Alex Newell-Media Studies
Masthead Font Analysis
Q magazine has a very simple masthead that stands out well due to the contrasting red and white colours. The bold red is eye catching and effective at jumping out to readers whilst also looking sophisticated. This appeals to the target audience as the simple magazine name and colours suggests a maturer audience is being targeted, therefore a more mixed colour selection and loud title name could attract those from different genre bases.
Unlike Q magazine, both NME and Mojo have alternate mastheads that can be changed depending on the background.
For example NME has 'NME' written in a simple white sans-serif font to the top lefthand corner of the page, making it clear to see regardless of the cover picture behind it. It is surrounded by a red rectangle enhancing the masthead and causing it to stand out.
Alternatively the word 'NME' can be written in red, but with a white edging whch is also surrounded by a black outline, making the magazine masthead stand out without having to worry about anything else on the page drawing your eyes away from it.
The use of all capital letters indicates that every word making up NME is important, so there is an emphasis on 'New', 'Musical' and 'Express'. However the white NME masthead is most commonly used with the recent editions of the magazine.
The use of a 3d effect instantly allows the masthead to stand out from the rest of the magazines front cover, presenting it as an important part of the magazines identity.
As you can see, there are two Mojo mastheads with different colour schemes that can be implemented depending on the cover colours, this goves an indication towards the magazines versatility.