Analysis of MOJO Magazine - November 2010

FRONT COVER:

The colour scheme from this front cover is black, white, red and grey. I like how they have only used one bright colour (red) as they have used this to highlight the most important things written on the front cover.

‘MOJO’ is written in black, bold capitals at the top of the page. It is covered by some of the main image but as it is a well established music magazine people already know what it is called so it is not necessary to be able to see the full name. It is located at the top of the page.

‘The doors’ is written across the middle of the page. ‘The ‘ is written in considerably smaller writing than ‘doors’ only sitting on top of the ‘d’. As this is the main focus on the page the audience see that this band is the main feature of this issue. Advertising a band across the middle of the page also grabs people’s attention that aren’t MOJO readers but will buy the magazine because they like the band.

The majority of the text is in sans-serif, I think this is because it is bolder and this fits in with the style of the front cover too.

Unlike other magazines I have looked at, this issue of MOJO has 2 insert images as well as the main image found in the middle. The main image is a high angle long shot and it also in black and white. The 1^st small image is in the top right hand corner. It is quite small and of John Lennon. The 2^nd is of a colourful butterfly and is located over the ‘M’ of MOJO. They are both used to promote stories inside the magazine. I think the use of both these insert images looks quite good as they are both small in size, but I think if there was any more or if they were bigger in size it would not look very good and just look quite messy.

There is an advert a FREE CD in the top left hand corner. This is the first front cover I have looked at which has advertised a free gift. Doing this may also entice more people to buy the magazine as they are getting a CD as well as a magazine.

CONTENTS PAGE:

This contents page is split up onto 2 separate pages. They are located back to back in the magazine. The first one has an image as the background. The photo is of Edwyn Collins, is in black and white and a medium close-up. It is located on the right hand side – the rest is of scenery and is slightly out of focus.

The colour scheme on this page consists of 3 colours: black, white and red. This is the same as the one found on the front cover. Using a reoccurring colour scheme links the magazine all together. Q has the same colour scheme running throughout the whole magazine, but MOJO doesn’t.

The MOJO logo is at the top in white. It is the same as the one found on the front cover but in a lot smaller in size (and a different colours). There is a banner underneath it with the date of the issue on (NOVEMBER 2010) and the issue number (Issue 204). Both these are written in white sans-serif font.

This contents page is split up into 2 sections: features and cover story. They both run down the left hand side.

There is a quote in the bottom right hand corner. This is used to advertise another story inside the magazine. I like how they vary the way of advertising their stories.

The page number and MOJO logo is in the bottom left hand corner. The page number is in bold but the MOJO logo is not. This is found in the bottom corner of every page.

The 2^nd contents page has a plain white background. There is a collage of pictures down the left hand side. These are of album covers, live gigs and posed photos of b ands/artists that are all featured in the magazine.

This page is split into 3 sections: regulars, what goes on! and the mojo filter. These are all in a list down the right hand side.  The use of sections makes the contents page easier to read and also the way photos are used to advertise some stories makes the page look less image dominated.

The colour scheme of this page is gold, red, black and white. It is the same as the first contents page apart from gold has been added. Keeping the colour scheme the same shows both pages are together and show the same topic, which might not be obvious at first as they are on separate pages (back to back in the magazine).  

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD:

The whole of the right hand page is taken up by an image. All of the text is on the left hand page. The text is split up into 2 columns. Compared to other examples I have seen, I like that 3 columns of text on a double page spread tends to look a lot better than just 2.

The colour scheme consists of 4 colours: black, blue, gold and white. Some colours are the same as the colours seen on the front cover and contents page. The colour scheme is similar throughout but not exactly the same.

‘FILTER ALBUM’ is written in the top left hand corner of the left hand page. This is the section of the magazine this article is from. I like how it tells you what section you’re on on the page as I think it makes the magazine easier to read and also look through as you know where about you are too.

There is a fact sheet about the album being reviewed – Kings Of Leon, Come Around Sundown – in the middle of the 2 columns of text. I like how they’ve split the text by doing this which makes it easier to read and look at.

The first 2 words of the article are in capitals. This is the same sort of idea as a drop capital but isn’t as noticeable. I like it as it clearly shows where the article starts but does so quite subtly