By Matt Pangratiou

The masthead for Empire

magazine is a generic

convention for the magazine.

This is the visual branding of

the title and is often done in a

specially designed typeface to

be easily recognised and

unique. This allows the

customer audience to

understand the product and

know what there accessing this

why people would buy the

product if they wanted an in

depth look into the upcoming

blockbuster movie.

The dateline is the Month and

year of publication, often with

the price. Note that a monthly

magazine usually hits the

news-stands the month

before the cover date this will

be seen on every issue of

any type of magazine.

The cover image is essential

for the magazine cover and

their promotion of the film,

the cover image will always

change every month for

obvious reasons as they

would be promoting

something different. In this

case its a picture of Johny

Depp as the notorious John

Dillinger. The image is big

and bold which will stand out

amongst other magazines,

the costuming of it

immediately allows the

customer audience to get

into the films base genre and

from this u can see that its of

the crime/thriller genre.

The name of the film is very apparent

and the grey scale colouring fits in with

the cover image. The font is the same as

the masthead which is bold and stands

out customers no exactly what the film is

called and what the magazine is

promoting.

Cover lines are also a generic

convention of a magazine cover,

they are distributed around the main

image without detracting from it too

much. A mistake often made with

cover lines is that they run over an

image that has a lot of colour

changes, rendering the words

difficult to read. cover lines are a

necessary part of the magazine it

doesn't just focus on that one

particular film they include other

things in this case iron man 2, clash

of the titans etc.

The barcode is seen on every magazine

cover usually on the front in the lower

corners or upper corners. However it is

sometimes seen on the back of the

magazine cover.

The masthead is the same

with all of the Empire

magazine covers. The font

is big and the deep red

makes it very distinctive.

This is there visual

branding something that all

customers see and know

what type of magazine it is.

Above is convention that

doesn’t always happen with

Empire magazine covers

this issue of the magazine

is especially just for crime

this immediately tells the

customer the genre of the

films that will be within the

magazine.

The dateline is a

common feature with

every magazine whether

it be on the back, bottom

corners on the front

cover or top corners it

will always be there. It

provides the month and

year of the copy and is

often situated above the

barcode which is

needed in order two sell

the item.

On this particular issue of

Empire there isn't many cover

lines most likely because it’s a

special everything is going to

be about one particular genre

which in this case is crime

thrillers etc. the cover lines

are often small so that they do

not take to much away from

the cover image and title

name.

The main cover image is of the

two main characters in the

movie Denzel Washington and

Russell Crowe. There names

are kindly situated just

underneath both people but this

is part of the cover title. There

eyes aren't locked onto a

camera this image is probably

roped from two different scenes

and then merged together.

Denzel Washington is holding a

gun which shows what type of

character he is without

revealing two much and links to

the films genre. Russell Crowe

is wearing a police badge which

shows that’s it’s a sort of police

vs. villain storyline.

This is the main cover line

with the title of the film

‘American Gangster’ this is a

Generic convention and is

seen on the majority if not all

issues of the Empire. The text

is bold and grabs attention on

the shelves.

This is a limited edition of

empire magazine. Notice the

masthead is bigger and

bolder in a golden white

colour highlighting its

differences.

Here the barcode is

placed differently than

other empire magazines

which are usually situated

on the right hand side of

the cover.

The dateline has been moved

from the barcode and placed here.

Its small not a big distraction and

is situated alongside the price

there online address.The selling line is a lot

smaller than usual as it is

giving space for the cover

image its font and colour are

the same as the white gold

on the masthead.

Underneath the cover line is

a smaller selling line that

tells the customer that its a

limited edition, collector

cover, its small and concise

that doesn’t take the

customers attention away

form the main image.

The main image is extremely

apparent highlighting the films

main character (Jamie fox). Its a

collectors edition the main image

is for good presentation and

sense of tension. Its big bold and

very noticeable on the shelf. His

eyes a looking directly at the

camera lens allows the customer

audience to see into his

character. Looking at his

costuming you could take an

accurate guess into when its set

and allows you to build a better

picture of the character. The

quality of the photo is very good

and allows for a professional

finish.