Existing magazine mastheads

By Fearghal McGlinchey

The masthead is just one block colour with a few random colours added in to make it that little more memorable to the target audience/public; the block colour is black which is actually not that exciting and the random colours added are red, which was added inside of the ‘b’, baby blue, which was added inside of the ‘a’ and bright yellow, which was added inside of the ‘o’ and the ‘d’. It is not the most eye catching masthead but considering the background, being white, completely contrasts the main colour of black, it does the job – the job of attracting the target audience/public, but without the contrasting background, it would not work. The fact that random colours have been added into title this could portray that ‘Billboard’ is not a very sophisticated magazine, maybe even a little bit childish as little children love to play with bright random colours. On the other hand, this is the same set-up for the title they use every week, meaning people will start to easily recognise it and will become memorable to everyone. Keeping the title consistent in its looks is key to keeping customers, because that is how they know it is their magazine. The masthead is very big, which instantly catches the eye of the reader, this could portray the importance and significance of the magazine.

The masthead of the magazine is “NME”, but it used to be “New Music Express”, it was changed to “NME” to make it much more appealing and memorable to the public; “NME” will stick in peoples minds and will be easily passed on from one to another, also they have put it in an initial form to symbolise that it is an important magazine, due to shortening the name into something that is recognisable to the public. The colour of the masthead is also very important; the masthead being red is very symbolic to the target audience of this specific magazine. The target audience would be punk rock and heavy metal lovers etc. These sort of people are very rebellious, they live every day like its their last, they are very dark – the colours red and black appeal to them. Red portrays danger and that’s what this target audience live for, the red title will excite them and encourage them to purchase it. Another factor that makes it stand out is that it is very bold; because it is bold it attracts peoples attention. If it was just a thin lined title, people would just walk past the magazine while it is on the shelf in the shop without taking any attention – the boldness draws them in. Moreover, when it is placed on the front cover, it is in the largest font out of all the writing on the page due to that being the info the customers look out for when looking through magazines. The outline helps it really stand out against the similarly coloured background, so the reader can view it properly and so it is eye catching against other magazines on the shelf. The fact that it is in block capitals gives it a sense of importance and significance.

The masthead is original red and black so it is recognisable and memorable to the regular customers. The actual title ‘VIBE’ is set-up as one block colour, this makes it have a very bold meaningful look to it and will attract many people. To grab the readers attention, they have added black to the background, this makes it much more appealing to look at as red and black are two colours that go very well with each other and also it looks more interesting than just the red by itself. This set-up of colours will let people know that it is a good music magazine to read as they see the same font and colour every week, if they recognise it they want to buy it. The masthead is very big, which instantly catches the eye of the reader, this could portray the importance and significance of the magazine. The background colour and the title colour match very well which makes the title itself stand out much more. Moreover, the title has no outline around it which may connotate that ‘VIBE’ has no limits and it could include absolutely everything inside the magazine. The font is also very modern this may signal that the magazine is aimed at a younger generation, the title by itself, VIBE, is a very fresh up-to-date word that it used daily by teenagers.