Image analysis of a college magazine cover.

I have been researching what other magazine covers are presented like, so that i may get inspiration and an idea of how my college magazine cover should be.

With this magazine they have placed the masthead directly from the left hand side of the page to the right hand side of the page in large, bold, capital letters and the writing is in red saying 'COLLEGE'. There are 5 main sub headings on the front page so that the audience will have an understanding of the articles that will be included, this will draw the target audience in and make them interested. I imagine the target audience is teenagers as they age 15 is mentioned and the words such as 'campus' and 'networking' are also mentioned which will apply to all students and teenagers. The text of the heading on sub heading is in larger letters, different font and a bolder colour than the text underneath, which gives the readers an insight on what is in it and what its' about. They have also varied the order they do the colour of the sub heading title and text about the story, for example the sub heading title is blue and the text underneath is black, then it switches and the the title is black and the text underneath is blue. This might be to highlight the most important parts of the sub heading or maybe to keep the audiences attention, to keep it interesting and attracts the audience's attention as no one will be attracted to a magazine which has a boring, unattractive cover. There is 3 sub headings at the left hand side of the student, and 2 on the right hand side of the student so that it doesn't look crowded and too busy.

The main image is focused on the student and is placed in the center of the cover, so that your attention is immediately drawn to the her, the student is wearing a red top that matches the colour of the masthead it also has the writing ' i <3 smu' the word 'smu' might be slang for the college's name and therefore she is promoting it, and showing how much she likes the college creating a friendly atmosphere which will draw people in. She is also wearing blue denim shorts that give off quite a cool comfortable atmosphere. The colours of the clothes and the text match and indicate a sense of fleuency throughout the magazine. The background of the image is blurred greenery for example grass and wildlife which is good as it portrays a healthy, environmental and freedom sense which could apply to the teachers, students, readers or the college the student, which looks healthy and happy, this also covers the full page. The image portraying to it's audience that she is happy and therefore it will suggest to the target audience that it is a happy college the blurred background will also suggest that it is a healthy atmosphere for students to be in.

On this college magazine cover they have placed the bar code, price and website on the bottom right hand corner of the magazine and then date is underneath the masthead in the top right hand side.

There are different colours on the magazine cover, which have different connotations, being;

RED:

 It is associated with energy, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

 BLUE:
It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith and truth.

GREEN:

It is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety.

BLACK:
It is associated with power, elegance, formality.

These connotations are what i imagine the college magazine would want to be associated with the college and the students, and want these connotations to be expressed across to it's target audience which is teenagers/students.