Mixmag Analysis

Puf

Skyline

Masthea
d
Main
Coverline

Main Image

Coverli
ne

Sell Lines

Barcode
Price /
Date

Target Audience
Mixmag is more of a sophisticated DJ magazine, compared to
others, and therefore is aimed at a slightly older but still young
demographic. From the more neutral colours to the older person in
the main image, it will attract a slightly more mature audience from
the ages of around 25 35. The coverlines talk about more about
changes in the scene, meaning some past in dance music is needed
to understand what is being talked about.

Masthead
This is a hugely popular convention that every magazine follows, as it
lets the audience know what the magazine is and creates a brand
that can become widely known. The i in mixmag is stylized to make
the dot of the i look like a vinyl or a deck of a mixer controller,
which can be connoted to show the genre of the magazine and the
target audience will know notice this and therefore relate the
magazine to that genre. The formatting of the masthead itself is
simple, but stands out from the main image efectively. It is filled with
the colour white, using a rounded sans serif font, placed upon a black
background to contrast the two colours.

Main Coverline
The main coverline of this magazine is its unique selling point, as it is
described as a special report. Revolution within the coverline is
highlighted in a diferent colour, drawing more attention towards it
and therefore emphasising that word, creating more of an impact on
the target audience. The font is almost as big as the masthead,
further emphasising it is the main selling point. The font itself is very
bold, and all in capitals as well as having a black drop shadow to
make it pop out form the background below it.

Coverline
The coverlines featured on the front page advertise the sub articles
within the magazine, articles that are not as attractive to the target
audience compared with the main coverline. The main part of the
coverline is highlighted and in a larger, bolder font whereas the
description about it is in a much thinner, smaller font. This follows
convention of most magazines pulling in the reader with a bold title
and then giving them more information with the more subtle
description below. Some of the more important coverlines are slightly
larger than the rest and are white which stand out a lot more from
the blue background than the other highlighted text does. The
colours used, orange and white, are carried on throughout the whole
cover creating a brand so that the colours will always be associated
with mixmag.

Barcode & Price/Date

Not a lot can be said about the barcode and price/date as they are
conventions found on every single magazine that allows it to be sold
as well as giving it some sort of way of ordering past and future
titles. Its positioning is very typical being in the bottom right hand
corner as it takes up blank space and does intrude too much on the
rest of the cover. The text on the price/date is also white, which
stands out a lot from the dark background which is needed if the
reader is going to know how much the magazine costs.

Sell Lines
Sell lines are another way of persuading the audience to purchase
the magazine. That dont ofer a lot of detail, just simply stating who
or what is featured in this specific issue in hope that the reader will
recognise some of them and therefore will want to purchase the
magazine to find out more. The plus is in a bold, highlighted font to
draw the initial attention to the area then what follows in a much
thinner font so that a lot of features can be mentioned in the
somewhat small area of the page it takes up. They are positioned in
the bottom left hand corner, and dont intrude too much on the rest
of the cover as they are really a last resort persuasion technique, it is
by no means the primary way of attracting readers to the magazine
but can still do so.

Main Image
The main image is possible the most important convention for a
magazine, seeing how it is the biggest point of interest along with the
masthead for a potential reader. This specific main image seems very
generic as you cannot see the persons head, meaning it is not
somebody of importance. Whilst this means the audience cannot
directly relate to the person in the image, what the image is
displaying they more than definitely can relate to. It displays a DJ
looking at his audience with headphones on his head and in front of
his decks, something that all readers of mixmag will be familiar with.
The reader will see themselves in the audience of that image and
relate to it that way. It also links with the main coverline, The DJ
Revolution, as it portrays a successful looking DJ. The colours
featured in the image are also similar to that of the branding of the
magazine; the orange like colour of the shirt on the DJ and the light
blue colour of the crowd, both colours are presented in the rest of the
front cover and the rest of the magazine.

Puf
The puf of this magazine is also a unique selling point as it features
a free Pete Tong CD. For the audience of mixmag, they will all know
who Pete Tong is a recognise that he is a huge name in the dance
music community and will most definitely want some of his work
especially for free. It follows convention of pufs being featured in
corner of a cover, and standing out easily from whatever is behind it.
The font colours of orange and white follow the mixmag branding and
the blue it sits on makes it pop out from the page.

Skyline
A skyline is a popular convention of most magazines as it describes
in very few words what the magazine is all about. This is especially
good for potential new readers of the magazine who are maybe
unsure about what the contents entails, so the short description on
the skyline helps them with that. It is featured directly above the
masthead where it should be, and is not too bold or large in size that
it detaches attention away from the masthead. The orange colour it
is filled with also continues the mixmag branding and also makes it
stand out from its background.

Masthea
d

Dateline

Heading

Main
image
Page
Number
Articles

Unique
Selling Point
Rule of Thirds

Masthead
The masthead being featured on the contents page is there simply
to carry on the branding of mixmag. Due to the colours changing
compared to the front cover, it makes the contents page look like a
diferent magazine so following the convention of placing the
masthead on the contents page as well makes the reader know that
they are still reading mixmag. Its formatting is exactly the same of
that on the front page, being filled with white; it also makes it stand
out from the black background as the two colours contrast.

Dateline
This is another convention for a contents page, and its there to
simply remind the reader of what issue this specific magazine is. It
also gives a way of referring to magazines easily, you could simply
state what month issue it is and it could easily be found. Due to it
not being overly important for the reader however, it is in a slightly
smaller font that what is around it, as well as in a colour that
doesnt overly contrast from the background making it more subtle.
It is placed at the top of the magazine, away from all of the other
features so it doesnt interfere with anything else.

Heading
The heading features a new font to the magazine, something that
hasnt been seen yet which makes it immidiately stand out. Due to
the confined space, it cannot be too big but the audience still need
to be drawn to it so they know what the page is about; using a
diferent font creates an attraction towards it so that the audience
know what page theyre on. It is filled white and is place on a
background so that it stands out easily, and is also all capitalised
which helps with it standing out. It finishes of the header, combined
with the dateline and masthead, so that the rest of the page can be
used purely for the purpose of a contents page to let the reader
know where everything is in the magazine.

Page Number
Page numbers are a convention of contents pages and are there for
one purpose, to let the reader know what page an article is on.
When the page number is featured on an image, it is considerably
larger than when next to text to show that some articles are more
important than others. When on the images, the font of the pages
numbers is the same bold font used on the heading, making it
stand out and also create some branding throughout the page to
bring it all together. When a page number is next to text, it is in a
diferent font and a colour that doesnt contrast the background as
much (like the dateline) to make it more subtle and not deter
attention away from the main articles.

Articles
The way the articles are formatted is very similar to the coverlines
in the way that it has a main heading which is then followed by a
description. The headings are in a slightly larger, bolder font to
attract the initial attention of the reader, then the more descriptive
parts are in a smaller font so that more information can be
compacted in.

Unique Selling Point

The unique selling point on the contents page is a continuation of
the puf on the main cover. The whole bottom row is dedicated to
giving more information about what was advertised originally. Again
this is a huge selling point as the audience of this magazine would
be massive fans of Pete Tong, and now they get to see in detail
what is included with the free CD. If the reader wasnt attracted
originally by puf, now they most definitely will want to read on and
purchase the magazine and therefore the unique selling point is
doing its job.

Main Image
The convention of having a main image on the contents page is
there to perform the same purpose as the main image on the front
page attract the audience initially and then lead them onto
something. The image takes up the majority of the left and middle
columns of the rule of thirds, which makes it the centre of attention
and attracts the reader. It then has a page number and article on it
which will direct the reader to that page, which should display one
of the main articles due to the size of image it is linked to.

Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds splits the page up into nine segments of focus.
The contents page follows that rule in some form the header and
footer take up part of the top and bottom column respectively, the
main image takes up the majority of the left and middle columns,
and finally the articles and other images take up the right column.
This structure allows the reader to easily focus on one thing at a
time, meaning what is on the page can be understood more easily
and has more of an impact on the reader. It also means that
diferent segments do not get muddled up with each other and
therefore making it clear what images/text/numbers are linked with
each other.

Title

Main
Heading
Quote

Main
Image

Drop
Cap

Sub
Headin
gs

Secondary
Image

Title
The title is part of a header that gives a very generic idea to the
reader what the double page spread article is about. It features VIP
Q+A, the VIP part being considerably bolder than the Q+A part,
putting more emphasis on it. This is to show that this article is
special and more important than others as it features a very
important person. The Q+A part shows what format the article is
going to be in, and suggesting that it is going to be a more personal
article because of it.

Main Heading
The main heading is a convention on most article pages that
explains what the article is going to be about. On this specific page,
the heading has been made bold as well as underlined both of
which make it stand out much more from the rest of the text and
background. Due to the nature of the main body the heading is
linked to, it is somewhat more detailed than usual as it has to set a
scene for the Q+A. The name of the person the article is featuring
is also highlighted with a diferent colour to emphasise the main
selling point of this specific article.

Main Image
The main image portrays the person featured on the article beside
it. The layout of this double page spread splits the two pages up,
one for an image and the other for the article body, meaning the
image is very large in size. The person within the photo shows
performs a very odd position, that doesnt really have an
significance to the article. However what it does so it create a lot of
attention towards it and therefore makes the reader wonder why he
is doing that and will then go on to read the article to find out why.

Drop Cap
This is something that is not always seen in magazines as it is a
typically old fashioned feature, however the way it is stylized with a
bold simple font makes it more attractive. It signifies the start of
the article and creates a very easy to notice break between where
the heading starts and where the article begins, making it easier to
read for the audience. It is massive in comparison to the body text,
just like a drop cap should be, making its desired efect much more
easy to acomplish.

Sub Headings
The sub headings are simply defined with the normal body text, but
bold. In this specific type of article, it is important to highlight the
sub headings as it shows the questions answered in the Q+A. It also
creates a break between body text, which makes it less daunting
for the reader as what is actually a lot of information on page looks
like a lot less, more manageable and therefore more enjoyable
sections.

Secondary Image
The secondary image follows more convention that the main image
does as not only does it link to the main body, but the contents of
the image also links to the specific question being asked in the
Q+A. This helps convey any expression the person answering the
questions was trying to as it is much easier to convey visually
rather than textually.