1. By Matt Pangratiou

2. The masthead for Empire
magazine is a generic
convention for the magazine.
This is the visual branding of
the title and is often done in a
specially designed typeface to
be easily recognised and
unique. This allows the
customer audience to
understand the product and
know what there accessing this
why people would buy the
product if they wanted an in
depth look into the upcoming
blockbuster movie.
The dateline is the Month and
year of publication, often with
the price. Note that a monthly
magazine usually hits the
news-stands the month
before the cover date this will
be seen on every issue of
any type of magazine.
The cover image is essential
for the magazine cover and
their promotion of the film,
the cover image will always
change every month for
obvious reasons as they
would be promoting
something different. In this
case its a picture of Johny
Depp as the notorious John
Dillinger. The image is big
and bold which will stand out
amongst other magazines,
the costuming of it
immediately allows the
customer audience to get
into the films base genre and
from this u can see that its of
the crime/thriller genre.
The name of the film is very apparent
and the grey scale colouring fits in with
the cover image. The font is the same as
the masthead which is bold and stands
out customers no exactly what the film is
called and what the magazine is
promoting.
Cover lines are also a generic
convention of a magazine cover,
they are distributed around the main
image without detracting from it too
much. A mistake often made with
cover lines is that they run over an
image that has a lot of colour
changes, rendering the words
difficult to read. cover lines are a
necessary part of the magazine it
doesn't just focus on that one
particular film they include other
things in this case iron man 2, clash
of the titans etc.
The barcode is seen on every magazine
cover usually on the front in the lower
corners or upper corners. However it is
sometimes seen on the back of the
magazine cover.

3. The masthead is the same
with all of the Empire
magazine covers. The font
is big and the deep red
makes it very distinctive.
This is there visual
branding something that all
customers see and know
what type of magazine it is.
Above is convention that
doesn’t always happen with
Empire magazine covers
this issue of the magazine
is especially just for crime
this immediately tells the
customer the genre of the
films that will be within the
magazine.
The dateline is a
common feature with
every magazine whether
it be on the back, bottom
corners on the front
cover or top corners it
will always be there. It
provides the month and
year of the copy and is
often situated above the
barcode which is
needed in order two sell
the item.
On this particular issue of
Empire there isn't many cover
lines most likely because it’s a
special everything is going to
be about one particular genre
which in this case is crime
thrillers etc. the cover lines
are often small so that they do
not take to much away from
the cover image and title
name.
The main cover image is of the
two main characters in the
movie Denzel Washington and
Russell Crowe. There names
are kindly situated just
underneath both people but this
is part of the cover title. There
eyes aren't locked onto a
camera this image is probably
roped from two different scenes
and then merged together.
Denzel Washington is holding a
gun which shows what type of
character he is without
revealing two much and links to
the films genre. Russell Crowe
is wearing a police badge which
shows that’s it’s a sort of police
vs. villain storyline.
This is the main cover line
with the title of the film
‘American Gangster’ this is a
Generic convention and is
seen on the majority if not all
issues of the Empire. The text
is bold and grabs attention on
the shelves.

4. This is a limited edition of
empire magazine. Notice the
masthead is bigger and
bolder in a golden white
colour highlighting its
differences.
Here the barcode is
placed differently than
other empire magazines
which are usually situated
on the right hand side of
the cover.
The dateline has been moved
from the barcode and placed here.
Its small not a big distraction and
is situated alongside the price
there online address.The selling line is a lot
smaller than usual as it is
giving space for the cover
image its font and colour are
the same as the white gold
on the masthead.
Underneath the cover line is
a smaller selling line that
tells the customer that its a
limited edition, collector
cover, its small and concise
that doesn’t take the
customers attention away
form the main image.
The main image is extremely
apparent highlighting the films
main character (Jamie fox). Its a
collectors edition the main image
is for good presentation and
sense of tension. Its big bold and
very noticeable on the shelf. His
eyes a looking directly at the
camera lens allows the customer
audience to see into his
character. Looking at his
costuming you could take an
accurate guess into when its set
and allows you to build a better
picture of the character. The
quality of the photo is very good
and allows for a professional
finish.