Magazine cover research - 1

'Inside Soap' is a magazine which provides soap lovers with weekly updates on what is occurring in soaps at that time. The masthead is written in red, and contrasts against the rest of the magazine, making it stand out from the rest and is immediately seen by viewers. The colour red connotes the idea of alertness, again attracting people to read the magazine as it draws their attention. Alongside the colour red, orange, yellow, black and white have been used within the strap lines. This shows the overall theme of the magazine and makes the magazine seem more organised as the cover consists of many images, thus dividing each strap line into one section. It's typography is simplistic, therefore making it easy to read, understand and able to emphasise the images. However, all typography is capitalised, illustrating the importance of each storyline and again appealing to all readers as they will be able to identify what they enjoy watching/reading about. Words such as 'Kill', 'Betrayed', 'Kidnapped', 'Tragedy' and 'Scandal', are all placed within orange boxes, highlighting them as to be controversial story lines thus pulling in readers. This is again further illustrated by the use of exclamation marks. The header is situated on a black shape and written in an orange non capitalised typography. The four images set in the middle of the magazine cover all represent one soap, indicating that the most interesting story lines are to commence within that soap (in this case 'Eastenders'), and immediately attract readers due to their size. Like ordinary magazines, this front cover consists of a bar code and price too. Normally the skyline would be situated at the top, however here it is situated underneath the masthead, but still manages to attract attention due to it's italic font and different colours within it.

After the analysis of this magazine cover I am considering:

• using a red masthead to stand out to the readers
• having many images associated with different programmes and strap lines
• using 3-4 colours to generate a theme within my magazine
• place my skyline underneath my masthead to create a unique feel
• use of boxes, simplistic and capitalised typography to emphasise different story lines