Front Cover Deconstruction - Q Magazine

This is an image of a front cover of the magazine Q that I shall be analysing. 

Font: The font of the magazine is written in an assortment of serif and sans serif. ‘SEXY BEAST’ and ‘LILY ALLEN’ is written in sans serif and give off the impression that Lily Allen is an ordinary, average artist but the ‘wicked wicked’ ways implies she isn't a standard artist and there is more to her than people usually see. The rest of the font is written in either serif or sans serif but doesn't really attract any attention away from the main masthead.

Text: The text on the front cover of this magazine is mainly black and white with subtle red and blue text hiding in between. The main masthead has two font colours, black and white, which gives the impression of good and bad and hints at the artist and her personal life. The rest of the font is mainly black and is bold on the names of the other artists featuring in the magazine. The purpose of the bold font is to attract the eye of a potential buyer and help them to quickly see which other artists feature in the magazine.

Colour: The background of the magazine is a light grey colour as if not to distract from the image of the artist and the font featuring on the page, though the colour of the background could hint at the mellow personality of the artist it in turn contrasts with the image of the black panthers. The colour of the big cats helps to make them look dangerous and mysterious and also hints the type of artist Lily Allen could be. The block red of the Q logo makes it stand out on the front cover and makes the magazine instantly recognizable at a glance.

Body language/ Staging: The body language of the artist shows her looking seductively over her shoulder, as she is topless this will attract a male audience of teenagers to older audiences who are also fans of music. The black panthers give two different feels to the front over. The panther on the left looks almost timid and mysterious and is featured behind the masthead; it is also looking over at the panther on the left, which appears to be roaring. The fact that the timid panther is looking over to the more aggressive panther could give the audience an indicator that Lily Allen is more likely to be feisty than quiet or timid. The panther on the left is also in front of the masthead hinting that her ‘feisty’ side is more prevalent.

Framing: Combined the image and the texts fill the front cover of the magazine. The frame is mainly focused on the artist with the panthers featuring at the bottom of the shot.

Lighting: The lighting of this front cover is very interesting. The main lighting is bright, which adds to the how dark the panthers appear in contrast to the artist. Interestingly the artist Lily Allen seems to have no shadow, this could be as the panthers could BE her shadow, showing the good and bad side to her personality.

Composition:  The composition of this magazine gives it a professional look, the font and the image are bold and stand out to attract the attention of a potential reader.  The artist is the main focus of the front page and is centered on the page.