Research: Double page spread #3

This is a double page spread from a Q magazine. There are four columns of text across this double page spread and doesn’t fill the page width and there are about 2 cm space between columns. The text is san serif and is black written on a white background with deformed rectangle around the text, the box-out. The headline is contrasting and is white and is written in san serif and the background is black and is over lapping the image. There is a pull quote  written in red. And is located on the left side of the double page spread at the bottom, it clearly differs from the body of the text as it is much larger, bolder and is written in red making it much more noticeable. The speech marks are the same size as the quote. Drop capitals occur once and the “T” covers 12 lines of the text and is very bold and prominent. There is also a stand first and is located on the left side of the double page spread and is at the start of the article. The main body of text is size 10. The shot is a wide long shot and captures all of the artists or “kings” and shows the environment they work in with their instruments and the lighting around them. This image compliments the article as it shows the Kings of Leon visually on their return in which they are describing in their magazine. This links to Hodge & Kress genre theory as this is exactly how the consumer would imagine the band to be in their natural habitat with the dark colours, and the electronic instruments. This image suits the target audience as it is casual clothing and none are making eye contact so it is a very real shot which is what the target audience would want to see.

The things that indicate house style to me are the colours used, which are very similar to Qs logo, also in the stand first they state “…they tell Q” and there is also a banner in the top left corner promoting Q magazine. Another feature I notices was the strapline, as it stated “sneak peek” which is exactly what a strapline is usually effective of doing, however in this incident it is used to promote and intrigue the reader on their soon approaching album.

  

A detail I noticed is that they have made in very evident and noticeable in the shot of having a USA flag taking up a lot of space in the image, however are being advertised in a British magazine and will have British readers. This shows to me that kings of leon want to be promoted everywhere and get their fans across the world intrigued on their album and their return, but also do not want to forget their home town and their roots along the way. This flag also helps the colours work together in the article.

This has influenced my creativity and planning as I particularly liked the synergy they used to promote Q and how their subtle effect of colour or stating “tells Q” as I find that very effective and an intelligent way of promoting the magazine but not in an obvious way, I will also use these similar effects on my magazine double page spread. However I will link it to my genre and my target audience of Bhangra and to young adults of those from the Asian culture and those who are not. I will use an image similar to this one, as I feel it is very modern and the colour red is very traditional in the Indian culture and the wedding day is a huge ceremony for Asians.