2. MAGAZINE DECONSTRUCTION (PRELIMINARY)

PRELIMINARY DECONSTRUCTION 

Below are earlier examples of deconstructions of 3 very similar magazine covers, using very different artists with very similar covers and colour scheme.

VIBE MAGAZINE

Here this magazine’s front cover we have KENDRICK LAMAR who is named Hip Hop’s greatest MC – Vibe magazine is traditionally a hip hop and R&B magazine, so this would be why it has a musician from that particular genre on the front page.

At the moment Kendrick is a force not to be reckoned with in the music world, and the features he supplies for artists are ones that may have him written down in a book about the Greatest. A medium close up of Kendrick’s face and angle of gaze is crucial for a magazine like this in showing not only his dominance but also in encouraging us to purchase the magazine as it seems like the model on the front is – staring right at me. By Kendrick being the main focus he commands your attention, in comparison to another cover which may have more than one individual on it. Kendrick’s head is slanted slightly upwards, with his hand clasped together by his mouth – as if in prayer, this ties into the feature which says ‘THE NEW GOD MC’. The significance of him in white is very clear as because he is referred to as a ‘GOD’ – white which is a colour that represents purity and holiness encourages the readers’ perception of him. He also appears to go against the typical rapper, which is what we’d normally see on a magazine like VIBE even though he does have a lot of jewellery on its very subtle and not excessive. The masthead on VIBE magazine is in capital letters and is also in red text, this allows the title to stand out from the background. The use of red, clashes well with the ‘holy’ image portrayed by the magazine. The colours of Kendrick’s outfit match well with the background therefore allowing his face to be the main focus of the page.

ELLE MAGAZINE

This magazine uses Miley Cyrus as a model for their front cover, unlike VIBE magazine ELLE caters to a different target audience, ELLE is high end fashion and VIBE is not. Miley Cyrus is a well known pop musician but as of late she has been a pioneer for fashion and this is why she’d been chosen for the ELLE cover. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Miley – so to put her on this cover would boost sales. As she is the only person on the cover, and the colour scheme is very basic Miley is the main focus. Because this is a long shot image, and the angle of gaze is slightly tilted – the aim of this image is to seduce and entice and attract the potential reader. This magazine is not a music magazine but it does have a musician on it so does have some connection. The text used is very thin, so the image at the centre of the page remains the most important, reading the cover I can see that there is a feature about Miley’s controversial behaviour as well. Both magazines have text that range in size depending on if they are a feature or an insert, but the layouts are very different as they are for different purposes.

ROLLING STONE

Rolling Stone magazine has quite a simple layout, there is one main image of Rihanna that takes over the majority of the page, and even though her eye is closed there is still an angle of glaze – this makes the magazine seem sensual and inviting because of the model used on the front of it. The cover has a very basic colour scheme and so nothing really pops out to me exceptionally, 1 because the image is so big and 2 because there are no colours worth noticing. Whereas on VIBE there was a lack of varied colours but it still remained intriguing. To me the Rolling Stone cover is the least appealing, even though I do love the image of Rihanna on the front, to me it's not something I would buy and that's all because of the layout.

The similarities between these two types of deconstruction are that they are all of musicians from the R&B/HIP-HIP genre, as I feel most comfortable with these as I know a lot about the artists and the kind of audience that they are appealing to. With my bridging unit deconstruction (directly above) I was not as sure of the conventions but still understood the layouts importance however I aim to incorporate what I know are important layout techniques and conventions when designing my own magazine for my brief.