Front Cover Analysis 4 - Research

The first thing I can see about this cover is that Dyer's theory about stars being "images" rather than real people can be applied, as usually Jessie J is not in all black leathers, as a pop artist she tends to wear brighter colours, so for this shoot she has been styled to fit with the usual image Q magazine creates for it's cover artists. Q also breaks convention here by having a sparse cover, magazines usually use their cover to advertise as many articles in the magazine as possible without making it cluttered and untidy, whereas Q is very minimalistic with its cover design.

The pink font used for Jessie J's name is predominantly a girly colour, which could be used to highlight her feminine image and also makes the colour stand out against the white of the studio background and the black of Jessie J's clothing.

Her makeup is very dark around her eyes with a brighter lipstick, however red lipstick is an indexical sign of the rock genre and female rock/pop-rock artists can be seen to wear it often in images, on red carpets and in music videos.

Her makeup could be said to link well with her stance to give a very independent image, which could also be classed as typical of Jessie J, her song "Do It Like A Dude" shows that she doesn't rely on her female image and attraction to men to get her by in the industry. This would also go against the views of Laura Mulvey in saying women only act the way they do for the "male gaze" as in this photo the idea is all about independence.

This could be seen as an unconventional cover for Q magazine as the stance they have chosen for Jessie J can be seen to be covering their masthead slightly. Her arms are both raised and they have chosen not to cover her arm with the masthead, but to place her arm over it. This could again be used to show how she is an empowered woman which is further disproving Mulvey.

Two puffs have been used on the cover of this magazine. Both have a predominantly baby blue background which moves into a bright pink gradient. This allows the puffs to stand out on the plain white and black of the house style of Q magazine and the black font is also large and easy to read on the background, allowing the article and the cover issue to stand out and advertise the contents. The font is a serif font and this is creating a house style with the masthead font used for the Q.

The font used for Jessie J's name and the signature Q 'X' after the artist's name, is in the same font as the example list of artists named for the article displayed on the front. This creates a synergy throughout the cover as all the font style can be linked to somewhere else on the page, and also the style of this font is very unconventional and messy, again in a way breaking the theory Mulvey has as the font is not feminine and therefore displays Jessie J in a different, individualistic light.

How this research has influenced my creativity and ideas:

This cover has shown me that it can be helpful to break the conventions of a usual magazine and that if used properly, it can create a lovely minimalist effect for the cover, which could then be continued on into the contents pages, allowing the articles to be very detailed and effective. It also has inspired me to not display a woman in the usual, sultry way to attract the "male gaze" as in my opinion Mulvey's theory is outdated and largely untrue in modern society.

EDIT: I had originally already written this post out, but after seeing that it had not posted, I came on to try posting it again only to find that all of the text had been deleted and only my image and the cut outs remained. This is the reason this has been posted later than the other research posts I have completed so far.