Digital And Physical Magazine Analysis And Comparison Learning Aim B

Crack Magazine is a music magazine that focuses majorly on the contemporary side. This means its all modern, and a lot of it is quite abstract or “Experimental”. This links with the front cover, which features a modern artist in a very minimalistic cover. Everything is simple and clear, which fits nicely with the minimalist theme of the magazine. Its also more appealing to the target audience who are likely to be in their teenage years or be young adults. The cover not being stacked also gives off a cleaner, sleeker and more professional look. The background is slightly dark in its colour, which helps the bright clothing wore by artist “Rich Brian” stand out more, making him very eye-catching appealing to any readers. The low angle that the photo was taken makes it seem as though he is looming over the viewer, giving him a dominant and powerful feeing. This could link with the type of music he creates, giving those not familiar with his work an idea into what he does. He also seems to have a sort of glow around him, making him stand out even more and give him a sort of wavy effect. Brighter colours are also just more appealing to younger audiences, especially the target audience to this specific magazine. The bright blue colors on Brian could be metaphorical for his bright personality and music, suggesting his interview to be very positive as-well. Since the magazine is digital, the modern theme works well and helps create a nice look that would look good even through a screen. This links again with the cover not having a lot going on, as if it had loads of small text this could potentially be hard to read on a screen and also take attention away from the cover star. This is why he also overlaps over the main title, to prevent anything on the cover seeming less important than him. This makes it so you potentially need to concentrate in order to see the title, meaning you've paid attention to it and will likely remember the title later, making readers more likely to go and read more from this same company.

                

This two-page spread from “Crack” magazine continues on the same theme as the front cover. On the left page is a very similar image to the front cover, featuring the same clothing, outfit, and effects. This keeps consistency across the magazine and helps people flicking through the magazine to find the article related to the cover easily as-well. The actual spread features an image covering the whole left side of the screen, then just text on the right of the screen. This minimalistic design makes everything more clear and keeps it simple, which is better for digital magazines as it makes them easier to read. It is also more appealing to the younger target audience then if it was just all text with one small image, as it makes it seem like there isn't much hard reading required to get what you want from the article. The idea to have one whole image cover the left side of the screen makes Rich Brian feel like a very important and dominant figure, as he has own large space and has nothing around him to distract you from him. This presents him as someone powerful, who makes powerful music. The design of having one page just be a large image works well if the magazine were physical as-well as digital, so if somebody printed the magazine from their computer it would still look good. In the image, he wears a very large jacket stylized to look like numerous dress shirts. It appears comical, but actually good have connotations of Brian hiding behind the large clothing, and in turn hiding away from the spotlight that has been put on him after his music started gaining traction. It could also show how he spends his money on expensive clothing that others may view as unnecessary, even though he may be using the purchases as a sort of coping mechanism.  On the other side of the spread is a lot of small text, which may require zooming, but it is still accessible. The white background with black text helps make it clear and easier to understand, as opposed to them using a dark background with a dark text. Above the main body of text is a pull quote. This quote is in a far larger text to the rest of the page, and its done to catch the attention of the audience to make them read the quote from the interview, hopefully making the person then interested enough to read the rest of the article. This will work more effectively at the target teen audience of the magazine as many wouldn’t have intentions of reading absolutely everything, especially if there is a lot to read.    

                  

The title of the magazine is in a very large, bold font. This is used so that the title is very eye-catching, allowing people to spot it easier if they were in a store. The title has fit with the look that the magazine always uses for its font, making it a recognizable brand people will remember if they are fans. The font is also red. This bright read font stands out heavily against the contrasting white background, making it very clear. While bright, the colour isn’t extreme, allowing it to be easy to look at in comparison to something like a bright yellow. The red also allows the title to keep up with the consistent colour scheme of white, black and red that has been used throughout the whole front cover. This consistency allows a more professional look to be used, and makes the magazine more pleasing to the eye as-well. The colour red also has connotations of danger, adventure and anger. This gives people an impression of what they should expect from the movie in this issue, drama filled adventures full of danger. This will appeal heavily to people who are fans of these types of films and makes them more likely to purchase the magazine. 

The plug on the left side of the screen is a bright red circle with splash effect applied, making it look like either paint or blood. If the latter, it links with the main image as the movie features some violence as-well. On the actual plug is white and black writing (continuing the colour scheme) advertising an article inside about the upcoming Star Wars movie. This is a very popular franchise, so including it in its own section of the front page will likely lure in fans to purchase the magazine and read the article inside. The font colours stand out well against the red splatter, which stands out well against the white background, making it one of the most eye catching things on the page. 

The main sell line of the magazine links to the main image heavily, as it is the name of the film the image is from. This is likely to attract fans of the “Trainspotting” movies so they can read about something that they have an interest in. it also answers any questions other readers may have had about the main image if they didn't’ know who the character was, making it a very helpful feature. The font is once again bold, except this time there is also a thin red box around the sell line. This separates it from any other text on the page, avoiding any possible confusion. The sell line is placed near the bottom of the page, yet it is still in the center, allowing it to still be easily visible and standout. This positioning prevents the rest of the page feeling too crowded, as if it were near the top there would be too much at the top of the page, making things less clear. The text is instead very clear. The red makes it this clear as-well since it stands out against both the white background and the black part of the main image. Underneath the sell line is some short sentences trying to sell the movie further, referring to it as “bold”. This paints the film in a very positive and intriguing light, making people likely to buy the magazine to find out more about it.

The tagline of the magazine claims the magazine to go “Inside 2017’s Biggest Movies”. This tagline will appeal to many hardcore and casual movie fans alike, as there is likely to be at least one film coming out that they would be interested in. It’s also an appeal as some may not be aware of what movies are being releases, so picking up the magazine would be very helpful for them. The font used is a clear yet bold font that is in all capital letters. This makes it more eye catching and easy to see, once again making it easy to find in a store. The black colour keeps the colour scheme going strong as-well, improving the overall look of the front cover.

The main image of the magazine is very large, making it likely to be the first thing that people would see when looking at the cover. The image is the character Renton from the Trainspotting movies, making fans of the films likely to recognize him and have an interest in the magazine. People who aren’t aware of the film however still may recognize the actor, and fans of his (Ewan McGregor) work may show interest because of this. The images large size covers some of the magazines title. This shows the dominance o the image and presents it as being the most important thing on the whole page. This makes it seem interesting as its being shown as more relevant than all the other films coming out and even the company “Empire” themselves. The covering of the title makes it slightly less clear, making people have to look closer at the magazine to see what the title is. This makes them think about the title harder than they usually would, making it more likely to stay in someone’s head and have them think about it. The image is also under a dark black and white filter. This allows it to fit the colour scheme once again. The dark outline of the image helps it stand out against the white background, making it very easy and clear to see. The actual colours themselves, black and white, have different connotations. Black is often associated with power and death, whereas white is associated with innocence and purity. This implies the character in the image to be a mixed bag of emotions and a very complex person. It can then be linked to the movie being a ride of different emotions, making it seem more interesting to the reader.
The magazine has an overall vey hectic cover, with a lot of information and text featured on it. This isn't necessarily a problem however as the magazine is aimed at an older audience of people with very strong interests in movies, people who could possibly study film and media. 

The double-page spread used a very large main image, having it take up most of the first page. The picture is somewhat dark, fitting with the overall aesthetic that has been used in the article. The brightest things in the image are the red and blue colours of Spiderman's suit. This makes him stand out well against everything else, making him the most eye-catching thing on the page. Also, him being the brightest thing on an otherwise dark image could be symbolic for him being a hero in a world full of evil and darkness. This paints the character Spiderman in a very positive light, making people more likely to like him as a character and show an interest in the movie. The image is positioned in the top left of the first page. This means that when somebody is turning pages through the magazine, this image will be one of the first things they see when they turn onto this double page spread. This attracts immediate attention to the image, which many people will recognize. This leads to fans or people with an interest in superheroes or fantasy movies more likely to read this article. 

In the top right corner, there are a few sub images related to the movie. The four images are presented on a film reel. This is used mainly just for presentation, but it will also appeal to movie fanatics due to its reference to old movies in design. I also keeps with the sort of black and white that has been used throughout the spread, making the colour scheme stay very consistent. This gives an overall more professional look that wouldn't be given off if all of the colours were random and did not match. The film reel also supports this in general, as it keeps all of the images ordered and stops them from looking sloppy. The sub photos themselves are used to show small snippets from scenes in the movie, without actually giving anything away and spoiling it. This is a good technique as it gives readers a greater idea of what to expect from the film without ruining anything for them, making them more likely to have an interest in the movie.

The title of the two page spread is just the name of the movie in the article. This is a good technique as it is immediately clear what the article will be about, without you having to put any thought into it. It also works better for attracting people interested in this subject, as they'll see it and then likely read on through the article. The text itself is very large and bold, while also being a very clear font. This makes it very easy to see and helps it stand out a lot, when in comparison to if it were small and in an unclear font. The font is also in white. This is done to make the text stand out against the very dark background, allowing it to be easy to read. This also makes it very eye-catching due to its contrast to the background. The colour white has connotations of light and purity, which could link to the character of Spiderman being a pure hero, and links back with my statement of Spiderman being the light in a city full of darkness.   

The magazine features a lot of text, making this a very information heavy article. This makes it seem more professional than if it was just pictures and the text was the bare minimum. This lets us know that the magazine is aimed at a typically older and more sophisticated audience since there is a lot of reading to be done. The font is in white, keeping with the colour theme and making the text easy to read against the black background. Everything is presented properly in organized columns, adding more to the professional feel and overall presentation of the two page spread within the magazine. 

Conclusion:

In the physical magazine there is a lot more text and more small side images, as its easier to view small prints in physical and they're aimed at an older audience. The digital magazine still has a lot of text in the article, but not on the cover. The text ere is also presented a lot simpler and instead of all sub images there is one large image. Each magazine has the same content, they're just presented differently as they appeal to different age groups and are formatted differently. The digital magazine having less stacked content on a page would help it load/download faster and would take up less storage space. Physical magazines do not have to worry about this so they can have as much cone net stacked onto a page that they want, since they won't need to load in anything. The digital magazine didn't have any interactive sounds or links, so when actually reading both the digital and physical will give you the same experience.

Obtaining the print magazine may be an issue for some people, however. For people who may have physical disabilities, they may not want to travel to a store and purchase the magazine. This is where the digital magazine is useful, as it is accessible from your home as long as you have an internet connection. This doubles over as a flaw for people without internet as they wont be able to access the magazine, and some people may not have the necessary technology (phone, tablet, computer) to read the digital magazine either, so print is more widely accessible. However, a print magazine will fray and damage overtime, getting in worse quality over time. A digital magazine will not get damaged and always stay in good condition, and if the device is damaged then it can be transferred to another via the same account anyway. Overall, both have fairly even pros and cons, but both are still reasonably accessible and if one isn't available, the other likely is.