Research 3 Front Cover Analysis-Q Magazine Michael Jackson

This is another Q magazine, it has the same masthead as its a house style for them. The same red and white Q is used to represent there company and is a code for them. However in this magazine the masthead is one of the boldest items on the front cover.  It takes up a quarter of the page and highlights the red writing as the font is in the same red where as all the main image colour's are grey and black tones. Compared to the red the grey's are neutral and look quite serious where the red is eye catching to certain areas.

The only image on the front cover used is an iconic picture of the well known pop star Michael Jackson. This breaks one of the codes and conventions as commonly there would be more then one picture linking to different cover story's too attract a bigger and wider audience. These immediately shows the audience is much older as children magazines have much more pictures and brighter pictures. Also,having one picture could suggest this story is so intriguing and interesting that its worth buying the magazine just to find out about this one artist. This was purposely published after his death as people would still want to know what caused his death. The image shows the pale,ill face of the artist. He looks old and not healthy. Even though some of his face is covered. Michael Jackson is so well known, people can still recognize his face. This is also breaking a code of a front cover as the artist is usually making direct eye contact with the camera to intrigue the audience. The glasses could also link to the title 'Michael Jackson Unmasked'. He has a serious expression which could suggest he's hiding something and he's not                                            
giving anything away but the article will tell you what's he was hiding.

There is a banner at the top using white and serif font with a black background. This is used to be clear from far away and persuade the audience to buy the 'biggest' magazine in the UK. The right side is used for cover story's in white writing with red lines separating the different story's. The red and white texts suggest the articles are quite serious and deep and the publisher has put the important text in serif to make the text bolder then the rest of the text. The left side has a puff 'C.S.I Rocks' which is little bit of information in a border to stand out.  Even though the magazine is focussed on pop artist it shows the magazine inside offers different genres like rock too.





The barcode is located in the bottom left which is were its expected on a magazine to give the price and issue date. It shows its professional and gives the audience which is more of an adult audience as the colors are bold instead of bright the reason to buy it. 

 How research has informed my creativity and planning:

• I like the grey toned colour's to highlight the main elements with a red.
• I really like the red lines which separates the cover story's and makes it more intriguing as it looks less text.
• I would make the title much bigger and bolder and easier to read from a far.