Colour: The 3 main colours on this front cover are black, white and red. Black is usually associated with gothic and indie so it fits in well with the genre. White is the complete contrast to black so it clearly stands out. Red represents love and passion which is portrayed in this edgy front cover. The red is bold which stands out on the plain black and white. The front cover is mostly dominated with black which is very masculine so attracts the target audience, men. The overall mood these colours create are an edgy and sexy tone. This will attract the core audience, men that have a serious attitude towards music.
Design: The words and images have the same theme of colour so it ties in very well. The cover line for the main feature has 3 seperate lines with 3 different styles. The words get bigger the further down the line. This makes the words stand out as unique. They also have different colours to separate them. The side headings are in a much smaller font and have the same style, similar to times new roman. The black font is on red and white backgrounds to make them stand out vividly. If there was no background the writing would be hard to understand. The colours of the backgrounds tie in with the elements of black and red in the image.
Images: The main image is a close up of the well known celebrity Cheryl Cole. A lot of people aspire to her due to her beauty and friendly personality. Most women want to be like her and most fancy her. This gives her a massive fan base. Women do not envy her as she is known to have a bubbly and down to earth personality Cheryl Cole is normally represented as a stereotypical girly girl. However, in this image she is portrayed in an edgier style. This will attract readers as it is interesting to see her in a new light. The image will especially attract the target audience, men because she looks very alluring.
Pose, style hair, make-up: She is licking her ring which makes her seem seductive and raunchy. Her plump bright red lips and perfect white teeth also make her seductive. The red portrays passion and love. It also relates to the other red elements on the front cover, making it clear there is a colour scheme. Her white skin makes her features stand out and especially her red lips. She has a lot of dark and smokey eye make-up on which represents a rocky and sexy style. Cheryl Cole normally as her hair perfect and volumnised but in this image her hair is wet and out of place. This makes her come across more sexy as she has developed a new edgier style. Again the colours tie in with the scheme of the rest of the front cover.
How are words used on the cover? The word that clearly stands out is 'ROCKS' due to its large, red font and it is the cover line for the main feature. The word clearly shows the genre of the magazine and gives you an insight of what is going to be inside. Not a lot of words are used but they still stand out on the cover due to the large font. The strapline is "The UK's biggest music magazine." This makes the magazine sound professional and of good standard. By looking at the front cover, you expect the contents to be the same colour scheme and more pictures of Cheryl Cole as she is the main feature. Also the side headings on the left are all bands so you already know what things are going to feature inside aswell as the main feature, Cheryl Cole. All of the bands fit into the category indie/rock with the exception of 50 cent, which again makes it clear what type of people the magazine is trying to attract. Interestingly, all of the bands are in a black font but 50 cent is in a red font. This clearly separates the different genres. The cover line and images are big enough to stand out on a shelf. Most people will be able to clearly identify Cheryl Cole on the shelf due to her being very famous and the image is a close up.
Language: The cover line for the main feature uses a very clever pun. It says 3 words... which is the name of her album and then there is actually 3 words, "Cheryl Cole Rocks." By me noticing this it shows how famous Cheryl Cole is and a lot of people will refer it to her album. The words are short and blunt, getting straight to the point. This gives the readers a good idea of who and what about them is going to appear in the rest of the magazine. They are also in a large font which grabs the readers attention. The words are in a normal everyday language which makes it easy to understand. The target audience has passionate music attitudes so they're more interested about the music then using high class words. Overall, the language used on the front cover is simple and straightforward because the target audience are more concerned with the music.
Overall impression: The front cover is very appealing mainly due to the well known celebrity, Cheryl Cole. A lot of people are interested in reading stories abou celebrities personal lives and Cheryl Cole is very popular in this case. Her new style makes you want to look inside and read more about the article and look at more pictures. The front cover will obviously appeal to Cheryl Cole fans but also people that didn't initally like her might now due to her her good girl gone bad new style. Q magazine is famously known for attracting a man audience but by using Cheryl Cole, this front cover attracts a mass audience. Young people will be interested as Cheryl Cole is seen as a role model nowadays, women are inspired by her and men want to date her. This gives this particular edition a wide audience.
Colour: The 3 main colours on this front cover are black, white and red. Black is usually associated with gothic and indie so it fits in well with the genre. White is the complete contrast to black so it clearly stands out. Red represents love and passion which is portrayed in this edgy front cover. The red is bold which stands out on the plain black and white. The front cover is mostly dominated with black which is very masculine so attracts the target audience, men. The overall mood these colours create are an edgy and sexy tone. This will attract the core audience, men that have a serious attitude towards music.