Analysis of a college magazine front cover

This magazine is a typical front cover from a college magazine. It is eye-catching, professional, colourful and informative of the magazine's contents. The title is 'Campus Life' which simply tells you what the magazine is (a magazine for students) and who it is for (the target audience). The target audience are students aged 18-21 who will be mainly middle class. It is suitable for males and females, but with a slight bias towards males with content about gaming and music. It is published seasonally (this one being the spring/summer edition) and has no price listed on the front cover so, presumably, is a free magazine which is ideal for students with not much money. The masthead is in a modern, eye-catching font with the words 'Campus' in bigger text than the word 'life' which is vertical rather than horizontal. One of the first things that catches your eye about the front cover is the red circle with 'Win an LG Shine' inside it. The words are all written in capital letters to emphasise the competition. The word 'win' is also in a bigger text size to make it clear that if you bought the magazine, you gain something (i.e. the chance to win a phone). The competition to win the phone is in line with their target audience because students are usually heavy users of their phones and they do not have much money to spend on a phone. There is one big image on the front cover of Dallas Green, who is featured in the magazine's double page spread. The fact that there is only one image and not multiple images means that the front cover has more impact rather than being confusing.  The size of the image fills most of the front page, again for maximum impact. The photo on the cover also shows a man wearing a red and black checked top, which fits in with the colour scheme of the magazine. The colour scheme is red and black; popular colours for students. On the front cover, it lists some of the main articles to attract its target audience. The main article (relevant to the photo) is about a member of a band launching a solo career; students are interested in new music. Other articles include 'Gamer's lounge', 'top 5 international student cities', 'the lowdown on birth control options' and 'clothing you shouldn't live without'. The magazine is promising to provide articles about leisure (e.g. games and music) and lifestyle (e.g. birth control). The language used on the front cover is informal. For instance, "Alexisonfire's front man rises to solo stardom" is an example of informal language. "Solo stardom" is also alliteration to make the description on that article more catchy.