NME Front Cover Analysis

The mast head is placed flush left at the top of the front cover over the top of the feature article photograph/image. In this edition NME have the mast head over the top of the artist (Mike Skinner) on the feature article photograph/image to make the brand stand out more. They have also cleverly used red for the colour of the font to make it contrast with Mike Skinners dark brown hair, which makes it even more eye catching to the target audience. With the first look at the magazine it is clear that there is a fair amount of a variety of plugs and puffs on the front cover with are flushed right and left of the page also containing smaller images of what is featured in the magazine. Plug is used to identify the artist featured in the front cover and to also inform the target audience what else is appearing within this NME magazine edition. In this NME edition the impression communicated to the target audience is a mature, calm and sensible read due to the simple font type, the simple colouring of the font (black, white, red and the artist’s natural colouring). Even though they haven’t used many colour s for the font what they have used is very effective because they use it in all the right places for the plug and puff to stand as much as possible (black/red on a white background and white/red on a black back ground) I think the main reason they have used the colouring of red on the front cover to match the mast head. Also having the plug, puff, mast head and cover line all straight over the whole front cover and aligns the plug, puff and cover lines around the feature article photograph/image (Mike Skinner). On the front cover of NME the mast head, cover lines, plug and puff are all in capital letters making them high impact and can be read from a distance. The fact that the cover lines contain questions marks automatically would make the target audience work to turn over and read the article. The plug used at the top of the front cover and above of the mast head has been designed to catch the target audiences eye whilst the magazine is on shelf because it high lights within the magazine itself. The overall layout of the NME front cover is very basic but very effective as it draws all attention the iconic feature article photograph/image of Mike Skinner posing in a calm and posed position to make the cover line of the magazine match correctly and give off the correct impression and description to the NME target audience. The feature article photograph/image of Mike Skinner shows he is glum with his head in his hands matching the cover line “The Streets legend is back. Why so glum?” And wearing a suit gives a maturity look to him compared to what he used to look like (track suits and baseball caps).