Research and Planning: Textual Analysis of a Magazine Front Cover

I have decided to evaluate and research the connotations of my favorite film/media magazine’s front cover, which is, in this case Empire. This work will help me when I start production on my college magazine and on what its front cover should look like.

Empire is the name of this magazine, which is probably a reference to the Galactic Empire of the Star Wars Trilogy as the majority of the magazine consists of the latest movie news and reviews.  Anyway, Empire is published every month and although the main logo uses the same font and keeps the placement of the text every month, sometimes the color of the text changes depending on the main story and the color scheme on the front page. The theme of the front page seems to be the colors of blue and white which connotes a sense of familiarity to Beast and Mystique, which are both colored blue.

Like all other magazines, this one includes the date on which the issue was published which is, in this case May 2011, the price and a tag line, which is located on the eastern side of the magazine. This information is essential as it informs the reading audience of the price and to show how cheap the product is comparing to its rivals.

The main image consists of three characters from the movie featured on the front cover, which are Charles Xavier, Beast and Mystique from X Men: First Class.  This is designed to grab the audiences’ attention more than a rival magazine by claiming on the front cover that there are 2 covers to collect meaning that this magazine is trying to convince the audience to buy both covers for a collection.

This magazine also uses several plugs on the front page such as several sub-headings about other movies like Thor, Hanna and Attack the Block and even a section about celerity advertisement is on the page, which mentions Charlie Sheen, Robert Pattinson and Stanley Kubrick.