Kerrang! Cover Recreation

Market Research

I researched a few different professional products to find out their: target audience, sales counts, price and many other things. Kerrang'1 showed how they advertise and branch out their franchise to reach a wider audience and to connect with their audience.
http://www.nme.com/magazine
http://www.kerrang.com/
http://www.qthemusic.com/
http://www.vibe.com/

Kerrang!'s media kit gave all the information I needed to research these things.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/files.posterous.com/000017290trcmedia/5Nn2ojCE0YBLThMGneCfjbZS8l53dp2zaTJnZTDJu0XNT2YcqNDQq8LCj0Al/Kerrang_Media_Kit.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJFZAE65UYRT34AOQ&Expires=1331566525&Signature=Qvte%2FRoz5mDQIzMqJsW1hJUhYJs%3D

Magazine Cover Analysis

The magazine cover I’m analysing is the March 2010 issue of Empire, this issue’s cover displays a range of conventions expected from a magazine cover and a great visual mise-en-scene. The use of many variants gives this cover something special and stands out above the rest.

Possibly the first thing you notice when you look at a magazine cover it the masthead, so you know what magazine you are looking at, the masthead font used on this issue is different from the typical font of Empire magazine. Due to the main feature being the film ‘Kick-Ass’ the font they used denotes the gory nature of the film, the font is a blood print on the wall behind Aaron Johnson as if from a scene in the film. It gives the connotations violence and action engaging the target audience of the film, this theme follows on throughout the whole cover.

The background for the cover is a kind of cracked plastered wall with posters on, these posters would have been put on as a different layer after editing them, this background has connotations of and urban theme and streets which are where superheroes are typical thought of fighting crime following the plot of the film. The posters they have used have been edited to look like comic book strips, as the film it based on the graphic novel of the same name. They have used a dotted pixel effect in the background of the posters like classic comic strips, put the characters name on banners as if the comic was introducing the characters and used pop are style colouring on the characters themselves.

‘Kick-Ass’ is written in a very large font and in a vivid green to draw the readers attention as it is the main story, the text has had splatters added to it to follow the theme of gore and violence and the angle of the two word are twisted in different angles, this could give the connotations of it being kicked and breaking off in different directions. The colours of the text are depicted from the costume of the main character and cover star, ‘Kick-Ass’- Aaron Johnson, he is the main feature so it maintains the flow from the green of his costume to the vivid green text on the page.

Another typical feature of magazine covers is to use quotes from the article within the magazine, Empire conforms to this convention a lot and do on this cover. “IT’S BLOODY, IT’S BRILLIANT, AND, BOY, DOES IT… KICK-ASS” it just one of the quotes, it’s almost a mini review on the front cover attracting the readers to find out what this amazing film is and why it’s so ‘brilliant’. The way that they made the words ‘bloody’ and ‘brilliant’ red makes them stand out more giving emphasis to the words. They also give references to other articles inside and ‘Avatar 2’, to show the large array of articles that this magazine includes, this text is also in a different colour separating it from the main feature of the magazine.

They use banners and a puff the highlight key statements and usually incentives for the reader, they cover includes a puff in the shape of a blood splat once again which says, “SEE KICK-ASS- FIRST AND FOR FREE! See page 93” this is an incentive to get the reader to buy this issue for a chance to win something and because it’s in a puff it stands out from the rest of the cover drawing the eye of the reader. They also use a banner across the top to point out the exclusive feature of this issue as it has a fold out collectors edition cover. This added feature makes it special and influences the reader to buy this magazine instead of Total Film perhaps due to the bonus feature.

This design could easily be recreated in Photoshop using the tools available in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Firstly the splatter puff is easily done by using a splatter custom shape or even a splatter shaped brush then change the colour to being white, to then get the text use the text tool and type in ‘SEE KICK-ASS- FIRST AND FOR FREE! See page 93’ then highlight the words ‘Kick-ass’ and change its colour the vivid green you’re replicating. To finish this feature make sure the text layers is above the puff and rotate the text box till it on the correct angle.

To recreate the masthead what I would do is first use the text tool to write ‘EMPIRE’ then use the magic wand tool to select the outline of the text, I would then import an image of a blood splatter and move the selected shape over onto the image. Then making sure I’m on the images layer click Ctrl+ Shift+ I to invert the selection and click delete, this should delete everything around the selected section leaving you with the blood image cut into the shape of the word ‘EMPIRE’, then move it into place. Around the image then I would add more images or splatter shape that look like blood to finish the masthead design.

The create to banner across the top of the cover I would just use the arrow from the custom shapes tool and draw it to the correct size then draw a triangle to fit slightly behind the tip of the arrow and make it green, then once again using the text tool right ‘AWESOME FOLD-OUT COLLECTORS’ COVER!’ and change the word ‘fold-out’ to green once again.

The make the large ‘Kick-Ass’ main story title would first use the text tool to create 2 different layers one which reads ‘Kick-‘ and the other saying ‘Ass’ then what I would do is rotate the 2 texts into position then merge the 2 layers to create one layer. I would move this layer into place then use the splatter shape once again and position splatters around the edges of the letters in the same green, then merge the multiple layers together to create the one image.

Finally I would import the image of Aaron Johnson, I would use the magic wand tool to get rid of the background of the image so I am just left with Aaron. I would then use the blur tool round the edges of him to soften the edges of the image giving the appearance of if all been on thing. I would then move the image into position and start the rearrange the layers.

First I would put the background in then layer the masthead on top, I would then put Aaron and the banner on top of these. After this is in place I would put everything else on top so the final cover had the masthead in the background with Aaron and the banner in the middle ground and all the other main features and sub-features in the foreground.

Double Page Spread Analysis

The Kerrang! Double page spread featuring My Chemical Romance follows all the typical conventions of a double page spread. This piece works as it flows together well and none of it looks out of place, everything from the pull quotes to the side bar and main image follows a colour scheme, allowing the reader to follow and engage with the piece.

The images used are all black and white and work well together; the main image is used as a background for the rest of the DPS creating a flow between the two pages. The filler images explore different parts of the article letting the reader relate and see what’s going on in the article. The black and white theme throughout the DPS works with the simplistic layout and design of the pages, the use of the red highlights important bits of the feature drawing the reader to these parts because they standout from the black and white.

The side bar works well as it stands out from the rest of the article and gives the reader added information, the use of subheading s on this sidebar allows the reader to quickly pick out the bits of information they want to read. The pull quote stands out due to its size and colour, the white text in the middle of the smaller red text signifies the importance of the quote and sticks with the reader throughout the rest of the article.