Links, Synergy and Brand Identity

In my magazine research 4 I am going to analyse the front cover and contents page of Acoustic magazines November 2016 issue. I will be comparing the two and saying what semiotics they have.

Masthead 

Looking at the masthead the colours shown are white. it stands out agains the background because it is grey. The masthead is also kerning free. This means that it has no gaps between the letters.
For the masthead this magazine uses mainly sans serif writing.  The typicaL house style for Acoustic is White writing with a grey background. The masthead is in a good position because it is in the middle, top of the page and although some of the feature picture is covering it, the masthead can still be seen clearly. This is good because people can still read which magazine it is if they haven't realise from the house style. Due to the writing being in white it easily stands out against the grey background.

Images

The main image is of a very famous artist called Passenger. The images are part of the representation because they first of all have an acoustic guitar which relates well with the magazine name and also they reflect on the artist himself. The way he is dressed suggests that his style is more relaxed and casual than a lot of genres and this is a representation used in this genre. This particular artist wouldn't perform in a suit and tie like either classical or Jazz for a concert.  In the contents page you'll notice that the image of passenger is different from the one on the front cover. This is good because it shows different perspectives of the artist. This supports Dyer's theory of a star is an image. This means that celebrities are created to represent a certain theme and not the person they really are. In this image Passenger is dressed in smart/casual clothes and the way he is posing suggests that he is an insensitive, strong man. This can been seen as a stereo type for men as men are seen to be the strong and tough ones out of the two genders. In the contents page, a similar representation is copied. He is still represented as strong and tough. Also there is synergy between the pages because the same colour scheme and text is used.

Fonts

The fonts that are used on the front cover are mainly serif however the use of sans serif is for the masthead. There is no kerning between the masthead letters. The font is an easy to read font and also the colours make it easy to see. This is because White, red and grey go well together. This applies to both contents and front cover.

Feature/ Cover stories

In this addition of Acoustic magazine there are one feature story and many cover stories. This magazine is aimed at an audience of 16 - 40 year olds. I know this because the contents page and front cover are not cluttered with a lot of text or images. Also the magazine is much more prsentable due to the type of genre.

Codes and conventions

In this magazine it uses the same images on the front cover as he contents. For example the picture on the right is the front cover picture and is of guitars. The picture on the left is of the guitars and is from the contentspage. Also "platinum" and "one billion youtube views" is a convention of a music magazine because it is a big thing for artist to "go platinum"in the music industry.

How research has informed my creativity and planning

• I would like to use the no kerning, pushed together writing used for the masthead.
• I would also like to use the image under the masthead idea. I think it looks very professional\
• I will use more space on the front cover instead of having a lot of white space like Acoustic Magazine has.