Q music magazine is possibly one of the UK’s most well known music magazines, which

features a variety of bands and artists. From my research I discovered that Q magazine
bases each of its different issues on a similar colour range; red, black and white. These
colours are used because they attract most genders. Each colour have different associations;
red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength,
power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense
colour and has very high visibility. Red brings text and images to the foreground and is used
as an accent colour to stimulate people to make quick decisions. White is associated with
light, goodness, innocence and purity. It is considered to be the colour of perfection. In
advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the colour of
snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. In contrast black is
associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. It usually has a
negative connotation. Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very
formal, elegant, and prestigious colour also black gives the feeling of perspective and depth,
but a black background diminishes readability you can use a black or gray background to
make the other colours stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colours. Combined with
red or orange – other very powerful colours – black gives a very aggressive colour scheme.
The colour scheme used on this front cover is similar to those used in the film ‘sin city’.

The design of this magazine is quite basic as there is only one image and the text is written
around the outside of this. The masthead is situated in the top left hand corner of the
magazine front page. It has a bright red background and Q in white. The Q is in italic font
and this connotates sophistication. And all the text is also in the same kind of font and
colour of the masthead. A pug has also been used to get the attention of the target
audience.

The close-up shot of Cheryl Cole will engage the reader to buy the magazine because the
way that she looks is unconventional as Cheryl Cole is formally from a pop band where she
would normally be featured in a music magazine such as ‘Top of the Pops’. However here
she looks rock/gothic and this will encourage the audience to want to find out why she looks
different. The red of Cheryl Cole’s lips and her dark make-up synchronizes with the colour
scheme of the rest of the front cover. The water falling on Cheryl Cole with her seductive
pose also connotates sexy, seductive feel to the image and gives it a risky edge. Using Cheryl
Cole as the main image is good as this will help to attract the target audience as many
people look up to her because of her music and see her as a beauty icon.

At a glance at the front cover we can see the sort of bands and artists which the magazine
includes and this helps the reader to decide whether the magazine is right for what they
want. All the language used is formal and sophisticated which links in with the target
audience. Looking at the front cover we can see that the word ‘Rocks’ stands out as it is
written in red and the font size is larger than the rest of the text on the front page, as this
words stands out the most we can see that the genre of the magazine is rock. Another way
that the magazine gets the attention on the audience is by writing “The UK’s biggest music
magazine” this shows the reader that this is a magazine of high standard. The words also go
from big to small making 'rock' the biggest word as Q is a rock magazine. This text will catch
the reader’s eye as it is bold and red.