The ‘Q’ masthead is in the top left corner of the magazine. The masthead uses a square red background and has the Q in white, this makes the magazine appealing to readers. But this being a mainstream music magazine the logo is easily recognised.Underneath the ‘Q’ logo is the magazine slogan which says, ‘The worlds greatest Music magazine’, this also makes it more appealing to readers.

The headline says ‘Noel’ which is in bold black writing and is larger than any other text on the page apart from the masthead. This gets the readers concentration straight away which what the headline is meant to do as it the magazine featured article.The tag line, ‘How he did it his way’ is what the feature article is about. The tag line is in red which stands out and shows the reader what the main feature is about.

The colour scheme consists of red, black and white and this scheme is traditional used in Q magazine. These are bold colours which stand out well to the reader. The image used on the front is of Noel Gallagher wearing a Black jacket and grey jeans contrast well with the red and black text and also with the off-white background.

The cover lines on the right hand side of the cover show what else features in the magazine. They go in a black-red-black-red pattern which contrast well to make the cover stand out more.

The main image on the front is of Noel Gallagher who fits into the indie rock genre of Q magazine. The image is an low angled long shot. The image is of Noel Gallagher who is looking down at then reader. From the point of view of the reader the image suggest that he’s a confident person, with his arm crossed and his facial expression it seems like he can do anything.The barcode is positioned in the

bottom left corner of the magazine. The positioning and colour scheme helps the barcode not stand out. I need to take this under consideration when making my magazine cover.

The masthead is displaying the magazine name, ‘NME’. As NME is a well established magazine the image on the front can slightly covers the masthead this is because it’s an easily recognizable magazine.The masthead is in the conventional top half of the magazine, in the top left hand corner, similar to ‘Q’ magazine. Underneath the masthead is the full name of the magazine, ‘New Musical Express’, and next to that is the price of the magazine.

The other cover lines are at the top, above the masthead and at the bottom. There are also three other cover lines that border around the main image. The cover lines are all about bands and artist with the exception of one. They are all similar in size and some are slightly larger to emphasis their importance.

The main cover line is about the Gorillaz and Damon Albarn who created Gorillaz. The main cover line attracts the readers instantly as is the largest text on the cover.The fist line, ‘Reality Blurs!’ is a play on words as Damon Albarn is also the lead singer of the band Blur.

The main image is a mid shot of Damon Albarn who created Gorillaz, with the two of the four fictional band members of Gorillaz, Murdoc Niccals(left) and Noodle(right). The facial expression of Damon Albarn looks as if he’s tired/annoyed with with the two. This could be that Noodle (left) is grabbing his lips. The facial expressions of the two fictional characters reflect their character personalities created by Albarn.

The colour scheme consist of red, white and black. This is a quite simple colour scheme. The text varies between red and white, the red attracts the readers to the magazine. ‘Damon’ and ‘Gorillaz’ are apart of the main cover line are both In red bold text, this is because the readers can recognise the names.

The barcode is positioned in the bottom left corner of the magazine. The positioning and colour scheme helps the barcode not stand out. I need to take this under consideration when making my magazine cover.

The is the cover of Clash magazine. This has a very simple layout with not a lot of text, but the use of the colours and the simple layout makes it I think very effective.

The plain white bold masthead contrast well with the black background. The masthead is in the conventional place with it spreading across the the top of the magazine.

The cover lines are underneath the masthead is smaller text and again the white text go well with the black background to make the text stand out.

The main cover line, ‘reunion’ is in it’s own font which makes its stand out and attracts the reader to the magazine as it’s a different font to any other text on the cover . The lines underneath this read, ‘the XX on love, loyalty and understanding’, this gives the reader an insight what the article on The XX is about.

The main image is a mid shot of the member of ‘The XX’. They all look serious and this reflects what the article on them could be about. The 3 band members are all wearing black clothing which matches the black background and has a good effect on the cover. Their faces have been tinted blue and this contrast well with the black and white color scheme. The positioning of the three is very interesting as it makes none of them stand out. Typically when a band is on a front of a magazine the readers can clearly see who the front man because they are in the middle and are in front of the rest, but in this it seems as if they they all are important as each other. This again probably relates to the the cover line, ‘the XX on love, loyalty and understanding’.

The barcode is position in the bottom right hand side of the magazine and has the price above it

The colour scheme consist of black, white and blue. The main colours are black (background) and white (text), the blue gives the cover a really nice contrast and makes it appealing to the readers of the magazine