Textual AnalysisMagazine 2 – Q Magazine, Issue 308,

March 2012

Q MagazineQ’s Mission Statement:

“Q is the magazine that brings music alive. It draws together the biggest stars, the most

exciting phenomena, the new artists that matter and a healthy dose of irreverence to create an unmissable widescreen picture of

what’s really happening in rock and roll right now.”

Circulation:64,596 (Jan-Jun '12)Readership:71,000 (April–Sept '12)

Q Magazine is a monthly British music magazine, published by Bauer Media Group. Bauer Media Group is a

multinational media company with its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, which operates in 15 countries

worldwide. In total, Bauer Media Group is responsible for publishing 38 million magazines a week. Along with Q

Magazine, they also publish Kerrang Magazine, and other brands such as puzzle magazines, women’s lifestyle

magazines and TV listings magazines.

Q MagazineThe overall colour scheme for this magazine is mainly red, white and black, which have been used for the logo, text

and layout style. These colours are all very bright and contrast with each other, helping the magazine to stand

out and to build an identity for Q. This colour scheme is very consistent and is used effectively on all of the pages of the magazine to make specific sections and words stand out on the page. The photos used throughout the magazine

are all high quality and the colours are enhanced to allow them to stand out.

The image of Florence Welch on the front cover in particular uses a lot of colour in order to catch the eye of

the reader. She naturally has very brightly coloured hair, so the makeup team has used a very bright colour palette around her eyes to contrast with her hair and make the

colour of her actual eyes stand out more.

Q MagazineMulvey (1975), stated that the media, “created images of women that were used for the gratification of men, rather than the women being a subject of the action,” which is

why Q have decided to use this particular image to fill the whole front page as they know this will be an effective way of drawing in male attention to the magazine. The

same theory can be applied to the images featured in the double page spread – the featured artist has been styled in a way that will attract the male gaze – skin tight clothing with a low neckline - and posed to look more feminine and

revealing as they want to carry on that message they portrayed on the front cover to the men that have been

attracted to buy the magazine in the first place.

Her hair has also been left down to look more natural, but it also helps to frame her face, and particularly in the front

cover image, to fill more of the space on the page. In order to further persuade male readers, Q has included a

sample of one of the images from the double page spread in the contents page in order to further entice male

readers. Other images that have been used are all taken from articles within the magazine to give a visual idea to the readers what they can read about, without having to

actually read the contents.

Q MagazineThe front cover image itself has a medium close-up

composition in order to focus directly on her face, and to allow readers to emotionally connect with her through the

facial expressions. The first thing a viewer is naturally drawn to is the eyes, and in order to maximize this, the rule of thirds is used in order to frame the image so the eyes are present in

top third of the image and where the two vertical intersection would meet with the top horizontal line.

Combined with the use of bold makeup, the eyes connote a fairly emotional, but powerful feeling, which could be used to

connect the readers with the mood of the article.

Similar techniques have been applied to the images within the double page spread to help connote the raw, sad

emotion of the article – it also really stands out and would allow readers to quickly find it if they were simply flicking

through the magazine. Connecting with a particular image can help to sell a magazine to a customer through that initial

„flicking-through‟ stage most people do in the store before they decide on buying the product. Other close-up’s, mid-shots and similar have been used throughout the contents

pages to allow readers to clearly identify who is in the images, and therefore will tell them who is featured within

the rest of the magazine.

Q MagazineThe layout and design of the magazine links in a lot

with the images and the colour scheme as they are

used to help distinguish between different sections of

the magazine. On the contents page for example,

different coloured shapes and lines are used to

„section-off‟ different pieces of text and also build an

identity for the magazine. If lines have been used for

example on one page, they are then used in a

similar way on similar pages. The use of text

separators/lines also helps to stop pages from looking too over-crowded, and also helps to guide

the reader as to what order they need to read the

text in

Q MagazineWhen text and images are present on the same

page, like on the double page spread for example, the text is placed in spacious areas around the image to fill any big gaps on the

page and to also make reading the article more interesting. Typically, quotes are used in this way to give readers a sneak-peek into what they are going to read in the actual interview or article. Contrastingly, the front page’s layout is quite

poor – it is very basic and there isn‟t a lot to look at. The Q logo in the top left corner looks too big and out of place as it cuts off a large portion of

the image. However, the use of a single headline in the corner does mean that all of the focus from the reader will be drawn straight to that one, which is what readers want as it is the main article of the whole magazine, and what

the main image is based on too. This basic layout is due to the fact that the magazine is a subscribers-only edition, which is often used by

fans to frame and keep the front cover.

Q MagazineQ has chosen a really powerful, emotional quote

taken directly from the featured article to use on

the front page in order for readers to really

connect with it. “I feel so alone,” is a relatively short

quote to use for a headline, but it automatically

gives away the general tone and feeling of the article, which is effective in allowing readers to

connect with and understand the magazine, or the

article itself. However, it would be more

appropriate and effective for Q to actually list

more of the featured articles on the front page, otherwise potential readers who have maybe

never read the magazine before won’t know what

the magazine basically stands for, and so readers

won‟t know what to expect within the magazine.

Sometimes customers don‟t actually have the time to stand and flick through the magazine before

buying it, so if they don’t see anything on the front

cover that doesn‟t interest them, they probably

won’t buy it.

Q Magazine

The piece of text above the barcode indicates to the reader that the front cover is exclusive to subscribers only. The use of the

word “exclusive” makes the readers feel more special, as if they

belong to a Q magazine „club‟, and allows for the readers to

really connect with the overall feel the magazine projects. On

the contents page, particular words such as „features‟ and „regulars‟ indicates to the readers what is really special about the

magazine, and also allows new readers to become familiar with

Q magazine and it‟s reputable identity.

Q MagazineThe use of quotes taken straight from the

magazine for headlines or titles and sub-titles makes reading the magazine more

relatable – it allows readers to directly

connect with the interviewee and the

feelings they are portraying through their

words. Reading just snippets of the text as

well also helps to intrigue readers, they will

want to find out what they say next, what

caused them to say it etc. This is particularly

effective on the double page spread, as it works well with the informal, quite humorous

writing styles of the interviewer, Ted Kessler,

for example, “she also looks after her day-

to-day money as Welch, like the Queen,

doesn‟t really carry the stuff around.” This writing style is effective in connecting with

the characteristics and personalities of the

readers.

Q Magazine

The typical target audience of Q magazine is

young to middle aged adults, who have an

interest in more common genres of music, such as pop, rock, indie etc. To suit this target audience,

Q wants to provide a lot of factual information,

but also make the magazine seem quite fun, and

actually interesting to pick up and read. A

classical music magazine, for example, may contrastingly use a more formal writing style, as

target readers are likely to be older, and interested in the facts only.

Q MagazineOverall, Q magazine is strong in creating an identity for itself.

After over 300 issues of the magazine, the brand and identity

of Q is widely known across Britain, and this is ultimately what

sells the magazine. The use of intriguing images and writing

styles, bright colours and stylish layout helps to make the

magazine visually interesting to look at, and captivating to

read, which, over the years, has given Q its reputation as

one of the best current music magazines. However, there

are some weaknesses to the magazine, such as some of the

double page spread pages and the contents pages – a lot

of information is present on individual pages and could

become too overwhelming for some readers, but on the

other hand, some readers may enjoy seeing a lot of

information for them to read.

Q MagazineFor my own magazine, I think I am going to use Q‟s image

style as an influence for my own pictures, as I really like the

thought they put into considerations such as the hair style,

make-up, emotions and overall positioning of the model. I

also find the writing style very influential; the main articles

are almost like a documentary – they detail every piece of

information to make it more informative for the reader, but

also combines fun and interesting commentary to make

actually reading the text more suitable for the target

audience. I have also started to create my own „identity‟ for

my magazine through the design of my media pack, as I

have similarly used lines and shapes to section text and

create an overall design for the page’s layout, so this is

something I will continue to use Q for as inspiration.