Textual Analysis of Magazines

I'm analysing the front cover of issue 355 of Star magazine. You can instantly see that it's full and have no gaps. The only gap that is in sight is above the mast head, but that is filled by a serif of the date and price. The masthead is very distinctive, being the big, bold red letters. Even though part of the 'a' and 'r' are covered up, you still know which magazine it is. The cover lines in the middle of the cover stand out as the red writing is against a bright white highlight. These cover lines are also lures, as it quotes part of the article which are quite dramatic and would make the reader want to know more. It claims it has an exclusive with an "X Factor Special" which would make you want to buy it if you were a fan of the programme. The typeface is all generally in capital letters which makes the magazine look loud. In the top left hand corner they have the very cheap price of 99p for 3 magazines. The way they have the '3' and '99' larger than the writing portrays the price well. The positioning of it is very clever as well being over the masthead. People will look at the masthead and then notice the clashing blue background of the price. Overall, it's a very bright, colourful magazine cover for teens. Myself being a teen, this magazine definitely stood out on the shelf to me and I was intrigued enough to buy it.




On this cover of First Car, they've used the cast of The Inbetweeners as this will promote their magazine by having a popular teen show with the iconic yellow car with a red door. They've worked around this colour theme by having  highlighted text to show who is on the cover. The masthead is large so you can automatically tell which magazine you are buying. The white writing stands out against the dark background and the yellow fit in well with this as well. The fact that the only colours used are white, yellow and black, bring the cast out who are all wearing blue, therefore promoting some more. The cover lines that are dotted around the page also stick to the colour theme of yellow, and this makes them a bit more obvious and maybe advertising the magazine more, depending on what they say. There is a small strap line at the top which is disguised by using dark colours again. There is no obvious hybrid as The Inbetweeners is a programme for all genres, although a magazine on cars would be more towards the male gender. The typeface is very bold as it's in capitals, and gives off a sense that it is a very fun magazine, mainly aimed at mainly male teenagers. The fact that the price isn't easiy seen may give off that it's an expensive magazine; it's most probably hidden on the barcode which most people don't look at.