Magazine Cover Analysis Two

Black Book is a magazine on style and culture. I have not been able to find a media pack which enables me to interpret the cover in my own way with no influences.

As in the BBC magazine, the header is always in one place. This means it is easily recognisable and doesn’t have to be looked at intently to find out what the magazine is. Unlike other magazines however, the colour is not standardised. On researching covers of BlackBook, the colour of the header seems to change each issue. They have ben red, white, black, green, yellow and turquoise on this particular issue. This makes the magazine stand out as the reader may look at the covers as collectable items and they may decide to buy this particular issue as they have not yet seen a turquoise colour one. This may not be just for BlackBook magazines; I have never seen any magazine cover at all with this colour as the main feature…hence why I picked it to analyse. It caught my eye. The colour attracts a mainly female audience as turquoise is a fairly friendly, soft colour. It matches the eye shadow on Nicki Minaj’s face and the smaller text at the bottom giving it a smart and sophisticated look.

Nicki Minaj is the main/only image on the cover. This shows that she and the article the photo is for is of high importance and the reader must read it if they buy the magazine. People who know who Nicki Minaj is will relate her face to her music: Hip-hop and R&B. The name of the magazine doesn’t really give away what the magazine is about and the cover with Nicki Minaj on it can be misleading; BlackBook is actually an arts and style magazine rather than one based on R&B. Sticking a popular music icon on the front probably increased sales as people who do not know what the magazine is about are more likely to buy it as more people are in to this style of music than the actual genre of the magazine.

There are only two colours used on the magazine cover which keeps it simple and attractive to the eye and makes it easy to read. The standard amount of colours used on magazine covers is one to four so this cover is average.