Cover Analysis for Mix Mag

Chosen Genre: Dance/House Music
Other Titles Within The Genre: Pacha, Wax Poetics, DJ Magazine

Mixmag is a British dance music and clubbing magazine. With a circulation of 37,139 and a readership of 276,000 as of August 2008, it claims to be the biggest selling dance/clubbing magazine in the world. Because of this it is focused on and audience of around 18-30 year olds who enjoy clubbing.

The title mixmag refers to the DJ-ing term 'Mix' which is the seemless blending of two songs into one by the dj so that the music never stops in the club. The use of the word mag as opposed to magazine gives it a younger feel as well. The icon of a turntable has been incorporated into the font and now replaces the 'dot' from the letter i.

The font is very modern and edgy, sans serif, very vibrantly coloured, most likely to match the styling of the model in the photo. The main points of the front cover are coloured yellow for example the words 'PLUS' and 'IBIZA' or '1384', the number of clubs reviewed in the issue This also makes the cover look more attractive and gives variation to blocks of text. The sub text headings on the front cover are emboldened so they stand out against the rest of the text.

Another interesting point is that the designers have chosen to underline a large proportion of the text, in my opinion this doesn't really help to read the text, it almost gets in the way, the only reason i can think of that the lines were incorporated were so that people could see more of a difference between the yellow and white writing (where it is predominantly used)

The main text and the photo together give you the perfect first impression as you look at it, they tell you what the main features of the magazine are, give off a feel-good vibe as you read it and draw you in with eye catching sentences like MUSIC! MADNESS! MONEY!

The written text itself even refers to the idea of partying and clubbing i.e. 'Paul Van Dyk- Political Party Animal!'. The fact that Ibiza is renowned as the spiritual home of dance music and is honoured by an annual pilgrimage to the island by clubbers' is probably why the designers chose to use the abbreviation "'08" rather than "2008".

There are 3 main types of story mentioned on the cover:
1.The main theme of the issue, in this case Ibiza
2.Artists/Albums featured in the issue
3.General Information about the features i.e. Club Guide, Strangest lost property found in clubs

There is a bar code and an issue date (September 08) as well as a price, Photo-credit(who took the photo) and a U.K/Overseas price. This type of 'light' magazine typically has between 120/150 pages, with mixmag fitting in at 138 pages.