Denotation
The magazine cover consists of a coloured picture with a strongly built man looking directly at the camera. This is a medium shot; head down to his waist line is captured. He’s facial expressions is very fierce, his right hand is touching the handle of bag back. It looks like he’s taking something out under his left arm. The background of this album cover is black but at the bottom the black fades into a lighter shade. This makes the cover more masculine which will attract more male readers. Half of his body cover the entire page. Behind the man is the XXL masthead, and in front of him lays one big cover line that has the artist’s name which is captured on the cover. The cover line is red and white which matches the masthead. At the bottom right is where the barcode is placed and in front of that is the magazine logo, ‘XXL’. And at the top right is a sticker that promotes a certain article inside this magazine.
Masthead
The XXL masthead is striking, straight forward and evident. It’s expressed by a red and white font. The font used is sans serif; the capital letters don’t join into each over, it’s also very flat. XXL sounds very explicit, sounds like a warning. The main colour of this is red, matching the colour of the masthead. The masthead XXL also donates the meaning extra and extra-large and emphasizes how this magazine is massive as are the rappers featured in it. The text is on a large red box which helps contrast the colours and show the magazines brand and image more clearly, the colour connotations of the red box, also represents the power and the energy the magazine shows.
Characters
The photographer is of an American, famous rapper ‘Eminem’.
Costume
He has no top on, but it is visible that he’s wearing trousers. He is also wearing a bag back and we know this by the bag straps on his shoulders and arms. His top body is captured, his body is very masculine and both he’s arms are tattooed on. What he’s wearing helps with the theme that this magazine is trying to portray.
NVC
His non-verbal communications is very fierce and could be intimidating to a certain range of people. He’s eyes are squinted directly at the camera which brings a sense of anger.
Lighting
The lighting is high; even though the background is black the main image is still presented to stand out, all the shine is on him.
Setting
There is no setting, however the black background helps with fierce atmosphere the man in the image is creating.
Cover lines
The main cover line has been done inventive way ‘EMINEM’ this has been bolded out with a very block capital font, consisting the colours, red and white, matching the masthead. There is also no filling in the font; the letters are just outlined with a red and white colour. And above the main cover line is a pulling line ‘Vengeance is’ That draws the reader in. A feature added above the masthead is the magazine slogan, to attract readers. It also imposes the image they are trying to create about hot there magazine is better than it rival competitors in the same magazine genre, making it seem like there providing more and offering better quality. XXL always make a main cover line large so it’s very clear to the reader what the magazine will specify in for its best and main story.
Target Audience
This type of magazine is not aimed at an older age band, and I feel this magazine would be aimed at 16-27 age group. My reason for this because the artist usually represented on the front cover are usually from a more recent era, which instantly shows us that the magazine is formed around the genre of music these artists perform. With this audience I also feel that this edition is portrayed towards a male market as we can see this from the intimidating poses that are represented here.
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