Textual analysis

I will analyse the front cover of etc magazine so that I can get a good idea of what I can do with my front cover and contents page to make it appealing.

The mast head is large, and in your face, so it is the first thing that you see. It stands out by using a bright primary colour against the black of the background. This is a common theme of magazines. We are told what etc stands for in the strapline; Education/Training/Careers. This shows that it is relevent to students, and has an appropriate but non patronising title. The title is in a font that uses serif, which makes the title look sophisticated and grown up, meaning that students would be happy to read this.

The graphics on the front of the magazine are also brightly coloured, drawing the eye to it, so that we find out what the main story is. The banner is in fact not in normal banner style, it is in a brigh green box, meaning that it stands out even more. This helps to tie in the image with the main headline. We also get cover lines in blue boxes so that they stand out as well.

The final details of the front cover are a website at the bottom so you can access it by other means, and the date of the issue. These are elements that most independent magazines will have.

The contents page has a clear and simple layout. Images relating to the various stories are located on the left hand side, and the stories and the page numbers are on the right of them. The heading of the page, 'contents', is a diffferent colour from the rest of the writing, and is a different font with serif, meaning that it stands out from the rest of the page. The contents are divided up by subheadings, so that we can clearly see the different sections of the magazine, and easily find what we're looking for. The font is sans-serif, meaning it looks simple, clean and easy to read. The names of the pages have very tiny lures underneath, as they tell you about what is on the page.

Overall, this magazine uses bright colours and big fonts to be attractive and grab attention of students, so that they get good reader numbers. I shall incorporate the idea of bright colours, clean, smiple fonts and images on the contents page when designing my front cover and contetns page.