Title Block Analysis

Q: Q magazine's logo is very simple but effective. The name of the magazine is in white but inside a red box. This makes the logo stand out from the crowd and more likely to be seen over other magazines on the shelf. The use of the letter 'Q' was chosen as it is easy to remember and quite different from other magazine titles, this also be chosen for the purpose of standing out and being significant. It was originally titles 'Cue' as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play, however this was changed so it is not associated with a snooker magazine. The way that the name of the logo is set out is that it is rather formal and neat, but also very bold and in-your-face and capitalised to make it stand out more which is the main purpose of the logo.

NME: Compared to 'Q' magazine's logo, 'NME' is much more bold and informal with their use of colours and font. the colour of the actual logo's name is bright red, very similar to the background of 'Q' magazine. This is to make the logo more noticeable from other magazines on the current market, combined with the contrasting white around the lettering to make it seem even more bold and noticeable, with the main reason behind the bold use of colours being for it to get noticed over the other magazines that out today. Surrounding this is a black background to make it even more significant. The wording is also capitalised to emphasise it, relating back to the purpose of making it stand out. 'NME' stands for New Musical Express. The purpose to this name is that it's associated with feeding you new musical information quickly, and that you must know about what they include in the magazine like it's important that they know. It can also be associated with the word 'enemy' which sounds like 'NME', which goes with the representation of the magazine as it does not conform to normal everyday music that people listen too (i.e. pop), therefore being an enemy to society and the norm.

Kerrang!: Like 'Q' and 'NME', 'Kerrang'! is also big and bold in order to make it stand out from the shelves. However with 'Kerrang!', as it appeals to more of a rockish target audience, the large use of the colour black detonates the more hard rock audience compared to the magazines I analysed above. The idea of the title block is to make is look rough and edgy to coordinate with the type of music their target audience are interested in. The two main colours that are used (black and white) are used especially as they both contrast each other which makes them stand out, therefore becoming noticeable compared to other magazines out there. This is symbolic to the readers of the magazine as the readers can be seen as loud, out-there and different as the music they enjoy is also all of those things. This concept of being different and standing out from the crowd is used well by 'Kerrang!' as the whole concept and root meaning of this magazine is about being different so if they were to fail at showing their individuality and standing out from other competitors (in both the magazine and music industry) then the whole point of the magazine would be wrong and nobody who enjoys the music that it features would buy it.

By Harry Luke Mulvany