XXL Magazine analysis.

I have taken pictures, from a real magazine called XXL.

I took pictures of the front cover

2 content pages, as the magazine consisted of the 2 content pages which is important to know, as each content page distributes different information.

While strolling through the magazine I found 4 double sided spread articles, and 2 in particular which linked with the cover star at the front of the cover.

FRONT COVER

This is the front cover of the XXL magazine, as you can see the cover star of this magazine is Jay - Z as it says in the middle in a large font and a colour which stands out. One of the noticeable icon on the page is the logo, the reason why it is in large front and a really effective binary oppositional colour is because, the institution of the magazine, wants to make there publication more noticeable and to also reach out, towards the audience in to getting more buyers/customers, due to the fact this is also a world wide magazine, so it can be bought or viewed from all over the world. In the front of the magazine, in the white space, in the form of cover lines shows different artists, this instantly tells you that there will be other artists featured within this magazine and gives the audience information, as they read in the magazine. The colours used I the background seems to be taken in a studio, the reason it is displayed in black and white is to show contrast as Jay-Z in this image is wearing more black then white, he makes the page stand out, as well as this the composition of the image is mostly taken up by him in the sense of space, as he many cover lines in between his body. In the magazine front cover, Jay-Z's facial expressions are rather fierce and careless, which shows his high status, due to the clothes he is wearing and the attitude he is trying reflect on the audience. In the bottom left corner, there is a barcode, barcodes are a key component in magazines as they usually have the price just above it, and in this front cover it shows the cost of the magazine, the cost of the magazine is $3.25, also as there is a dollar sign in the cost, this tells us that the magazine is an American magazine as it shows a dollar sign as well as an American artist. In he front cover, the magazine somewhat follows a house style, as the main colours used are black, white and yellow, this gives an indication towards the audience which can then be used as a way of identifying the magazine just by the colours used. There doesn't seem to be a skyline visible within this magazine cover. Lastly, in the magazine front cover, there are cover lines, in relation to this publication it tells you what type of information is within this magazine, and from looking at the cover lines it is directed towards a story or article based on Jay -Z.

Contents Page

Here are the 2 content pages, while looking through the content pages I noticed there was 2 of them, I found this rather unusual as they were continuous pages, but separated by a lot of adverts, I also noticed only article pages have page number on them, and the advert pages and content pages did not have numbers on them, this made it hard for me to navigate through the magazine as I was lost at time when strolling through the magazine. In both content pages they both follow the house style colours, which are black, white and yellow are followed, however one of the content pages show yellow and the other includes red due to the logo being displayed. Furthermore, I noticed that in both of the content pages there is a lot of white space, this encloses the content pages with a lot of white space, which makes the black text around it easier to read. Throughout both content pages, it highlight the article where the cover star Jay-Z is on, it also titles it "Cover story" and is in a text box which makes it clear to the viewers to navigate through on to that page which gives the story about Jay -Z. It also has different options on content pages to find editorial content, featured content and lastly content based on critical breakdowns or in other words "reviews".

Double page spreads -

I found this double page spread rather unusual, as I have never encountered an answer and question format double page spread. This makes the atmosphere lively, as if you are question and answering question which are directed towards Jay-Z also, on the 2nd page of the double side spread it shows Jay-Z taking up a whole page, and wearing a similar outfit in the front cover as well as the double sided spread below. However, his body is turned more towards the camera as if he is looking at the audience, and has an added prop which is the cigar to show him being high status or upper class. The shots in all images of Jay-Z are also medium shots as they display half the body until the head, this makes it clear to the audience that the focus point if the image of Jay-Z.

Here are some Double sided spreads which I found in the magazine...