1. Similarities with Smooth Magazine
and Others
•In all of the magazine covers, including my own, none of the
artists and their poses happen to look too flashy and
flamboyant, they all manage to show a sensible and mature
persona to themselves.
This is not a hip-hop or rock magazine, so the artists do not
need to look tough, intimidating or somewhat bizarre and
unorthodox. It is not a pop magazine, which may present the
artists to be overly happy and cheery, instead the artists in each
magazine are holding a calm expression, both presented in their
face and their posture, regardless of the fact that some look
certainly more happy/ angry than another, they still manage to
look calm and not excessively showy.
•There is a simple range and use of colours that are being used.
None of the main colour schemes are incredibly bright and
stick out too much, but much rather are of a low tone and feel
much warmer. This is what is best suited towards a more
matured audience.
•There is not a massive amount of cover lines used in the
covers, only an essential and necessary amount, preventing the
magazines from looking too clustered and florid.
•Simple background used in order to prevent from becoming a
distraction to what is the main focus.
•The attires for each of the cover models are all very smart and
sophisticated, reflecting on the age group that the magazine is
intended for.

2. Differences with Smooth Magazine
and Others
These magazine covers happen to go
against and contradict the register of my
type of magazine as:
•The artists do indeed look incredibly
flamboyant.
• They possess a great load of images and
cover lines.
•The artists are dressed in a less
sophisticated manner, and instead are
dressed in an appropriate way for whatever
convention they are appealing to.
•There is a large use of colouring, and many
range from being very bright, or simply not
feeling like a warm, soothing colour but
may instead connote danger, adolescence or
loudness.
Too many different-sized fonts are
present, making the covers look less
orthodox and very irregular.

3. The Colour Scheme – Brand Identity
•Gold border for Contents
page/ smaller black ones. •Cream background
•Gold circles for page •Gold text
numbers •Black and white attire
•Black
background
•Gold text
for interview
questions

4. Comparisons
Masthead
Puff
Slogan
Cover/ Sell lines
Main cover line/ Title
Barcode
Price/ Web address
Issue number
Floating quote

5. Comparisons
Although the cover models presented in each
magazine are wearing very similar attire, the
portrayal of the magazines are incredibly different
The Vibe magazine looks very dangerous and
presents their cover model as being intimidating and
scary (as his image is so massive in the page), and
also because he is looking very stern and serious and
not smiling at all. There is great usage of black and
white apparent in both magazine covers however
there is a strong amount of are used, which
symbolises danger.
My Smooth magazine however is presenting the
cover models as being very friendly and
approachable, as they look very calm and are
smiling and smirking. The colours at great use are
gold and cream which are sophisticated like
red, however connote warmness and maturity.
Both Soul and Hip-Hop happen to be genres that are
greatly associated with black culture, so you are
more often than not going to find a black cover artist
for the magazine, since the audience is dominated by
black fans even though people from all cultures may
enjoy the genres. Therefore I made sure to use black
cover artists for my magazine cover to fit the
magazine cover into the stereotype and convention
that it lays in.

6. Comparisons
The poses and camera shots used are typical and conventional. The models in each magazine are smiling
and looking very mature, and they both fit the soul/jazz genres (they are not pulling any „wacky‟ or eccentric
expressions and are not going against the stereotype. Both are mid-shots of the artists, therefore ensuring
full focus on the artists‟ faces and bodies, allowing them to flaunt a complete pose that can reflect the genre
well.
A direct mode of address has also been used in order to draw in the audience and capture their attention.
At times it is good and innovative to challenge and subvert conventions however doing so for the main front
cover I believed would be unwise, as this is the key element that will draw in newcomers to the magazine. If
they happened to look against and different to the genre, then the audience will be less convinced to buy this
as it doesn‟t seem true to its genre. Challenge in conventions are best when they are subtle, and not the key
element to view.

7. The Jazz and Soul genres are a sophisticated industry and therefore artists within it portray this by
their smart outfits and costume in order to connect to fans of the industry, and create their
significant identities.
Both sets of artists are wearing suits or smart clothing to be familiar with the genres, and this will
therefore affiliate with that genre‟s audience.

8. Language
“A dynamic group of musicians consisting of the „Funkster‟ acknowledged as the most electrifying man
in the industry today. The man known to leave you in sweet tingles for more slick jingles and leave your
boots knockin‟ like a Jehovah‟s Witness, Mr Smooth Operator, Chintu Anderson. The angelic
passionate, spiritual Diva beholding the beautiful, gorgeous, mellow voice; Ms Denise Greene. And
lastly, not forgetting Mr „Soul-man‟ himself; the handsome, harmonic instrumentalist of the group, the
Cat said to hit that sweet spot you never knew existed, Mr Jamie Biggums.”
A challenge to the convention of the Soul industry is at
place here as the text is offering slight humour and
hilarity, whereas normally a genre that targets an older
audience would tend to just be strictly and directly
straight-forward. This was done to offer a difference
from those other normal and typical magazines that
would be so straight-forward, and therefore humorous
language and colloquialisms were used to prevent the
magazine from becoming predictable and too simple The caption here which is also a general
and boring. However this was only done to a subtle thing you would find in magazines and
extent, in order to keep the very formal and smart brand their double page spreads, happens to show
identity existent and to not throw off the reader too levels of humour, however it doesn‟t go
much. overboard that would ruin the brand
identity and become too informal.

9. A floating quote is a feature that would be
typically seen in a magazine. It can allow the
reader to affiliate themselves more with the
reader as it is highlighting a certain statement
and piece of information that the reader would
be very interested in, and therefore not only
making them want to read on, but also feeling
closer to the artist as this information is instantly
calling out to them and telling them a bit about
the artists‟ personal life that the reader now has
scolded into their head.

10. The Masthead
Each of the mastheads all happen to share strong similarities and traits and help to portray itself in the
genre of music it is professing in.
I believe my masthead turned out to be a success as it is very simplistic which reflects upon the mature
audience, and it also follows the colour scheme to a great extent, showing gold and appearing to convey
rich, adult and warm connotations. The colour scheme also manages to look very eye-catching and
appealing in comparison to the others that seem to look rather too plain and simple and less innovative.
The slogan for the magazine is also incorporated into the masthead well, and is subtle, clever and
powerful due to the language devices it uses. Whereas the slogans for the other mastheads may in a way
appear either too clear-cut and unimaginative, and not even be present at all.

11. The main cover line in my magazine I believe is also successful as it
manages to stick out above all pieces of text and yet still remain
The Cover Lines aesthetically pleasing on the eye, and yet does not manage to conflict with
the actual masthead and logo of the magazine and become disorientating
from it.
The cover lines in general also reflect the colour scheme and stay true to
the brand identity, making the reader become more familiar to the
magazine they are reading and the style and character it holds.
Main cover line is
proportional in size to the
masthead in comparison
to my own.