Magazine Cover Research

Few of the world's leading movie magazines are Empire and Total Film, their style of cover layout is the leading model and inspiration for other film magazines. In the following I will be discussing an overall view of their style.
The first two things that catch the eyes of the audience is the title, which is always big and bold, and most of the time it is the same, so it creates a logo for the magazine, these features make it stand out even if the title is behind the main image. The second element is the large, main image; this is always a newly released film’s main character(s). This trend went through changes over the history of film magazines, as before they used to have lots of images, like a collage, whereas now it’s always one main image possible some smaller ones on the side. Other titles are on the side too, not interrupting the main image, usually they are arranged around it, and these techniques further emphasize the central picture. The middle image has an important role, it has to be able to communicate from a distance so people would pick the magazine up and have a look at it, only after this the reader reads the smaller writing that suggest the content. These little hints should be interesting or funny so the audience would want to read the magazine. These little titles often include names of famous actors or movie makers to create an attractive view of the content.
The picture, the colours the titles and everything on the cover always suggests the mood and genre of the film; sometimes for this the title is modified, but only a bit. The images are always very strong this usually comes from the photo itself, could be the angle, the position of the character on it, or the colours. Some examples are shown below to prove myself.


This one has has more than one characters but still there is a big image. It has smaler pictures as well, but again on the side. Th title are slightly changed a bit of blur applied to make it misty and fit with the story of the film.











On this cover they used a very strong image shot from a lower angle, to give power to the character. The gun comes out a bit towards the edge to give a 3D illusion. The picture even covers the title, the smaller title's font is modified to adjust to the action style.











This one shows cold, icy colours that suggest the mood of the film. Narnia covered in snow for an everlasting winter.













I find this one different from the other because the title for one is front of the picture, but thats because the picture is a close up shot. Note how the black and white image creates a contrast with the block red titles.










On this one the whole colour of the title is changed to give it a silver tint suggesting that this character is changing the look of the magazine, but what is important that it still stands out.











This image is a perfect example how to combine photography of main charcters and colour to create and increadibly strong image.













On this the main title of the magzine is slighly modified to create a hot feeling to match the character and the genre of the film.













Pose of model makes the image intersting and eye catching to all audiances.

This is an example of the title wraping around the main character, that is emphasized. Also that if there are other pictures on the cover they are small and on the side.











These are the main ponts, we should try and achieve on our magazine cover. These are big effective central picture, maybe changed main title. Carefully selected fonts and colours to show the mood of the film and suggest the genre. Other smaller intersting titles and maybe gifts that come with the magazine.