When I look at this magazine cover above as an advocate, it gives me this idea of a confident, arguably cocky set of young lads, always game for a laugh. Just your average Northern lad band. The way they are stood, we know who the main figure is- Alex Turner. The lead singer, although not always stood at the front, is very often in the centre. The fact that the basist is tucked in the back, barely noticable in comparison to the other three, could be seen as a portent of future events (he left the band claiming that he wasn't acknowledged on the road). This posture which I described above is a stereotypical view of a rock band, the way that they dress being the cliched view of British Indie. The wall in the background could be used as a metaphor for their working-class background, a band for, and that sings about the streets.
The magazine cover above is a prime example of how colour can make a magazine stand out above others on sale. The black and white technique helps to give the band this visage, making them look older than they actually are, totally evading the problem of their adolescent skin. Not only does it give them this radiant glow, yet it also helps them to stand out over all other things on this page, other than their name. This is the first major interview between NME and Arctic Monkeys, and well before they were national icons; other than a cult following, they were still yet to reach the eye of the mainstream, so having a name in such a stand-out colour will have been a neccesity.
The reason I chose this cover- other than the fact of the band, and the build up of one of the best albums ever made- is because I believe the colour scheme used here is a brilliant example of how much the palette can effect the overall outcome of a finished cover.
The techniques used on this cover, in which I am inspired by in my obstacle of conjuring up a magazine cover, is the use of colour. I believe that the black and white effect is an almost perfect method of making your magazine stand out on the shelf.
Looking at this magazine cover, it gives me the indication that they are portraying Lennon as this charismatic, well groomed individual. In reality, however, we know that they are quite far away from the John Lennon they are talking of and the John Lennon that died on December 8th, 1980. The image they have used is from an early period of The Beatles success, before they underwent all of their changes in sound and look. This could be to fit in with a modern society, and make the image appeal to a larger amount of the mainstream population.The cigarette is another indication of stereotypical rock star behavior. The fact that he is wearing a suit, yet he smokes could lead the reader to believe that he is a rebel, as those two things totally contrast one another nowadays, although in the past, smoking was seen as an upper class thing to do.
In this piece, the sell lines are all a lot smaller than they would be on a usual edition of NME, this could be for two reasons: One being that John Lennon is a bigger cover story than anything else they could possibly have available that week; the other reason could be out of respect as it is an anniversary special, marking his death. The use of the black and white could, again, be a mark of respect, due to the fact that an artistic quality of indicating they are talking of past events is the use of black and white. The sub-head explains what they are intending to focus upon, creating Lennon as this very intense, emotional character, all the qualities which made him such a catalyst to British music.
The thing that stands out for me is the image and- once again- the choice of colour. The image covers the whole page, which could be metaphorical for how important they believe this man to be. I think this extreme close-up style is a rather good choice for a front cover, however, I believe an image like this would feature better somewhere within the magazine. When I create my double page spread, I will be using an image of this kind.
This cover, again, features a black and white colour scheme (if you have not already guessed, a black and white colour palette will feature in my magazine.), the difference is though, that this one is predominantly white, which when you first think about it, should never work. This cover, however, works extremely well, making his face stand out even more. Again, the colour of black and white could be used for past events, as this edition is to celebrate the film made in the 90's staring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, in a biographic of his life. The other colour in this piece is red, which is used to make the words stand out. In literature, red is a colour of danger, of blood and love; this could be a metaphor for Morrisons poetic nature, as The Doors usual logo was coloured yellow or sometimes black.
Other than the black and white scheme, I like the way that the white contrasts his hair, and adds an extra visage to his face, giving him this monumental Godly look. The colour scheme in this is practically the colours I had visualised for my magazine, although the image I had envisioned does not match criteria with any of these.
On this cover, the image of Jim gives off this calm and cool posture. His eyes are very noticable, and when you stare into them, you see this little glint into them, which could have been edited, and if you wanted to look really deep into it, it could be seen as a youthful glint, a glint that died out in his later years- although still extremely young- and the magazine is looking to simply portray the beauty of his personality.
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