Magazine front cover analysis

This front cover is from Empire magazine, which is a British film magazine and was first published in 1989 by Emap. The magazine has a target audience of males and females, ABC, film and cinema fans. The monthly magazine is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain.

Part of the masthead is covered up by the main image; this shows that the magazine is successful as publishers feel confident that audiences will recognise the magazine, despite part of the masthead being hidden. The masthead is in large capital letters, this is so that it stands out as much as possible. The colour red is used to represent danger. This front cover is a lot busier than the previous front cover from Entertainment Weekly that I looked at. There are conventions however that are similar on both covers. Both the mastheads are the largest text on the page and are placed at the top of the magazine.

The main image on this front cover features Heath Ledger staring as The Joker from “The Dark Knight”, his last film. Heath Ledger is a renowned actor; again this shows the magazines success. The image used is a long shot. The image represents Heath’s character to be very intimidating and reflect his character in the film. The costume used is how The Joker appears in the film; he wears bright clothes and has the iconic face paint on. He is sat with his head tilted down and his eyes are looking directly at the camera, his pose and posture add a creepy and eerie characteristic, making audiences feel threatened. Behind him is a metal gate, these could be jail bars representing his dangerous character.

Down the right-hand side are some plugs for other features that are appearing in the magazine. These will pursued audiences to buy the magazine and read the articles inside. They do not disrupt the main image or stop it from being the main focal point of the magazine. The font used for these plugs is smaller than the font used for the main headline. The three main colours used are red, green and purple. The purple and green font matches the clothes that The Joker is wearing. The bright colours represent the comic strip and grab the audiences’ attention. The red used on the masthead represents danger and blood. White is also used for smaller font so that it stands up against the dark background but down not stand out as much as the more important text such as the main headline. Other conventions are also included on the front over, such as the magazine’s website, the issue number, date and price. A barcode is also included in the left-hand corner or the cover.

The main headline “Meet The Joker” has a graffiti/comic book style font. This represents the film “The Dark Knight” because Batman was originally a comic strip. All of the front cover has a feel of a comic book, with lots of different colours and fonts. There is a strap line underneath the main headline saying “He’s a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown”, this font looks like someone has carved it with a knife. This creates a sense of danger and edge. Above the masthead is a strapline, “The Dark Knight World Exclusive!” this gives audiences a taste of what is to appear in the magazine and links with the main headline and image. It also makes the magazine sound more distinguished and exclusive because it says “World Exclusive”. In between the strapline is the Batman logo, this has become an icon and will be easily recognised.