Analysis of 'Clash' magazine front cover

Analysis of 'Clash' magazine.

We analysed issue 34, February 2009, of Clash magazine. The thing that stands out immediately is the masthead as the 'a' has mirrored the 's' which creates the magazine logo, in the title. The colour scheme is mostly in black and white, with dashes of yellow. The yellow highlights the more important parts of the magazine. The black and white reflects the kind of music the magazine promotes, dark music, and quite depressing music. This theme also carries on with the model's photograph, his makeup is dark yet quite scruffy... reflecting the kind of music and fitting in with the theme.

The only punctuation is exclamation marks which also suggest the 'loud' aspect of the music. The masthead is the largest text, making it stand out and making sure that its clear that that is the masthead. There are several smaller leads; the names of artists running down the right hand side, in yellow (again, fitting in with the colour scheme) the names of artists and a sentence of the article inside. Most of the text is in a simple fornt with no serifs, this also adds to the simplicity of the photograph used.

The models face takes up most of all the page, leaving hardly any white space. This makes the magazine busier which makes it better looking, more attractive to the audience. The mode of address is basically emotional, ark, and depressing with the black and white colour scheme. The magazine is obviously targeted at teenagers who are more into the lourd and heavy rock music with dark colours etc. Even the yellow adds depth to the magazine, yellow is loud, and thats also the kind of music the magazine promotes.

There is a small border, again so hardly any white space can be seen. The second largest text links with the photograph on the front of the magazine, promoting the model's story and article more. There are small puffs, but not in circles, but in scruffy rectangles, this also fit in with the theme and links nicely to the music the magazine promotes.

There are also a few banners, with yellow and white or yellow and black colour combinations. This again links in with the colour scheme. The magazines house style is extremely simple yet effective with the black and white. The price is £3.80 for the magazine which reflects the contents, suggesting that the magazine doesn't really include that much. There is a slight overlay around his face and a slight wrap around but nothing significant.

Lucy Marshall

Skills I have learnt so far

Writing about what I have learnt so far is not very difficult at all; working with the macs is a whole different experience to me. I have learnt so much about adobe through my first few lessons than I would have learnt through researching on the internet at home for the past two and a half years. I've learnt what I needed to know, straight to the point, with no extra burden and I can now conduct several different tasks quickly, easily and thoroughly. I have learnt about the ISO, aperture and shutter speed of a camera and am quickly building up m portfolio. I have learnt how to save pictures and text documents in different formats (Jpeg, tiff, psd etc) and how to transfer documents and images from macs to memory sticks. I have also learnt more about the skills required to use photoshop effectively, as in layers, filters and airbrushing.

Lucy Marshall

Preliminary Contents page

I don't really like how this turned out, i should have included more articles and maybe some photography. The colours work well though, i like the effect on the ovals and the ovals are quite unique to a regular contents page as they just have usually boxes with text in them. i like how i linked the same font with the contents page and relatively the same colours work well.

Lucy Marshall

Preliminary Front Cover, Lucy Marshall

Preliminary task from cover analysis

I chose the warm colours to make the magazine more inviting, and the reds match the colour of the hair, although I think more cooler colours would have fitted better with the picture.

I dont like the way the font is laid out; it looks like it has just been stuck on without meaning, when I did in fact try to put a little logic in it. Maybe a box of colour surrounding the masthead would make it stand out more, and would make it look like it is supposed to be there.

I like the 'explosion' decoration in the bottom left corner as it adds more of magazine feeling and a need of urgency, makes people want to read on; maybe to improve, I would use a graphics tablet to make it neater.

The 'revision techniques' links in with the 'Brigg sixth form' and how it is a magazine to help and advise. Also, the leavers 'hoodies and yearbooks' give a feeling of happiness as they obviously relate to leaving school. I think I should include more articles to improve the depth of the magazine.

Lucy Marshall