BillBoard Adele Cover Analysis

Intro

This analysis is on a cover of a previous issue of Billboard magazine which had a main article that featured the female artist, Adele. Billboard is a weekly published American magazine that mainly focuses on the chart leading music. It is also one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. They also hold one of the most recognised music charts in the world, the Billboard hot 100.

Masthead

The masthead features the motto of the Billboard magazine, ’everything that mattered’. By having this somewhere where it will easily be seen makes the magazine easily recognisable to people who remember the motto. Also, this can be used as the main way for regular readers to recognise the magazine seeing that the banner is currently hidden with the picture of Adele.

Banner

This is the first title that I’ve analysed that has gone across the whole page. The logo is the standard one that appears on every issue of the magazine. No effects are used on it to make it different to other issues. This makes it easily recognisable to readers who may have seen it before.

Picture

The picture is of Adele and is layered over the top of the banner. This tells us that this issue of the magazine is more aimed at fans of the singer and not to attract in regular readers. However the signature blue and yellow in the banner does show still and would help attract the regular readers. In the picture she seems rather shy and the white background makes her seem rather isolated too, this could say something about her genre of music or what most of her songs are based around.

Main Cover Line

The word Adele is in a very large font which attracts the reader’s attention. Adele is such a huge artist that promoting her on the front cover will attract a lot more readers to this issue. The style of font used on the cover line were also used on Adele’s first two albums, this is also used to attract more people who are interested in the artist. The white colour used keeps the background looking very blank and isolated and therefore relating to what her songs are based on.

Cover Lines

All the other cover lines are done in red or black. This allows them to contrast against the plain background, making them stand out against the background. That draws the reader’s attention in and advertises the other articles in this issue.  

Colour Palette

Although more than three colours appear on the page I would still say that they use a three colour palette. The main colours used on the page are red, black and white. Black and white have been used on all the covers I have analysed and give a professional look. Therefore I should think about including these in my own colour palette.

Barcode

Just like with the Q magazine cover, the barcode is placed in the bottom right hand corner. This is placed out of the way and ensures that the main cover lines are not obstructed. This then keeps the focus of the reader on the main features of the article. Again it features the main bar code, the date of release and the price of the product. By having this placed in the same place regularly it becomes an easy place for readers to see the price and the date of release so they can check if they have missed an issue.

Layering

I counted 15 individual layers on this magazine cover. This is the same number as the other two magazines I analysed had. The use of a fairly small number of layers gives the magazine a simple but professional and easy to read look. This has proved to be a very popular way of presenting covers so it would be a very good idea for me to follow the same sort of idea.

After analysing this magazine I believe it’s a good idea to choose your background on the mood of music that’s mainly shown on the front. This makes it a more believable and realistic looking picture as well as making a more professional magazine.