The masthead is the largest piece of text on the cover, and so attention is drawn to it. A bold, simple, sans serif font is used – this enables simplicity when reading and aids in an eye-catching appearance. This particular masthead is made up of ascenders, which fills the once empty space at the top of the cover.

The banner of the magazine is located in the bottom left corner. This means that it doesn’t distract the consumer’s eye from the more important features.

The tag ‘Interstellar Overdriver’ pulls the reader’s attention and sums up the featuring article.

The photography for Clash Magazine usually changes with each issue, allowing for a “fresh” feeling. In this particular instance, flash is used to make the bright colours “pop” – attracting attention to the splash.

The plugs are included on the cover of the magazine – towards the left – and is positioned below the masthead. This helps create a pattern of viewing for the consumer and leads the eye across the page in a particular fashion.

The colour palette for the cover is bright – this could perhaps link with the artist himself, who may have a bold personality. It could also be chosen to catch the eye of consumers and set a tone for the magazine as a whole

This piece of text is the second largest body of text on the cover and involves drop shadows. This draws the reader’s eye to the artist who is featuring and communicates to the consumer what the magazine will be centred around.

The monochrome approach for the contents page is perhaps a risk: it could be considered boring for readers. However, it fits well with Clash Magazine’s simplistic aesthetic and design.

The contents page has been divided into four sections – each having a separate subheading. This allows the contents page to be navigated quickly and easily.

There is a significant lack of photos in this contents page: usually a contents page would feature at least one picture, perhaps Clash Magazine is meeting it’s indie market by doing this since it’s fairly risky and “outside the box”.

The text on this contents page is simple and clear to read – the fact that it is wob (white on black) helps with this. The font used is serif and capitalised, this adds to clarity and simplicity.

It is clear that Clash is wanting to remain unique and individual, because of its peculiar title for the contents page. It immediately draws the eye of the reader and is paired with a simplistic font and a basic underline. This original and creative title reflects the desired audience for the magazine.

The headline for this double-page spread is simply the name of the artist: it is in large, bold text to immediately attract attention. It is interestingly positioned nearer to the bottom of the page – close to the main body – as opposed to the top. This may have been chosen so that attention is quickly directed to the article itself; encouraging consumers to actually read it.

The overline of the double-page spread is short and simple, with each word being placed on a separate line. This improves the aesthetic of the article and keeps a clean look – as well as allowing for easy reading.

The negative space between the two headings creates an understated look – one that would please an indie/alternative audience.

Clash often includes drop caps for its articles. I think that I will include drop caps in my magazine, as they act as an aesthetically pleasing introduction to an article.

The alley between the two columns of text keeps the page structured and clear: this means that the content of the article won’t be confusing to read.

The image of the artist is located on the recto of the spread and takes up its entirety – this is a simplistic approach and is a nice approach to the start of the article, since the subject (person) of the article is presented in good detail. I would consider using this format in my magazine, because I like the aesthetic of it.

The banner and barcode of the magazine are located in the top left corner. This means that it doesn’t stray the consumer’s eye away from the more important features.

The masthead is the largest piece of text on the cover, and so attention is drawn to it. The font is large and bold – with characters being slightly closer together. This is a slight contrast to Clash, which opts for a font that is more spread out. The Dazed masthead is located directly in the centre (at the top of the magazine) and isn’t surrounded by any bodies of text – allowing it to be interpreted quickly and easily. As well as this, the colour palette is fairly neutral in towns, and FKA twigs’ black hair and jacket provides a nice contrast to the masthead.

The tag ‘future shock’ attracts the reader’s attention and sums up the featuring article. It is written in a slimmer, serif font – so that it isn’t similar to the masthead.

Unlike Clash Magazine, there are no plugs to be seen on this cover – perhaps Dazed wanted to keep a minimalistic look to the cover, and focus purely on the splash (FKA twigs).

A medium shot has been used to capture FKA twigs – as opposed to a close up – so that the reader is intrigued by her overall outfit/appearance. There is still eye line match, however, and so we remain personally engaged with the cover.

The monochrome approach for the contents page fits well with Dazed’s simplistic aesthetic and design.

The alley between both columns of text allows for a clean contents page, meaning that it doesn’t appear too confusing or overwhelming to consumers

Dissimilarly to Clash, Dazed has used small, bold text (in lower case characters) for the subheadings of each section of the magazine. I don’t like this approach as much, since I find it slightly harder to differentiate between titles and general text. Despite this, it works well with the overall look of the magazine.

A smaller version of the cover photograph has been included in the contents page – most likely to fill up any negative space and create intrigue towards the page (especially since there is a lack of a title).

The grey scale/monochrome approach creates striking contrasts between highlights and shadows – presenting FKA twigs in a dramatic and intriguing way. This attracts the attention of the magazine’s audience, as we want to discover more.

The standfirst for this article is presented in a large typsize and a simple, serif font is used. The size and simplicity of it provides a great introduction to the article for the reader: we can quickly decide whether to continue reading, or skip this particular article.

The body of the article is divided up into paragraphs and the alleys allow for a less “cluttered” look to the page. There is a large amount of text and so it is important that it’s broken up – otherwise the reader may lose interest.

Like the page above, Dazed have chosen to break up the article using images of FKA twigs: this presents the magazine (and the article) in a more interesting fashion and keeps the attention of the reader.

In contrast to both Clash and Dazed, Fader opts for a less opaque masthead. This approach is certainly intriguing, as the masthead is key for a successful magazine. Perhaps, because of its popularity, Fader can afford to take this risk and take an individual approach. It may have been decided to have somewhat translucent text to draw closer attention to the featuring artists. Despite this, the masthead still uses large, capitalised text – the characters are all ascenders and so negative space becomes filled.

The feature of the magazine (Migos) have been photographed at a medium close up: this doesn’t create an invasive mood, but allows the consumer to witness each individual in more detail – this perhaps allows us to connect with them, before we’ve even read the article about them.

The barcode of the magazine are located in the bottom left corner. This means that it doesn’t stray the consumer’s eye away from the splash.

This particular cover doesn’t feature a tag that relates to the artist, but one that is more broad – “The now issue” – perhaps Fader has decided on this to make the magazine more broad, instead of being solely focused on Migos. Immediately, readers can assume there will be other featuring artists.

The colour palette for the contents page is somewhat simple, but highly effective. The inclusion of the blue against the white background makes it far more interesting to look at – as opposed to just a monochrome look. I will adopt this style for my magazine: mixing monochrome text with coloured images.

Like the previous two magazines, Fader orders the contents page into specific sections – with each having their own subheading. The bold, sans serif font is easy and clear to read; consumers will therefore be able to effectively navigate the page.

The images on the contents page fill up negative space, but don’t clutter the page: this balance is important because the contents needs to be easy to read, but also engaging to the consumer.

The alley between the two body of text is fairly slim: for me, this creates quite a confining look to the page. The text could become overwhelming to the reader – especially since it is “squashed”. The text isn’t really broken up, and so the reader could lose interest in the article.

A good feature of this spread is that the opening sentence to each new body of text is in bold. This is a good way of differentiating between each section of the article – if needed, the reader could simply read the opening sentence and decide whether to continue.

An entire page is dedicated to one member of Migos – this not only makes the article more interesting, but highlights the importance of the artist. If only a small image was included, then the artist wouldn’t feel as significant.