Research: Acoustic - Issue 123 October 2016 - Analysis 3 -

Personally I feel that the most outstanding feature is passenger himself as is he is the very centre of the magazine and takes up the full front cover.

The masthead is located at the top of the page and it takes up a small proportion of the page, the masthead is in a plain white colour, I feel this is a good colour to have as it stands out from the rest of the page yet it is easy on the eyes. The masthead is in a Sans Serif font which hints at the simplicity of the magazine. However, I feel that this is a very good look for the magazine as I believe in what Leonardo De Vinci said "Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication."

There are 4 cover stories on the front cover, two of the cover stories are written in sans and the other two are written in Sans Serif which I feel hints at the magazines diversity, this is also implied through the fonts different sizes however the change in sizes are not drastic. The fonts are very plain and simple yet very elegant and refined which i feel represents the genre perfectly.



The magazines target market is male and women of a much older and mature age, even though that magazine uses a lone male on the front cover there is evidence of female interviews given within the cover stories. There is a red banner at the very top that contains a cover story which follows a traditional convention of a magazine. There is also 3 banners in front of passenger, I feel this takes away some of the prestige of the magazine and I will not do this on my magazine. The two cover stories that are written in serif are given subheadings that are written within red banners. The main colours used are white and red. the white masthead is the same on most magazines with a few acceptations and the use of red adds a sophisticated look to the magazine which fits perfectly as some of the connotations of the colour red are: compassion, beauty, success, desire and ambition. the repeated use of a white masthead gives the magazine a recognisable house style that the audience can clearly see in any shop.

The magazine makes me want to buy it as I love the simplicity of the front cover, it really grabs my attention. The front cover includes a barcode, the company logo as they are the ones who published the magazine. The image does relate to the masthead as passenger has an acoustic guitar on his back which shows the reader why he is on the magazine. Passenger is engaged in eye contact with the camera which gives a special relationship between the reader and him. Passenger is stood up right with his arms slightly in front of him I can see this as the picture was taken as a long shot. the chest of \passenger is covered by text but this is it. the rest of the text is either around him or behind him which shows his importance. The picture is sharp and clear and in color in addition the background is in focus. Also, the background is not cluttered. This photo was taken in a studio setting which adds the the professional look. The guitar on his back signifies his purpose on the magazine front cover and also gives the audience a clue as to what he is being featured for.

How this research has influenced my planning and creativity.
1] Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.
2] Plain colors, I wont use ones that are hard on the eyes.
3] Use banners to give a professional look.
4] Use a 3 color scheme which keeps it simple yet prestigious.