Analysis of front cover II

The second magazine I chose to analyse is ‘mixmag’. From the front cover you can tell that the genre of the magazine is dance music, therefore articles that would be included in this magazine would be based on dance music (club music).

Magazines use colours in their magazines, this is because colours are a use of non-verbal communication; its meaning can change from one day to the next depending on the individual. Mixmag uses simple yet effective colours such as red, black, white and brown. The use of the colour red suggests passion; it shows the target audience that ‘Maya’ has passion for dance and music. In my opinion I find the colour scheme very successful. The design of the masthead at the top of the magazine is very simple. The use of a bold lowercase font is very successful as it associates with the genre of the music magazine; which is dance music. I think this because the font itself is smooth just the way dance should be.

The central image of the magazine is Maya Jane Cole, who is ‘the underground’s biggest star’. The central image has been constructed to have a direct mode of address. This also tells the buyer that they want a personal relationship with them. For example the magazine wants a strong relationship with outgoing clubbers. The target audience for this magazine is clubbers but, mainly Maya Jane fans. This would mainly attract University students 18+ that enjoy clubbing.

The anchorage text says ‘The dark and mysterious world of the undergrounds biggest star’. This suggests to the audience that the article would reveal the ‘dark and mysterious world’ of the ‘underworlds biggest star’ Maya Jane. This would then make the audience want to buy the article as they would like to know more about her, especially if they are friends. The use of buzz words in magazines is to attract the audience’s attention. For example ‘mixmag’ uses the buzz word ‘Plus’. This would attract other fan groups other than ‘Maya Jane’. For example fan groups that belong to ‘Jessy Lanza’ and ‘Gorgon City’.

The magazine also uses a sky line to attract their audience. ‘The world’s biggest dance and clubbing magazine’ this will attract their audience because the buyer would see that ‘mixmag’ is the ‘biggest dance and clubbing’ magazine making them want to buy it to be a part of something that big.