Q Magazine Front Cover Analysis

• Cover Image - Appeals more to men, as it features Lily Allen wearing very little which naturally appeals more to the male stereotype that is attracted to magazines and media by scantily clad women.

• Price Label - Font is small and plain black to cleverly detract away from the £3.90 cost of the magazine, allowing the rest of the cover to sell the magazine with the price hidden to avoid it being a deciding factor.

• Cover lines - The names of the bands "U2, OASIS" are bold and of a large font to contrast the smaller font on the cover lines which are "less appealing" and involve information about the actual article inside. These draw fans of the bands/those interested in them into the magazine by appealing directly with the bands instead of littering the front cover with too much information. Above "The Stone Roses", which is also bold and of a large font, there is a bright red "Exclusive!" to further advertise that this magazine has this article, no other ones does and that the potential customer should buy the magazine because of this. The exclamation mark also "shouts" this out to the reader.

• Byline - The words "Wicked, Wicked" are bigger than the rest of the byline to and red make it more dangerous and sexual, relating to the picture (panthers = danger and a scantily clad women = sexual) and again appealing to men. The "..." at the end of the byline could also suggest to the reader to use their imagination.

• Colours - The cover image is fairly grey and desaturated, allowing the few colours there are to dominate the attention of the reader, directing them around the cover to the areas of interest the ">" symbols are blue, drawing you to the cover lines which on the other side.

• Graphics - There is a blue rectangular shape to the right of the colour lines, reminiscent of a web pages' scroll bar, which implies there is lots more within the magazine. Instead of "scrolling down" to see the rest you would have to buy the magazine, so this could be a ploy to get people to buy. In the lower section of the magazine cover, there is a "+" symbol in blue, to stand out and advertise the extra articles included in the strap-line. There is a circular graphic with a cover line within it that looks like a stick put onto the cover, to suggest "You're getting this extra with all this other content you will already have". 

• Headline/Banner  - The headline/banner is large and bold, and uses black font for "Lily" and white font "Allen", perhaps letting her name speak for itself, as her appearing on the front cover like she is could be considered a large enough draw to the magazine without need for bright colours to capture attention. As well as this, it contrasts to the red colours used for the danger/sex element and could show there is a serious side to Lily as well. The words "Wicked, Wicked" are bigger than the rest of the smaller text appearing in the headline and red to make it more dangerous and sexual, relating to the picture (panthers = danger and a scantily clad woman = sexual) and again appealing to men. The "..." at the end of the byline could also suggest to the reader to use their imagination.

• Strap line - The strap line has a black background surrounding it so that the white stands out on the background. The black and white fits in with the general theme of the magazine and the two forward slashes ("//) separating the articles do the same as the colours used elsewhere and indicate importance/interesting things within them. 

• Masthead - As with all Q magazines, the Q masthead is a bright red and bold background with a single white Q in the middle with the tag line "a different take on music". This contrasts with the desaturated/grey photo with little colour on it, advertising the magazine's name itself.

• Q is published by The Bauer Media Group