Critical approaches task 2

Magazine Layout Analysis
By Chris Bailey

BBC TopGear MagazineTopGear magazine is the number 1 motoring magazine in the UK,
which isn’t surprising considering the TV show is the most watched
factual program in the world. Aimed at males aged 8 to 80+ its target
audience is massive. Featuring beautiful cars, hilarious challenges,
buying guides and motor news, it’s got a subject for everyone with
even a mild interest in cars.
The front cover begins as usual, with a large and bold masthead
recognizable across the globe with integrated ‘BBC’ branding. The
words are covered partially by two very attractive cars. The Ferrari
placed slightly above the masthead is quick indicator to the target
audience/magazine browser that this magazine is about cars as it
peaks out from behind other magazines. There is a very large cover
line in the middle of the page. This is telling the audience about some
of the best content in the magazine, the piece that will attract the
audience to buying and reading the magazine. There are a series of
images and texts at the bottom called blobs and stars. These are 4
small sub stories that are showing the audience more of the magazines
interesting content, including images and texts which look impressive
and entertaining for the reader.
The main image on the front cover is very ‘in your face’, the car takes
up an entire chunk of the page, and even covers some the title and
one set of cover lines. The images used on the bottom appeal in
multiple ways. Firstly 2 of the cars are very high priced dream cars,
something people will look at to aspire and admire. The other 2 cars
are more reasonably priced and possible for the readers to purchase,
at least one day. People will be drawn to these articles if they want a
fast and fun hatchback that can be used as a daily car.
The font used for the title is very bold and has an italic slant. The
boldness quickly captures peoples attention and the italics represent
speed. The logo is also different to the TV show logo, it is missing the
blue sprocket usually placed on the left of the words. This saves space
and gives the logo a sleeker and more modern look. The cover lines
are in a more blocky font, the letters are also placed closer together,
creating a very dense and impactful visual.

BBC TopGear Magazine
The first page of this double page spread is made almost completely out of images. The images show the TopGear rally car (Hyundai i20
WRC) racing through dirt tracks, with a single image taking up over half the page. This image will quickly grab someone’s attention,
especially when they are flicking through the pages. The placement of the images make the double page spread very busy and
cluttered looking, this suits the exhilarating type of style they are taking with this Wales Rally article. There is a very effective pull
quote on the right hand page “We spear off the road…I keep it planted and hope”. This quote is quite comical yet also sounds like a
really impressive moment. There is a slight colour scheme being followed with the use of some yellow borders and text highlights, this
is quite subtle but holds the page together visually as the rest is very rugged. This divides the messy looking pages from other messy
cartoon or celebrity magazines.
Visuals matter a lot to those
who watch TopGear, the
first ever series was purely
for those who wanted to
know everything about the
cars, but as the show grew
and relaunched it’s
audience became
predominantly those who
don’t know much about the
technicalities of cars, they
mostly knew that faster is
better and caravans need to
be destroyed.
This shows in the magazine
pages as they are very
dense with imagery. The
audience are much more
interested in seeing images
of ‘sick skids’ than engine
layouts and technical
information. There is brief
technical information
amongst the text but much
less than other car
magazines such as ‘Modified
Mag’.
There are lots of different
fonts on the page in
different sections. Some
appears very intellectual
and reserved where as
others are bolder and
louder. This different
series of fonts is smartly
used to express the
content of what is is
explaining.
The pull quote font is very
impactful, tall and static,
this is expressing the
sudden moment when they
lost control and all he
could do was try to power
it out.

Chat
Magazine
Chat magazine is a popular gossip magazine aimed at women
in their 40s. The magazine contains a series of content
focusing on odd true stories from around the world.
The front cover, similarly to other magazines in its style such
as heat magazine, adopts a very cluttered approach in its
front cover lay out. The large- bold and italic masthead is
placed high up to stand out upon other magazines, the high
placement also makes it visible above other mags when
stacked.
There are numerous blobs and stars scattered amongst the
front cover, such as “Exercise made me OBESE!”. 6 of these
on the front page are used to intrigue a reader. Each blob and
star are shown in slightly different little boxes, some are
different colours and other differences such as torn edges as
though it is behind the cover. These all add to the cluttered
effect and make the viewer feel like there is loads of
interesting content inside.
The main image on the front cover is of a woman smiling
cheerfully as if she has been told something funny. Each
edition of chat magazine has an image of a woman laughing or
smiling, likely to give a sense of happiness and entertainment.
The fonts used are all very bold and tall, this almost creates
the effect of shouting to get the viewers attention. As though
each story is fighting for the attention.

The first page of the double page spread is half taken up by an image of the
main subject in the story, a woman with an unsettling story to tell. Seeing the
large full body image of the woman will create a much more real and personal
feel to the story about to be written, by seeing the actual woman who was
effected by the story. The title of the story is very bold and spreads across 2
pages. The fonts and colours differ in the same title in order to amplify the
‘By My Dad’ part of the title, due to its severity.
The story being told
contains a lot of text
and is condensed into
small spaces
surrounded by
imagery, pull quotes
and sub story sections.
This dense style is
frequent throughout
the magazine and
creates a ‘juicy’
feeling in the amount
of content contained
within each page.
Although the images
used are not appealing
in any way, they mix
with the text to create
much more to focus on
to reduce the risk of
the reader losing
attention the
magazine.
There is a lot of
red used over the
page, which
similar to the
dense and
cluttered style, is
used all
throughout the
magazine. This
suggests a common
house colour in
‘Chat’ magazines
to make the
content more
recognisable and
attractive to
frequent readers.
Texts are often
coloured in red or
against a red
background, this
makes them stand
out greayly and
pulls the readers
attention towards
them.

Magazine
Successfulness
A successful magazine will not only generate a keen supply of income for the
creators and distributors but also do it consistently. Weekly released, or
monthly released magazines will aim to have each first time buyer buy the
magazine again and again, this will create an ever growing and consistent
flow of income. Success can also be based on how much advertisers are
willing to pay for your page spaces, the more an advertiser is willing to pay,
the more successful your magazine has become due to it’s ability to create
profit from advertising space as well as purchases.

Critical approaches task 2

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Critical approaches task 2

Editor's Notes