Ross Horner         How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?

For this assignment I have chosen to use the front cover of the Empire magazine because I think that it is an interesting magazine that I would like to read in the future.

The cover has many different lines on it, which help to advertise what the magazine contains. Lines such as ‘Bale: the first interview’ and ‘Onset for mankind’s new judgement day’ help to do this. The line that sells the magazine its self is ‘The worlds biggest movie magazine’.

The image on the front cover is Christian Bale who plays John Conner (the main character) in the film Terminator Salvation. Also in this image is a large robot that looks very dangerous and evil. Bale looks like he is a serious man who has seen a lot of action through out his life. The robot being on the front cover seems to me that it is what Bale must fight during this movie as the robot has been assigned to kill him. I can tell this from the robot grabbing Bale’s face in the image.

The text size of the magazine cover varies from both large and small. Words such as Empire are large because the editors would like to publish their magazine however phrases such as ‘two massive posters are smaller as they are slightly less important.

I believe that the font used by the magazine is Arial black due to the font being bold and straightforward. Choosing this font makes the writing clear so it is easier for the reader.

The main title of the page is large and bold at the top of the page because it gives the magazine a strong title for people to recognize. The sub heading (Terminator salvation) is in the bottom right hand corner as if it is a caption to the main image which covers most of the magazine. Going across the bottom of the page is a bar with three pictures of previous films and a small title saying ‘huge 25-year celebration!’