Critical Analysis of Raygun Magazine Front Cover

Raygun Magzine.

Raygun magazine is a music magazine with a heavy art influence, this magazine really inspires me as i am very into art and would really like my magazine to have a strong art influence that is very apparant. Raygun does not follow the typical dynamics of a magazine as the masthead it not placed the very top of the magazine and all of the text is the same size. I particularly like the'typewriter' font that has been used as it has given the cover a very rustic look. Andy Warhol has been used as the cover star of this magazine, in the picture Warhol is showing the whites of his eyes the whole way around his iris, this makes his seem shocked and the wide-eye look is very effective at helping to pull the consumers in as it really makes you stop and look at the picure. The pictures only reaches just beyond half way up the magazine cover and it stopped at the bottom of the mans forehead, this makes the picture look fascinating and unconventional which helps the magazine to seem unique. Making a magzine unique is very important because with sucha wide variety of magazines on display in shops it is important to do whatever is needed to make the consumer take a longer look at your magazine. I am very fond of the black, white and red colour scheme that is used on this, i could adapt this colour scheme to wrk with my genre by substituting the pale red for a neutral khaki green to fit in with the neutral colours that are so often involved within indie fashion. I like the granulated look that has been given to this picture as it makes it look vintage, i will not be using this effect on my main picture as it is very important that my magzine looks brand new and up-to-date so that it can reflect the use of up-to-date artists featured inside. I will be very interested in using elements of this cover on my own cover, espeically the off-centre writing and a-semetric lines. I will also be looking through differnt issues of 'Raygun' to see what other ideas the designer has to offer as i am very inpired by their work.

The masthead to 'Raygun', unlike other magazines, is not the same evry week as the font, postitioning and size variates from issue to issue, this is yet another element that sets this magazine aside from the rest. I would be reaslly pleased if i was able to make my magazine as unique as 'Raygun', i can achieve this in a number of ways such as, a 'lob-sided' layout with lines that are not parelell, a picture cut off with a straight line and a simple but effective font.

I am very fond of the layour used for the masthead of 'Raygun' however i also like a contrasting masthead which has been used for the magazine 'Blender'. (Pictured below)



Blender Magazine.

As 'Blender' is a well known magazine they have been able to cover an entire letter of the title without concern about people not knowing the title of the magazine. They have covered a portion of the title with a photograph of a famous person that they believe will appeal to the magazines target audience, by having this photo visible at the very top of the magazine it enables it to be shown in the shop when a large variety of magazines will be overlapped with only a small section of the top of the magazine visible to the customer, this is done to boost sales and also gives the magazine status. Blender have chosen to use a 'broken' looking font which communicates their rock genre and compliments the scruffy look of the full length shot of the man used as the main focus of the cover. A deep red is used which can show danger but also makes the magazine stand out and allows it to be more eye-catching. I am particularly interested in this magazines masthead as I think I could incorporate elements of this mastheads presentation into my cover as it would fir in well with my indie theme.

Critical Analysis of Indie Magazine Front Cover

A very striking picture of a very famous music artist is used to grab the attention of customers on this 'Citizen K' magazine cover. The use of such a well known singer lets the readers know that this a very high-budget and serious music magazine, its also really defines the target audience to people who are interested in the music that its represented by the artist featured on the cover. Because the top few inches of the magzine is likely to be the only section visible to customers whilst on sale in the shop 'Citizen K' have decided to overlap the masthead with the of face the well known artist, this will let everybody know who is featured in the issue and hopfully boost sales by people who are interested in this particular artist buying the issue. A very neat structure is used for this magazine, this shows that the target audience for this magazine is for slighly older and slightly more neat and upper class people than magazines with more 'scattered' layouts such as 'Vibe' and 'Smashhits!'. The price on this magazine is backed on a different colour than the rest of the cover to make it really stand out, it is very important that i price my magazine well. If i price my mgazine to high then the targte audience will not be able to afford it as they are only teenagers and may not have a job or a disposable allowance, i also need to make sure that i do not price the magazine to low as then not enough profit will be made and also a low price make make people think that the magazine is slightly tacky and/or lower class. The typical three colours colour scheme is used on this magazine cover with black white and grey, this drab colour pallette makes the cover seem civilised and also gives the impression that it is aimed at a middle-ages target audience. The bland colour scheme makes the red star on which the price placed stand out even furthur to the customer, the star is also placed high up the magazine, i believe in the hope that it will show when positioned in the shop, perhaps with more expensive magazines. This will help sales of the magazine. All in all i think this is a very effectve magazine cover although i am much more fond of a rougher less structured apperance personally.