Empire Magazine Front Cover Evaluation. Ryan Ward.

The Masthead of the magazine “EMPIRE” looks very clear and professional as expected, and is partially covered up by Will Smith’s head. This shows that the people at Empire are very confident that people know what Empire is, as it isn’t clear that the magazine is called Empire, if anything in this case it is called “Emire”. Seen as my magazine front cover will be a front cover of a debut issue I think I’ll stray away from covering up my Masthead even in the slightest, as people will want to know what the magazine is called as they won’t already know, due to it being brand new. The main cover line on the front cover greatly advertises the film “I am Legend” through the use of large, bold text, accompanied by a large image of Will Smith (the protagonist of the film) holding what appears to be a rather big rifle. The fact that Will Smith is holding a weapon fits in with the genre of horror, as weapons are a key code/convention to the Horror genre. Seen as the magazine mainly advertises a horror film, it is only right/likely that the whole of the front cover will retain a horror theme. The immediately evident house-style retained within this particular “EMPIRE” magazine front cover relates to the genre of horror, due to the use of horror-associated colours like black, white and red. Black gives connotations of night time and fear, the particular white used on this front cover looks ghoulish and paranormal, and red gives connotations of danger and blood, all key elements of the horror genre. A mysterious, foggy effect is visible on the whole of the front cover, majorly fitting in with the whole horror theme of it too. The use of all these things make this particular front cover effective and clear in advertising the horror film “I am Legend”. Various other plugs, puffs and cover lines clearly advertise other elements of this particular issue of the magazine, but nowhere near as clearly as “I am Legend” is advertised, as they are not as important as the “I am Legend” feature. Smaller images of other films are shown at the bottom of the front cover, to clearly advertise other features of the magazine, but yet again not as clearly as the “I am Legend” feature, as yet again they are not as important as the “I am Legend” feature of this particular issue of the magazine. I will use ideas from this front cover in my own front cover, such as; a large clear and professional Masthead, a large, clear main cover line and image advertising our group’s film, a professional and consistent house-style consisting of horror-related colours, plugs, puffs and cover lines advertising less important elements of the issue of the magazine, and horror-related effects on the front cover such as fog/mist.