Empire Cover Research

This magazine cover is very eye catching as the colours used are blue, yellow, red, white and black. These colours combined onto one page stand out which allows viewers to read every piece of information included all over. The cover lines are a bold mix of yellow and white where all of the film titles are in capitals and on the left two actors names are in capitals which is use of star power making the audience want to read on about well known actors. As the cover lines on the right are so dominant it makes the viewer read every detail which intrigues them to read on inside the issue.

Masthead reads Empire in bold red font and is partly covered by main photo from featured film as audience know the magazine well already. Photo is of a main character from the film saga Pirates Of The Caribbean which is hinted at in the puff (black circle) under the masthead but the film title is not written out because it is such a well known saga that only a photo is needed to get viewers interest.

The character is standing slightly side on but is looking directly at the camera as he holds a type of gun. This, along with his attire, connotes that he is a pirate not to be messed with which we can see through how he is armed and looking extremely focussed. His dreadlocks connote that he is very unhygienic but he likes to look this way as he has decorated his dreads with various beads and shells. We can assume that he stole his attire from various wealthy people as he wears a oversized shirt.

Top line on the magazine cover has an exclamation mark to excite the viewer and get them interested as it is the first thing they read. 'Essential 2011 Preview' is written in contrasting black and yellow bold fonts and has been printed big to entice the audience into wanting to buy the issue. 'Starring' is written in small italics because it is not the main focus of the right hand side, the focus should be on what films are included in the magazine, making viewers want to pick it off the shelf.

I think this magazine cover would be better if there were pugs somewhere but I like how the main image is so dominant as the only image. Also, I think this cover has really good intriguing information written all over where things are mentioned but not completely given away. The fonts and colours are all very assertive which would be extremely eye catching compared to other magazine covers that would be displayed on the shelf.