Magazine EvaluationDJ Magazine

October 2015 By Ayse Ozer

Magazine Evaluation – DJ: Front CoverThe Title/Masthead of DJ Magazine is in red and the typography is a fun and easy to read. In terms of font , on the ‘J’ there is a small record that appears to be hovering over the title. This is to represent a DJ set up and the idea of mixing music. This is relevant to the magazine due to the magazine being all about ‘DJ’ Music . The font of the title is fairly large in comparison to the rest of the text on the front cover. Although the title is significantly short and snappy it gets the key message across to the audience that it is a music magazine. Also the title of the magazine is stereotypically aimed a younger audience who appreciate this type of music, therefore the demographic is easily targeted through the title.

The feature article photo is a mid shot of the cover star, which denotes a young man in his early 20’s covered in expensive gold jewellery, holding a fur jacket, and a wearing a black hat. The man is covered is tattoos and has a stern look on his face but has been clearly posed in this position but is almost made to look candid (a posed candid). Although the look his face is quite stern and intimidating he is still at eye level with the reader and has direct eye contact showing that is he not above them even though his excessive possessions may suggest this specific attitude. The connotations of this would be that this man is a wealthy DJ who has a rich lifestyle with a fast pace lifestyle on the clubbing and DJ scene. The cover star has a lot of things around him/ on him and all these items seem of some value such as the fur jacket and the jewellery, this shows that he is showing the amount of wealthy possessions he has and it implies that this is the lifestyle you will lead if your into DJ music. Although the man on the over is black the magazine is not specifically aimed at certain ethnic groups or racial groups but more so just aimed at the general population of young people into this music.

There are a significant amount of plugs and a large cover line. The typography of these is written in white font but placed over a black text box which makes it easier for the words to stand out. The font Is simple yet bold against the background of the magazine. The type face and the actual wording of the plugs are simple showing the demographic is not very sophisticated or at a high level of intellectual interest in long articles but more straight to the point of what they a the reader can find in the magazine. For example ‘Seth Troxler in the hot seat’ suggest this is an interview with a fellow DJ Seth Troxler, this demonstrates how the magazine relates to the demographic on a literate level. The plugs are also seen to be laid out in a conventional way being flush right/flush left showing the magazine does have a sense of structure emphasising the simplistic feel of the magazine. As for the cover line it is clearly seen in a much larger font than the plugs on the magazine drawing the readers eye to this showing that ‘Chuckie the Dutch o.g hits a.d.e.’. This is relevant to the feature article photo and shows who the cover star is and allows the reader to know this straight away.

Magazine Evaluation – DJ: Contents Page The contents page of ‘DJ’ mag is laid out in a conventional way which is very simplistic yet holds a sufficient amount of text and visual contents but there is a balance of both. The actual title of the contents page is written in a bigger text font so it is clear to the audience that this is the contents page where they an navigate through the magazine from.

The typography and text face is a simple font which follows the same layout as the front cover with the writing being in a simple font in a black font over the white background making it very easy to read. The text is also placed in text boxed of bright colours, such as yellow, blue and pink to allow the text to stand out even more on the page. The reasoning behind the magazine laying the text out this way is so that it follows a pattern of house style but also because the contents page must be clear in order for the reader to be able to navigate their way around the magazine. The text is written in columns which shows a conventional feel yet the text is not written in a sophisticated manor yet there is an adequate amount of information to be able to gage what is on each page. The text has a bold section for the main title of each page and then additional information underneath, again making it easier for the reader to understand. To again make the contents page easy for the target audience to read they have section the contents page into bigger sections such as ‘features’, ‘coming up’ , etc.

The page numbers are not excessively large but are big enough to be seen by the reader, the magazine is quite structured regarding the contents page so the demographic is not bombarded with lots and lots of writing to get lost in. There are also picture of the contents with page numbers allocated to them, this shows how the audience is younger and can be more stimulated by visual images. This may make them turn to a page by what the picture suggest rather than being bothered to read a short headline.

The magazines contents page does show that it’s a music related magazine with the use of fun bright colours and the pictures of the clubbing scene/DJ scene at festivals and events, the magazine uses theses bold images and bright colours because it reflects the demographic and their lives. They want to have fun be young and listen to good DJ music which is why the bright colours and bold images are used throughput.

The double page spread shows some conventional features more than others. The text is layed out in columns however there are only two columns, the is a large picture of the artist ‘the Dutch O.G’ . The idea of there only being two columns of text which start at the bottom third of the page makes the article look minimal and the reader of this specific would not be scared away by a long feature article with 4 to 5 columns of writing. This is so the reader feels comfortable with the minimal amount of reading they have to do yet they can still find out what this article is about.

To entice the reader into this article they have put a large stand first just slightly left of the picture which grabs the readers attention due to their lack of initial intellectual interest, getting them to read the article may be difficult so to ease them into the article at first but the stand first is written in a larger font and gives them summary of what the article is about so they don’t have to delve straight into the small writtentext of the columns .

The large headline automatically grabs the readers attentionand wants the reader to feel engaged with the article from the very start. The typography and text face is simplistic and is verylarge and bold, again helping the reader to understand thearticle or who its about in this case its ‘the Dutch O.G’

The colours of the page are only white and red to draw more attention to the artist on the photograph. The photograph is very large taking up more than a whole page so this showsunconventionality in this magazine as a normal article would only be on a double page spread whereas this article did carry on onto a third page. The photograph is the cover star who wasseen on the front of the magazine and is again here shown with a lot of jewellery and tattoos. This emphasises the life stylethat the demographic of this magazine look for and idoliseso this particular photo is shot with all the expensive materialistic things you could afford as a successful DJ.

The main body of the text is a significantly smaller than the headline but that is the start of the article so would contain themain information about the cover star. The text shows a large drop cap, usually a way which is used draw attention to the article and get the reader to continue reading

Magazine Evaluation – DJ: Double Page Spread