Brand Identity and Mode of Address Analysis

Rolling Stone:

The magazine cover shows a close up image of Katy Perry, showing her facial features strongly. The Image includes bright green hair, (which flows across the top third of the cover, and slightly drapes over her fore head, to show slight mystery to the singer) showing a dominant bright colour scheme, showing the quirkiness of the pop artist, and bringing the idea of the interview which may also be a loud exciting interview. In the bottom third of the magazine the lively, extravagant top also develops the cover as a much brighter product, with the bottom and top half overriding with bright colours.

Her eyes are placed of the top hotspots of the cover, showing her centred in the magazine. Her eye colour shares the same tone of green as the green in her hair. In the centre box, there is the centre of her face with her bright pink lips with her finger covering them. A

woman touching her lips shows affection to her erogenous zones. Showing signals to her target audience of young girls but also young men who are attracted to her, so by looking at the camera and touching her lips, connotes that she wants you and wants to appeal to you. This is commonly a subliminal way of drawing your attention to these areas, reminding you that she's sexy. Her middle finger and ring finger are fiddling with her jewellery around her neck which is also another erogenous zone. This makes a brand identity of a very feminine, sexual attitude to the young attractive singer.

The white background gives a neutral result, contrasting with the incredibly bright colour scheme, so you do not look at the back ground where there is nothing but instead at the main image. The mast head covers the top of the magazine, and appears over the picture due to Katy being important and taking up the entire page. The cover lines are also in white serif font which appear above the image so they actually stand out over the image. Important stories which would be shown to be popular are towards the top of the page and is a larger font. The serif style gives a sophisticated look to the magazine, aiming to appeal to a higher class of people instead of a working class audience. The main cover story is written in black at the bottom of the page in the terminal zone showing the importance of the story, due to her also appearing on the front cover. The word Katy Perry is very large, directing the audience to know who she is.

The brand identity of the magazine is developed by the selection of artists and a list celebrities who are put on the cover. The magazine has no specific genre and can appeal to almost anyone who enjoys the music and popular culture. The bright colours and image of the artist are showing the audience what sort of genre is featuring in this issue of the magazine in contrast to other issue which

may follow the same colours for who ever is on the front. The bright colours which Perry is wearing shows that shes is a bubbly pop singer. Though if Dizzie Rascal or members of The Rolling Stones appeared on the front, they would probably be wearing a lot darker clothes, whilst also clothes that were in fashion when they were making their music. The single close up image on all Q magazines, shows the importance of the artist. Many other opponent magazine feature many images on the front cover.

The house style is the same throughout the cover, the font and style does not change throughout the magazine, or other issues. Which is usually a serif font, developing the magazines identity to be more rich, sophisticated and upper class. The masthead is always in the same place also, branching across the entire cover.

The mode of address is aimed towards ‘You’ due to her looking straight down the lens of the camera at the buyer of the magazine, touching her neck, trying to appeal to men who are attracted to her. The bright colours of the artist is the attempt to appeal at the young teenagers and older teens who like the bright excessive pop music which is strongly reflected by her clothes and style

The Contents page:

The contents page keeps with the neutral background colour of white, which makes everything else conrast with it and stand out above the rest. The masthead of the contents page is written in black and red. The black font of the RS stands for the magazine name and the red font is the issue number. There is a pull quote at the top of the page which acts like a motto to the magazine, trying to appeal to those buying it.

The page is split up into thirds, which is conventional, appealing to buyers, making it easier to read. The left hand third is the main contents. Which is also split into threes. With feature articles, rock and roll and also departments. It is broken down so it appeals to buyers as it’s easier to read. At the bottom of the page there are cover lines with pictures, these are stories which are important than the others but not

as important as the main article.

The centre picture which takes up two thirds of the contents. The image includes an image of Hayley Williams from Paramore, a woman similar to Katy Perry is the way that she has bold hair styles and fashion choices which is a totally different to how people are expected to dress. The Blue hair is very bright and blends with the background of the show she is performing at. As both Perry and Williams are of similar fashion and almost similar music, appealing to the same sort of people, they appear in the same issue, so people can find out about both.

The house style is similar in most of the Rolling Stone magazines, because of the colour schemes of red, white and black. There is also always an image of an artist or someone similar to the person who appears on the front, so there is similarity, so when buying the issue, you can find out about similar artists to the genre which is clearly stated on the front cover of that issue.

Overall the magazines identity is quite organised and easy to understand. The layout is not jumbled and is set out in a specific way for you to read and to see stuff of interest. The contents tries to explain a little bit about what’s on each page, to try and keep you reading on. This layout is very ordered and sophisticated, to bring a more refined audience of ABC1 to read the magazine. The similar artists in the magazine like Paramore and Perry sort the audience into a group who, when interested in one of the artists, can read on to find another artist which may be liked or become that of a similar interest.

Double page spread of Rolling Stone:

In this issue of Rolling stone, the double page spread carries on with the normal house style for the magazine, with the same colours of reds, blacks, and whites. The Page does not follow the route of

the eye, but instead you focus mainly on Florence Welsh who dominates the whole left hand page of the double spread. The red haired Florence, is also wearing black, and is sitting on a box with a red and white drape to contrast the black outfit but to match the colour of her hair. The font of the word USA is strong and in a grey font to stand out, the font is very large so gives an idea of what the interview would be about. The second part of the text which reads ‘Got the Love’

is an elegant serif font which shows both the magazine and the artist to be elegant and sophisticated. The drop capital which starts off the interview is also the same elegant font as the other. Thought the rest is back to sans serif and portrays an even more sophisticated text, which contrasts with the other font.

The brand identity is the same throughout the magazine. With the colour scheme and house style keeping the same throughout the issue, so it is easily recognisable. Florence is looking down the camera at her audience which addresses herself to the target audience group. This is so that she speaks to her audience, and pulls them in, showing not only the desperate need to grab the audience, but also shows her not as am ignorant artist. The reds, white and black, match the house style, but also show Florence as the British/English icon she is. The mode of address is shown to be quite modern. All the colours are bright therefore aims to a more younger, contemporary target audience, due to it being young and her being seen as a British icon who is spreading to America. The concept of her wearing more refined clothes than usual pop artists of her modern day period

makes the artist in herself, classier and elegant, appealing to the audience of people, who are more likely to read the magazine.