College Magazine Cover Research

Every magazine has a masthead and sell lines. This is a main convention of magazines, along with bright colours and bold writing.

The examples below use most of the conventions of a magazine. They all have mastheads and bright colours that stand out. Most college magazines have a student on the front, using a mid-shot who usually wearing an item of clothing that represents the college they go to, whether it’s a sports uniform or just a college t-shirt.

                                         This magazine cover has many conventions of the typical magazine. It uses very bright colours to get people’s attention and to draw them in and it will also appeal to the target audience as dull colours wouldn’t attract the teenage audience because the audience would think the articles in the magazine would be boring to them. The white text and yellow bubbles also helps with this as the stark contrast between the three colours is very noticeable.

The masthead is big and bold and the main sell line also stands out. The colour scheme is the same on the cover as the purple uniform is mirrored in the purple banner of the main sell line and the banner above the title and the pink background is mirrored in the text of the main sell line. The banner also links to the model as it tells you who she is and what link she has to the magazine.

The picture is of a teenage college cheerleader in her cheer outfit. This would help to sell magazines as she is of the same age as the target audience and in America young girls aspire to be cheerleaders. One of the sell lines is about how to become a cheerleader, this would also help to sell the magazine because again, it’s what young girls aspire to be.

                                     This magazine also sticks to the usual conventions of college magazines.

The colour scheme of the magazine is shown to be the college colours as it matches the football player’s uniform. Many colleges do this as it shows that it is their magazine. It has the masthead in white with yellow outline to stand out from the darker background, this and the player’s jersey stand out. 

The main sell line is more apparent than the others because its text is bolder and bigger than the rest. The image is of one of the college’s football players and the shot used is a mid-shot. The type of image is an action shot, which isn’t usually used for magazine front covers as they are usually set up studio shots.  This would help to sell the magazine as it would appeal to the target audience, college football players or supporters who are interested in the star players of the season and the league tables.

The font styles used are similar to those used on sports channels and at football games. The banner across the top of the magazine showing what is in this issue is in the style of a headline banner on a sports program. All the aspects of the magazine highlight that it is a football mmagazine and fit to the connotations of a football related program.

This magazine sticks to the usual conventions too. It has a masthead that stands out from the rest of the magazine the colour is bright and contrasts with the other colours on the cover. The white background makes the rest of the writing easy to read as there is no merging of colours. Its main image is a portrait of the person the main story is about and the person is wearing colours that stand out from the rest of the colours on the cover. This would’ve been pre planned. There are sell lines that give the overview of the top stories in the magazine. The other little things that all magazines have like the issue date and issue number, as well as the barcode are also on this magazine. The exclamation mark on the sell line makes it seem like this is an extra bonus in the magazine and that the magazine editors want the reader to be excited about this feature in the magazine.

The man on the front cover links to the main headline. His pose is seductive to draw you in towards him. His eyes looking straight into the camera also have the same effect as it seems to be that he is looking straight at you and wanting you to come and buy the magazine. With this in mind, the target audience of this particular magazine would most probably be women who are interested in Zachary Quinto.