Assessment 2:Detailed Analysis - Front Cover (NME magazine)

This is the front cover of an issue of NME magazine, dated 29th March 2008. NME's masthead is very eye catching and appropriate to it's target audience. The masthead consists of three colours; Red, black and white, the colour scheme is continued throughout the whole magazine. The  capitalisation of the words 'NME' draw attention to the eye due to the actual magazines full name (New Musical Express) becoming abbreviated to 'NME' it makes it more memorable to the general public and obviously frequent readers of the magazine.

Underneath the masthead features a puff which reads,"Jack White's Shock New Album. Out this week!'' The main cover line links to the mast head, It's red and bold. The use of the colour immediately grabs the attention of the reader. The bar code of the magazine is located sideways on the bottom right hand corner. This makes it still visible to the reader without withdrawing attention from the other aspects of the cover.

To the left side of the magazine, features 'Kickers' which gives the reader an outlook into what will be inside of the magazine. The purpose of these is to give a peak into the magazine without giving too much away, thus persuading members of the public to buy the issue. Direct questions to the reader are provided on the front cover; ''Collaborating with Amy Winehouse?'' and ''Pretty. Odd? Pretty. Ace'' The reader obviously wont be able to answer these however, if they don't read the magazine.

The main image of this issue features the artists Alex Turner (front man of the Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (former front man of The Rascals and The Little Flames) who both collaborated with each other to form 'The Last Shadow Puppets'.  NME state that this is the bands 'First major interview' and include a strap line which reads ''I was worried the Monkeys would think I'd have an affair''. This would persuade fans of both of the artists bands to buy the magazine to see if a) the bands are still sticking together and b) why did they decide to create the band, it also draws hype to the new formation. The photographer of the magazine has used a 'Mid shot' (medium shot) of both Turner and Kane because you only need to focus on the faces of the artists to recognise who they are.