Front Cover - Ideas and Analysis of Others

My magazine will be similar to "Vibe" magazine, since it it mainly about the rap/hip-hop genres, and it also has a slight focus on the celebrity's themselves, and you can see from the twitter article on the magazine to the right.
The cover of Vibe magazine usually has the mast head at the top, with one main image of a particular artist that usually overlaps the title. I think that this works well, since everyone will still be able to easily work out what is says, but will also get a good idea of the type of magazine Vibe is judging from the person on the front cover. If you have no idea who the person on the cover is, then it may say who it is (Bottom Right) or it may just not be the magazine for you.
This magazine is probably aiming for a young audience, and this may be why there is a limited amount of writing, and what writing there is is large, and brightly coloured. However, there are only 2 colours for the writing (White and Yellow) and they vary in front sizes. This is to keep make sure the writing is easy on the eye, and appealing to read. Having not to much to read means someone may be more like to read everything that is written on the front page, and obviously these headings will be the main features that drag people in and make them want to buy the magazine. I personally think that having minimal - but attractive and important writing will be good for magazine too, since my magazine and vibe will be aimed at roughly the same audience.
The combination of one main image and small amounts of highly visible writing gives this magazine an interesting, lively, but still overall professional look. Judging from the artists the magazine is about, (but also considering its more professional look) I would say Vibe magazine is aimed at young people who are lower middle class.

I think that mixmag is aimed at roughly the same age group as vibe, (Perhaps a little younger) but still around the same class. Mixmag is a more of a clubbing magazine, which maybe a slightly different culture, but this still is not a cheap hobby, and the adverts inside of both magazines are generally about expensive items. However, Mixmags front cover is quite different to Vibe's. The front cover of Mixmag is a lot more vibrant (which suggests a younger audience) and once again, has minimal wording. The masthead is at the top with writing above it (similar to Vibe) however there is only one main cover story, which is compiled in a short sentence on the right. They make use of varying font colours, but the sizes remain the same. They also make use of 1 main image, (Partly obscured by the CD) although the main image on Mixmag is a computer generated one as appose to a real image - it is a bright and vibrant image which keeps with the colour scheme of this particular colour, a sort of "neon blue." It also has a blue "Star" near the top0 right which includes more information, which again adds to the information on the front of the magazine, but keep it interesting and appealing to read - this is something I made use of when doing my preliminary task. Personally, I think that my magazine will be more like vibe - I like the idea of small bits of writing with different sizes and colours rather than a whole sentence, and I also prefer the idea of a real image.I also prefer the more professional look of vibe compared to the more vibrant look of Mixmag, and when I asked my friends (Aged 16-17) which magazine they preferred the look of, near enough all of them said Vibe.