Analysing three magazine front covers

ANALYSING THREE FRONT COVERS OF A MAGAZINE

The cover doesn’t have any writing, titles or information on it apart from his name and year of his birth and death which again, brings the focus on him.

Robin Williams is positioned at the centre of the magazine, the camera and the whole front cover is focused on him. His head is in front of the masthead which makes him stand out even more.

The date is placed in the right top corner in black on top of red with small font which doesn’t distract from the main thing.  

The background is white which makes the red masthead and border more vivid and the black clothes more noticeable. Robin is wearing all black as you would at a funeral which brings more attention to the fact that he has died. Yet still Robin still looks happy and is smiling in the photo, which could associate with his acting life mostly as a comedian.

The cover has a bit irony to it as it presents Robin laughing when he has just committed suicide, which obviously would mean he wasn’t content with his life or else he would probably still be alive.   

Courtney Love is positioned in the middle of the the cover and is looking directly towards the camera to give the effect of looking straight at the buyer/audience.

The magazine title ‘Rolling Stone’ is placed behind Courtney whereas the coverline text is placed on top of her. This could to do with the fact that the magazine wanted to bring more attention to the stories and content of the magazine, rather than the popularity of the magazine, as it is one of the most recognised music magazines.

The picture of Courtney is in black and white probably due to the death of her husband Kurt Cobain; one of the world’s most know rock musician. The black and white picture and Courtney’s facial expression of most possibly sadness, concentrates on the significance of her grief and loss.

The baby blue and dark blue coverline text colours contrast between each other and seem delicate next to the black and white picture. The baby blue is bigger and bold - it selects the names of the celebrities included in this magazine's issue, whereas the writing in dark blue is in smaller font because it is less significant compared to the actual celebrity names.

Lily Collins is positioned in the centre of the magazine and takes out most of the page. She is looking directly at the camera, yet her body is positioned sideways and her face is at a 90° angle which doesn’t give a direct contact with the audience. Her body language is a little bit closed off as her legs are brought close to her body and her hands are wrapped around them, she doesn’t seem very inviting apart from the direct eye contact with the camera, which might add a bit of mystery to the cover and her persona.

The fact that her body isn’t directed towards the camera compared to the two previous magazines might indicate that she isn’t as significant in the pop culture industry as Robin Williams and Courtney Love are.

The whole cover is in black and white apart from certain coverline text which is in light baby pink colour which gives the cover a feminine vibe to it. As well as do the some of the coverline words like ‘love’, ‘beauty’ and ‘hero’ which are presented in a bolder or larger font compared to the rest of the text, to bring more attention to the femininity of the magazine. The picture of Lily might have also been in black and white as it is easier to photoshop and manipulate an image when editing, a trick a lot of photographers, editors and artists use.

The magazine title ‘The Edit’ is placed on top of Lily’s head because it wouldn’t really be visible behind her yet, this again might show her insignificance compared to other celebrities who had their placed on top of the other magazine titles.