Textual analysis of a magazine front cover

I chose to analyse Sugar magazine, as it is a popular, fashion related and eye catching. Which is aimed at the target audience I’m going to be making my cover for to. I think that this magazine will give me ideas for what I can include in my college magazine.

The masthead is the name of the brand the magazine is from. Sugar is know as being sweet, which may refer to the main image and colours used.  Sugar is a weekly magazine, the colours change weekly depending on the topics the magazine is going to include. The positioning of the central image, layout and font type stays the same for each issue published.  The date and email address is place underneath the masthead, to allow people to have a clear view before buying it, this can be to show that the price is cheaper compared to other magazines. They have also included a email address as teenagers have great ability of using computers, and they are hoping they will visit there website to gain more popularity.

Sugar magazines always have central pictures which is the main attraction of the magazine. In this particular magazine Rachel from glee is the central image due to this issue being mainly about her.  They have used this picture to grab the audiences attention making them want to know more about Rachel, this image makes her look beautiful and feminine due to her clothing and glossy hair. The same colour theme is used through out the cover, which is pink. The image is a medium shot which is shows off the clothes that Rachel is wearing, the clothes also contain pink which makes it link into the over theme colour of this magazine. Pink connotes a sense of teenage girls who are into fashion and clothes, which this magazine manly includes.

There are a number of cover line on the cover, which informs people as to what is going to be inside the magazine. This is used to draw the audience in making them want to read more. The cover lines contain the main juicy bit of gossip and only telling a small part of the story which makes people want to read on. The cover lines on this magazine connotes its audience is female teenagers. In the bottom left corner there is a cover line which includes pictures which makes it more appealing to its target audience. There is use of a plug on this cover which is ‘2 mags for the price of 1’. They have put this on the magazine to make more people buy it as there is a lot of competition with other magazines.

They use a number of different fonts on the cover but use generally the same colours.  Some of the fonts are in bold and others aren’t which connotes its is informal and casual which fits in with the youth audience. Some of the writing is positioned on a slant which gives it a unique look. They use capital letters on certain words which connotes they are of more importance.