Magazine Cover Inspiration
Tracy Beaker
The protagonist of the TV show is the main image of this cover which gives the reader a clear understanding of the content of the magazine, along with the mast head. The fact that this young girl is the main image and this is the largest image shows clearly that she is the main character. Her lack of makeup gives her a fresh-faced look, showing that she is young herself. I believe this should be taken into account when we create our ancillary product so as to give an accurate representation of teens and to make sure our product is targeted at the right audience. It is clear that the magazine aims to target a young audience as the colours used are bright pink, sky blue, purple, yellow, etc. These colours are also stereotypically quite feminine suggesting that the main target audience is young girls. Everything on the cover stands out and looks very exciting due to the shapes and colours used. Things look more disorganised and messy rather than structured which gives it more of a childlike feel. The cartoon images used are also targeted towards a young audience as animations are the kind of thing that would appeal to them. Alliteration and rhyming is used for the cover lines too, making the magazine seem fun, exciting and appeals to the target audience perfectly. The slogan ‘Dare To Be Different!’ under the title uses alliteration, making it catchy and unforgettable. It is also a cliché that children will feel they can relate to. If we could create something similar to this for our product then it would be a great selling point for our magazine. The rule of three ‘Write it! Draw it! Design it!’ also gives the effect of the magazine providing a lot of activity and being very creative, which will appeal to parents of children as well as the children as they know that this magazine may offer something productive and creative to their children. Lexis choice is extremely important on this cover; words such as ‘lowdown’ give the impression that the magazine provides some sort of inside knowledge, which would be exciting and appealing to fans. These are all conventions that we would like to use as inspiration for our own product.
Nickelodeon
The masthead for this magazine is in the corner so as not to distract from the main image, however it is bright and catches the eye, making it clear that this is a Nickelodeon magazine. This large title promotes Nickelodeon as well as working as a selling point, as Nickelodeon is extremely popular. There is not much text on this cover as the main image is the focus of the magazine. Lots of children are familiar with Spongebob therefore this is a great selling point for the magazine and will definitely attract their target audience. Use of exclamation marks catches the eye and makes the magazine look exciting as well as lexical choices such as ‘spectacular.’ Text and shapes have been used on this cover to make ‘Take the SpongeBob Puzzle Challenge’ look as though it is in a bubble – this is very childlike and something children would find amusing and be drawn to, as well as the play on words with ‘Pop Stars!’. The barcode on this magazine is in the bottom left hand corner, which makes it clear and visible but does not take away from the main cover image. A website is also present above the barcode to give the reader more information and where they can find out more; this is good advertisement for their website as well as making the target audience more interested in buying it as they are able to discover new things through the website. The use of primary colours such as the bright yellow text is very attractive to children looking at this magazine therefore it makes them more likely to buy the magazine. This example however is aimed at a slightly younger audience than ours so may not the most appropriate cover to use as our main inspiration.
Hannah Montana (Modern Publishing)
This ‘Disney’s Hannah Montana’ magazine cover uses bright colours to attract the attention of a young audience as well as the illusion of flashing lights in the background which makes it look like she is on stage, as well as catching the audience’s eye. The glitter type effect on the name of the TV show. The main image of the protagonist is to the right of the cover, with the leading articles to the left in bubble writing and bright colours, with some extra images to accompany them. Lots of exclamation marks are used to make the stories sound more exciting as well as the rhetorical question ‘Are you ready for change?’ which will make the reader want to take the quiz and find out. The prop of the microphone gives the reader an idea of the story behind the protagonist as well as, again, attracting an audience of young girls who stereotypically love singers and performers. The Disney Channel logo in the corner makes it obvious which channel this TV show is based on. This is aimed at a much more similar audience to ours so will be a good example to influence our own work.
Wizards of Waverly Place
The main colour used on this children’s TV magazine cover is pink which would typically appeal to young girls. There are lots of images on this cover, making it look as though this magazine includes a lot. Images typically also appeal more to children than a lot of text would. The title of the magazine is in the form of a banner and it is in the top third of the cover therefore making it highly visible but not distracting from the main image which includes all the main characters of the TV show. The image of a family is also relatable to a lot of young children too therefore this is another way of appealing to the target audience. This magazine, again, uses lots of exclamation marks to emphasise their cover stories and make the magazine look fun and exciting which draws the reader in. Choice of the word ‘exclusive’ tells the reader that there is nowhere else the reader can find these photo cards which makes the magazine more appealing as it has content unavailable from anywhere else. The Disney Channel logo is visible in the bottom left hand corner to tell the reader that this TV show airs on Disney Channel, as well as a barcode being small but visible in the top right hand corner. The date and issue number of the magazine can also be seen in the top left hand corner. This also has a similar target audience and the conventions used will inspire our own production choices.
M.I high
M.I.HIGH was a television show on CBBC about regular teenagers which lead a double life as spies. The spy theme comes across throughout the magazine cover. The characters are in spy costumes which are all black. Their poses are stereotypical spy poses with poses such as a fighting move. The grid background is effective as it looks futuristic and like a specialist agency would use this technology. The font used for the competition and puzzle section is effective as it looks like it belongs on a secret message. This would also be effective as it would further emerges the target audience into the world of a spy. The use of a theme and conventions will be used to influence our own choices when producing our own magazine cover.
Doctor Who
The main colours used on the front of this magazine cover are yellow, blue and white. The colours create a masculine aura which suggests that this magazine’s primary target audience is males. At the top left hand corner the company behind the magazine (BBC) is clearly stated as a promotion for themselves. The spikey shapes are used to promote the free items inside such as posters and freebies. The main focus appears to be on the centre of the magazine with article headlines surrounding it. This is an aspect which would be useful when creating our magazine cover as it focuses on one central character. The fonts used on the cover are large and bold, they are also jagged. This is effective as it fits in with the theme of the magazine and also would appeal to the young male target audience.
Here we researched several Children's TV magazine covers, where we found that some of the usual conventions of a general magazine (such as a main story) are not found within this genre of magazine. This meant that we had to disregard our previous knowlege of magazine cover conventions and base our inspiration entirely upon our each analysis shown below. Some of the conventions we found were items such as: a large title, strong colour schemes, several sub-stories (no main story), one large image of the main character (with several smaller images), and an overall simplicity (with no clustering/crowding and several empty spaces occupied only by the background). These conventions, along with others commented on below, are all items which we would take into consideration when producing our own magazine cover in order to produce a suitable quality of work which would directly compsre to real media texts such as those shown below.
Disney Adventures
Similarly to the other magazine covers that we have looked at, the colour scheme here is very bright and fun, consisting of lime greens and purples. It is also evident that there is no use of the colours pink and blue which are stereotypically linked to gender, therefore implying that the magazine isn't aimed at a specific sex and opening it up to a wider audience. The main feature of the article appears to be out Ratatouille, as these characters take up the majority of the front cover with the side stories dotted around this. There is also a minimal amount of text used on this cover which implies that this magazine may be aimed at a slightly younger audience. In terms of the actual text used, there are a lot of exclamation marks and simple lexis which would make the headlines more understandable and enjoyable for a child to read. A banner is also included at the top and bottom of the cover to show highlights of the content, but the unusual shape, colour and fonts used as a part of this make it unique to some of the other styles we have looked at.