings. The font are mostly serif fonts to keep a small amount of formality, trustworthy, and telling this magazine is old as in full of experience. The word contents is written on the top right corner showing a more youthful, modern design. Pictures of cars are taken from the back is trying to imply if you don't read it or buy the car it will be driven away. Car finder on the most right hand side is just giving a page number of what car they review the cars are black out because, firstly it looks nicer, cleaner and less attractive, if it was in colour it would look like little spot of colour on the side since the car colour wont be the same and also it want you to open and see the actual car on the following pages not here on the contents. There are the 3 TV presenters  on top of the 3 vertical images, the first one is Jeremy Clarkson on the left, Richard Hammond in the middle, and James May on the right. Below them are their quotes they are in black and white to keep the simple less attractive form. The 3 images are telling you the things in this magazine like Richard Hammond driving a car on top, comic about James May in the middle, and a review/commercial about the watch on the bottom.

evo (Contents page) Analysis #2

This is content page from an 'evo magazine'. The layout of the magazine is very clean with small texts due to it wants you to focus more on the but the content is on the left side of the page, with a heading of 'evo' in bold sans-serif, lower case and 'contents ' in a smaller serif font, both are in white as well as all the text in the contents page except the one on top of the Aston Martin Vulcan. The text on top of the Aston Martin is a caption saying 'It's one of those engine that you just want to rev and rev for the sake of it' (Rev means to accelerate in place)this means that the engine sound is so nice that you can't stop accelerate it. This is a double page content which over half of the page is dedicated to the Aston Martin Vulcan, this is just telling us how important the car is to this car magazine. The contents are divided in to 3 categories Feature, Regulars, and Driven. The small text lining the bottom is those credit, sponsors and social media about eve magazine. The main image the Aston Martin Vulcan in in the same colour as the production one there is also a green one and its possible that its the production since there will be only 24 Aston Martin Vulcan produce. This will be a brief infomation about the car, its classed as a 2-door coupé hypercar with a 7L V12 engine which produce 800 bhp (break horsepower). The camera angle use in this image is a low angle possibly by a camera man on a vehicle following it, this gives a clear view of the car but the background will be horizontally blur due to the vehicle is moving.

Wheels (Contents page) Analysis #1

This is a content page from a magazine called 'Wheels' its an Australian automotive magazine. They are publish by Bauer media group, this magazine is well known by Australians car enthusiasts.

Light grey/ white back ground shows simplicity and elegance so it doesn't attract all the attention from the cars. It features 2 cars the red one which is a Ferrari 488 GTB and the bark blue one which is a BMW 3 Series, both are a contrast to each other as well as the background which makes them stand out. The pages are grouped together under what its about, so people could see what they want to read. e.g if they want to read about reviews about cars on their first rides they would look at the topic 'first drives' and pick wha car they want to read about. 

The main image is a red Ferrari 488 GTB which i said earlier its red because its Ferrari's distinctive colour, when we mention Ferrari people will usually think about a fast, expensive, red car, so this is why they choose red and its also flashy, eye catching. The BMW 3 series is more of a comfy elegance car, so its in dark blue which is more formal and less flashy.
The Ferrari is taken from high angel to show the engine at the back, its a rear wheel drive(only the 2 back whees is connect to the engine) car so showing that the engine is at the back means they don't need a join to connect the engine at the front to connect with the wheels at the back, this means that the car will be able to produce more power, rear wheels mean the car has better control than front wheel.
The BMW is been taken from a low angle to show its distinctive radiator grill, its a secondary image thats why its small and not very eye catching.  The title is "Contents" serif font in bold sitting in the middle, and under theres is the date of the next issue telling the readers when it will be released its in grey, so it won't attract to much attention theres a red stripe on the left hand side witch fit in to the house style.

EVO (McLaren) Analysis #3

Media Studies Technology and Automobile Magazine Analysis of Front Cover

EVO ’Birthday Special’

Organisation: EVO is own by Dennis Publishing. EVO first issue was on November 1998. It was a monthly a magazine. This magazine is from United Kingdom, but it also have various international edition for France, Thailand, India, Singapore, Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, and the Middle East. The international editions will be slightly different from the original one, due to contents will be more localise and more relevant to each respective countries. This magazine usually features new supercars that are just release, editors would usually be invited to test it out then review it. The person who read these magazine would be male at the age around 20-39.

Front Cover

Masthead: The masthead of this magazine is bold and in lower case form, also the biggest text in the front cover. The colour they use is goldish to create contras against black background gold and black also create this luxurious, glamorous feel to the front cover of the magazine. The masthead gives a feeling of it being add on, being paste on later so it will give a feeling of contrast between the masthead and the background. The letters are in lower case its because, upper case is the final from of a letter so its going to show that is unable to evolve anymore, but if it’s a lower case its like its still young and still be able to evolve or still capable of being better no limit to the things they could become.

Layout: The layout of this magazine is fairly symmetrical, from the anchorage text to the bottom of the magazine. This is because it’s trying to make the main image look symmetrical to show how perfect both side of the car is. There are 2 cars on top and 2 cars on the bottom so this is showing that it’s evenly distribute it just showing the balance on this magazine. They have used 2 colour of text in this magazine, this is to reduce the text tone from being too vibrant and stealing the interest from the car. They sort this out nicely to make it as clean as possible, cleanest in this way mean its luxurious, to say what is literally mean is that yet its complicate, messy, a lot of pieces put together and looks astonishing it still perform very well. It looks plain doesn’t mean it’s cheap.

Main Image: The main image is an orange McLaren P1.This is a brief detail of the car, it’s classed as a hypercar (supercar) it’s been put together in England and released in 2013, this is the latest version of the model McLaren that is been released. It has a twin-turbo 3.8L V8 engine plus McLaren’s electric ECU motor (Electrical motor) which produce 903BHP (Break Horsepower). In simple terms crazy fast. Back to the main image, the reason its orange is because is the first colour they released the car in, plus its catchy looks fast, symbolize fire which is hot, powerful, fast etc...  The main image is exactly in the middle of the magazine horizontally, it shows that the car is symmetrical and to show the curves and angle of the car from the front, to show how aerodynamic, sporty, angry it looks. The reason you are able it see the passenger side of the cars is to show that you can bring some one important with you too, and the reason the driver seat is black is because they don’t want to make you see it as empty but to imagine that your inside and can’t be seen be seen due to lightning so this links to Blumler and Katz both entertainment and personal identity, starting with personal identity this image could encourage people to encourage people by if they work hard enough they would be able to afford this car, this is very unlikely but it’s just giving aim to people who like it. Entertainment/escapism this is what I said earlier make people imagine they are in the car, let them enjoy how nice the car looks (For those who likes car) which help them relax from their stressful reality.

Camera Angle: the angle they use is from a slightly high angle, from the angle when people will look at car. This angle gives an impression of people actually seeing the car in person which links to what I said earlier at main image, they also use lights to reveal more curves of the car.

Anchorage Text: first sentence says “Ringmaster” ring this means it’s in circle like a circuit and master refers to as good, professional, expert as something. This is written in white to show that is mature and not joking around, white is a more formal colour than orange pink red. Second line says “McLAUREN P1 AT THE NÜRBURGRING” this is telling that the McLaren is going to a well-known race track in Europe, Germany this track is well known to people who likes cars as one of the most devastating tracks in the world, many racers have lost their life there. The third line says that “Riding on the wildest supercar ever, on the world’s most fearsome track” firstly the use words that are not positive or negative but just implying that the car is wild which means it has an overflow of power ready to unleash, when they say the world’s most fearsome track gives the reader the feeling that its complex, scary, accomplishable, mission impossible stuff.

Puff: In this case a luxurious puff “evo car of the year 2013 award… (List of famous cars) One winner…” this makes people want to know which of these awesome car will win the car of the year and one winner at the end implies that only one will be on top of the list there will not be a tie. Car of the year is in white is because they want to like shout in out but in a more appropriate way, so the colour tone won’t be ruin. And the rest of the text remain gold to create contras in the puff.

Tagline: “The Thrill Of Driving” this implies that driving is an excitement and a pleasure when you like it.

      

Christophorus(Porsche) Analysis #2

Masthead: the masthead is in white and in a lower form. The reason the mast head is in lower form is because its not trying to shout out the title to you but trying to say it in a polite subtle way to show that the person who is going to read this is going to be in a higher class who has a luxurious lifestyle. The reason the masthead is in white is trying to tell that this text is simple, clean, humble, classy and elegant not corrupt by other childish or dirty colors. The masthead is not the biggest text in the front cover but instead it’s the second biggest text, which is going to mean that the level of importance is not high or it means that the target audience of this magazine knows, smart enough to know what magazine they are reading and what they want to know is the actual content. The masthead also does not stand out to disturb the main picture.

Main Image: The main image is a picture of a new deep blue Porsche 911, which looks simple, clean and glamorous like what the author is trying to build up in other texts on the front cover. Deep blue is also a calm color which is also the reason why they chose it because if they choose black or red it would also create a much stronger contrast but it’s a more aggressive and dangerous, but this is not what Porsche is trying to tell you, the thing Porsche is trying to tell you is that even it’s a sports car its still comfortable. The colors of this super-car build a contrast against the text and ground but not the background of the magazine; the background is an astonishing, uninterrupted and mesmerizing view of nature with mountain at the back. To conclude this is that they are trying to say this Porsche 911 is as beautiful remarkable and mesmerizing like the view behind it, the target audience of this magazine is from the upper class, so they are very likely to have been to astonishing places so they would have a good idea of how the car will look. If you look closely the Porsche logo on the wheels are the right align, this means it’s trying to say that they cared about every detail about the car even to the slightest thing such as the badge on the wheel has to be right align and to represent how perfect it could be. If you notice the roof of the car is not closed up this is to show that the roof is convertible, since if its closed readers might not be sure is it’s a convertible or not. The car is also not over the borderline of mountain and the sky to make the background darker to create a slight contrast to the car to make it stand out. The camera angle is on the same level of the car, is not a usual angle for normal cars, this style/angle of shot are usually use with sports car/super-cars. This angle makes the car look thin, small and use to show how low the suspension is, which is a point where people look at when they are choosing a sports car. They won’t be looking at a tacky, big fat sports car; they would be looking for a thin, streamline, and elegant sports car. So this angle is use to embrace those points. E.g. sedan cars this are design to be spacious so the camera angle will change it will be a high view and from the side, to make the car look big and spacious and comfortable. This is what I mean by embracing the function of the cars.

Anchorage text: The anchorage text is the biggest text in the whole front cover to show that is the main thing it wants the readers to see, to acknowledge when they first see the magazine. This piece of text is written in ‘Times New Roman Font’ which could indicate a certain class to in as well as formality and maturity too it. The text is written in white which, means that this text also giving the same impression as the other text in the front cover. The text is located on the boarder of the shine of sunlight and the darkness on the deep blue skies, meaning that it’s a new day this scenery is a rare scenery why you get o see sun rise from the mountain unless you are there so, this is saying that the new Porsche is a new thing, new elegant thing that cant be see anywhere unless you come to the right place.

Skyline: “The Porsche Magazine” Straightforward telling the audience that this magazine is dedicated to Porsche cars only, and the text is white like all others, the font for this text is supposedly to be the same as the masthead, a simple clean font.

Sell lines: This sell line is straight forward since its telling you the specification of the car and the performance a valid information to make people that have money be persuade enough to make a decision since the money is not the main choosing point now some might take it in to consideration but not a important factor, because the reason people buy this type of car is to show wealth and prosperity. Un like market cars like Japanese cars (trying not to mention names) Toyota, Honda etc.… people trying to buy these cars, money is the main factor and the engine size, power, efficient etc. is not a important factor so the way they write their sell lines wont be the same. So the sell lines vary to what kind of cars that the mag is trying to sell to the reader in this case Porsche.    

    

     

Generic Codes And Convention

This is a overview of topic that i would use to analyse a magazine front cover. Each topic on this has its meaning on what impression it gives to the reader and why it gives that impression. So you will see many these words in my review.

Explanation of XXL magazine

The XXL magazine I posted is not the genre i have chosen, but I've decided to post it, is because I wanted to extend my choices of genre. The gene I have chosen is technology, which will include car magazines, gadget, magazines, motorcycle magazines and audio magazines. Despite the fact that I'm not concentrating on music magazines, I've learn that everything that is placed in there has a meaning even small things such as a neckless, something that most people would look over. Ive looked at other african american males on music magazines, and most of the colour tone they use are monochromatic, which will express their feeling and emotion. By comparing these type of magazines it helps me to understand the generic code of convention.

Jay-Z XXL Analysis #1

Media Studies Music Magazines Analysis of Front Cover

XXL”JAY-Z” cover.

Organizations: XXL is own by Harris Publication Inc. an American magazine publisher located in New York city, it has publish over 75 titles e.g. Juicy, King, Dog, News, 0-60, and many more. They sell an estimate of 209,000 per issue.

It’s known for rating from (S-XXL). Their target audience are Rap and Hip Hop fans ranging from 18 to 30 years of age. Their main competitors are Source and Vibe. Their funds are through advertisements and deals with famous artists. (In this case “JAY-Z”)

XXL is a monthly publish magazine contain music reviews gigs and rap scene. When Vibe shutdown in 2009 XXL became the bestselling Hip Hop magazine in UK. However Vibe soon began republishing their magazine but it was too late for Vibe to be the main rival for XXL due to a cessation in publishing.

Front Cover

Masthead: The master head of XXL is in white block letters with red background surrounding the heading, and was overlap by JAY-Z due to less important and not too attract more attention than JAY-Z, as well as they have enough confident to be sure that people who look or buy would know their Title as its one of the most famous Hip Hop magazine.

Judging front size it telling the consumers that they are big, invincible, powerful etc… this point also would proof that JAY-Z who is bigger and overlapping the heading to be more powerful. It’s one of the two areas in the front cover that contain red due to its level of importance. It can also means that its less important than JAY-Z since the red is surrounding the Title XXL not the color of the word its self despite JAY-Z name is in Red and same itself, as the font are likely to be the same size that means that they are at the same level is importance to a certain level which is later define by the color red.    

Main image: The main image is JAY-Z himself, standing in the middle of the front cover surrounded by towers one of them is identified as the empire state building (the tallest one) and Chrysler building (the second tallest one). With this information it helps us to identify the city that he is in the New York City. The color tone is monochromatic, the reason is to bring out the contras between black and white and secondly his music video ‘Empire state of mind’ the most part of this music video the color tone is monochromatic which links to the color tone they have chosen for this cover.

Jay-Z himself is dress in black firstly is to embrace his heritage and also to make him stand out in a white city around him. From his clothing, he is currently wearing 3 layers of clothes which is all black. His second layer of clothing is a waistcoat which make him look more formal, rich, and cool. He also wear the ‘Jesus piece’ is a spiritual or religious piece of jewelry that is popular in the Hip-Hop community and mirror the face of Jesus. Also many Hip-Hop artists and celebrities, have adopted the Jesus piece as a common fashion accessory and have it decorated with many precious gems. This also an evidence that proofs that he is one famous Hip Hop singer. But in this case it’s black. His hands are holding his belt and opening a part of his coat to show that he doesn’t have any weapons to hide, despite he is wearing a black sunglasses which show that he doesn’t want us to know that he is thinking or looking at to look cool and powerful which is embraced even more with his black clothes. Jay-Z himself is bigger and taller than all the towers in the front cover despite it looks like the empire state tower is about the same height as him means he still has rivalry going on in New York and there is still two more tower in New Your that is taller than him which is the ‘One World Trade Center’ and ‘432 Park Avenue’ which could say that he hasn’t completely control the Hip Hop game yet. Which gives the reason there is a question mark in one of the anchorage text that says “IS JAY-Z BIGGER THAN HIP HOP?” Also the reason that Jay-Z is not standing in front of all the towers is to make the readers know that he is big he owns them and use them as pawn to protect the king which is probably the reason he stands behind them, to makes that he is surrounded by knights etc…

The buildings around him looks like model and has few textures to it also shows that the thing they want the reader to focus on is Jay-Z, and probably the reason the editor limit the variety of the colors on the front cover.

Layout: All the text are around which means they use 3 column so Jay-Z would be in the middle. The text on the left are there to promote Jay-Z himself and his college. On the right which is the smallest text on the front cover, is add-ons to give you a brief information about other less important artist further in the magazine. The big text on the bottom left is the text that is mention earlier, that the text is not saying that Jay-Z is bigger than Hip Hop but rather to ask the reader is Jay-Z the biggest in Hip Hop, but for him to be the biggest it means that he has to completely monopolize the whole Hip Hop industries. In this case New York is like the battlefield for the Hip Hop industries. So the fact that he is on the similar height of the Empire State Tower is to say he is yet to become bigger than Hip Hop.

The reason Jay-Z is one of the biggest text and highlighted in red is also to show his power, level of importance in the magazine.    

Layering: The other reason for Jay-Z is in the middle of the New York (a lot of white people live) wearing black and being black himself is also to give confidence to black people that look down on them self because their black and to make black people to know that have a chance to stand in a higher place even if they are black, basically to make him look like a hero to black people and when they respect him and see him as their idol will likely means that they will follow him buy his album which you can say both sides earn even thou Jay-Z earns more since he has ratings and money from these people and these group of people get confidence from him.(B&K escapism) Not a particular win win situation but good for his marketing to help him reach the title of “BIGGER THAN HIP HOP”.

Font: The main font for this cover is Arial font, due to its simplicity and easy to read and the texts on the left are caps Arial to show that is more important than the text which is Arial on the left which is less important.

Sell Lines: These relate to Blumler and Katz as they contain the info of what’s inside the magazine and they could socially interact with friends and family.

Language: All of the words here are easy to understand and fairly straight forward to make it easy to understand and catchy so people would want to buy them.