Analysis Of Magazine Front Cover's

FHM NOVEMBER ISSUE


FHM (for him magazine) uses a unique style upon publishing their magazine front cover. This is known as 'HOUSE STYLE', which is where the magazine uses the same techniques and placings to conduct their front cover but just the content and a few other details change. FHM uses this house style by always having the featured model as their centre-piece with their name labelled below, often with a slogan. Also with their head covering the title, FHM as the magazine knows it's a recognizable read. For instance in this issue its Holly Willoughby. Another

house style effect is the circle in the top right hand corner, which always appears to have one of the top featured articles in the magazine. Also other featured articles always appear at the bottom of the page on both sides, often using different coloured texts. As you can see the similarities between last months issue and this months is vast as they resemble each other in most if not all areas.

The centre-piece of Holly attracts their specific audience and lets audiences know what their magazine is about. You can tell its a highly masculine magazine from the front cover, as the main focus is a woman in a bikini, which oozes sex appeal for men and attracts them to the magazine. Holly is also facing the camera when the picture has been taken, this brings you with eye contact with Holly and this shows sexyness and confidence in the woman. She's also smiling in the picture which isn't really a norm of FHM's front covers, this could relate to my points on bringing fun into the November month i made further on. FHM always uses this technique for their front cover as this summarizes the magazine as a whole as an audience would be able to tell this was a mens magazine. The front cover is colourful and focuses mainly on the colours of yellow and blue. These are usually associated with summer and could attract an audience as November is a cold time of the year as summer has come to an end and people could feel dull due to the weather. These colours are associated with summer and therefore linked with fun and happiness, and readers will associate this front cover as being fun.



MENS HEALTH NOVEMBER ISSUE

Mens health magazine's focus point is personal health specifically for men. Their contents is loaded with everything from building muscle to how to have the best sex, its all in this magazine. Now every magazines front cover needs to set the tone for the magazine, Mens Health uses a cover model each month, it's a competition they hold to their readers and each reader has to explain their story and what made them start going to the gym etc. They pick the winner from that, and they're always muscle packed men. The model shows that this magazine is all about personal health and appearence. The way he is looking down and tensing him abdominal muscles shows that his packed with confidence, a key skill which every man wants to posses. All the center-pieces for Mens Health magazine need to be shown with confidence, their masculinity (this is expressed through their muscles) and their well being, also seen through their muscles as viewers would regard the model as fit and healthy if he is packed with muscle. They use white for a background in every magazine and this is used in a way to create sophistication and modern class. This therefore reaches out to a wider audience, which is the magazines main aim as it would increase sales and profits.

The title is always used in the same font, colour and position so that readers can identify its a Mens Health Magazine. It uses the primary colours, yellow and red to stand out on the white background, adding colour and appearence to the front cover. The main features are produced in a larger font and are boldened to highlight their importance and also to grab readers' attentions towards it as it's the magazine's main focus point.

KICKS BASKETBALL MAGAZINE (USA)

I chose to analyse a magazine front cover that i wasn't familiar with as this would give me a chance to be able to see how KICKS magazine would appeal to its audience without me knowing too much of what the magazines about.

The background is black suggesting that the magazine is all about style. Black is also represented as evil and could suggest that KICKS magazine looks at other aspects of basketball that others dont. It features Le Bron James, one of basketballs most influential players. The magazine has a main feature on basketball shoes and Le Bron is pictured with his new shoes, the LEBRON VI. This is stated underneath his picture so viewers can associate that he is a main feature of the magazine. The cover image overlaps the title and could indicate the magazines own house style. It also can suggest that the magazine is a well known one throughout the states as viewers would recognise it was a KICKS magazine even with the cover shot covering part of the title. Le Bron James has a mean facial expression showing intimidation and focus. This relates to basketball and sends a message through their imagery to their viewers thats how basketball should be played, with determination. With his arms by his hips he is making himself bigger and increasing this aggressive persona.