Analysing the VIBE summer 2013 Magazine, including the front cover, contents page, and double page spread

1. ANALYSIS OF ‘VIBE’
Rian Eades

2. MASTHEAD
The masthead of ‘VIBE’ magazine is often overlapped
by the main cover photo. This is not a problem for
the magazine because they are so well renowned
that the masthead is iconic. This means that when
people see the masthead, even if it is covered, then
it is instantly recognisable as ‘VIBE’ music
magazine.

3. COVER PICTURE
The cover picture on this edition of vibe has two artists, because the main
cover line to the bottom right suggests that this edition is about both artists
and not simply one. The picture takes up a vast majority of the page and
there are cover lines that are on top of the picture. This, in essence, is
allowed because the colours used are that of which contrast well with the
dark clothing that each artist is wearing, therefore making the text easily
readable.

4. COVER LINES
This is the main cover line. It is aligned
right because it is on the right hand
side of the page and a bigger font
size is used in order for us to
establish it as the main cover line. We
also know that it is the main cover line
because it corresponds with the two
artists used in the cover picture
These two cover lines are aligned left as
they are written on the left hand side
of the page. They are written in a
smaller font so they do not confuse
the reader and make them think that
one of these could possibly be the
main cover line. The cover line
overlays the picture but this is
‘allowed’ because colours are used
well

5. BAR CODE
It may be hard to make out on this picture, but VIBE actually do
something very clever and creative with their barcode. They
extend the bar code just enough to be able to fit on their
website as a way of marketing/advertising. They also put on
the price of their magazine with the barcode so that they do
not have to put it anywhere else and therefore overcrowd the
page. I like this feature a lot.

6. VIBE Contents Page

7. LOGO
VIBE use this letter V on their contents page as a logo
for part of the house style. It is pretty much there so
that they do not have to write out the full title again
and can therefore use just the letter ‘V’

8. Double page
As this was a special edition vibe, they used two
pages for their contents layout to ensure that one
page didn’t become over crowded while trying to fit
all of their contents and features in.

9. USE OF WHITE SPACE
VIBE have used white space really effectively.
Sometimes pages can look pretty bare if there is too
much white on the page however they have
organised text and images in such a way that the
white space helps define the page.

10. HEADLINES
Headlines in the contents page are important because it lets readers
know what title goes with what page, I have cropped it out but there
are page numbers above all of these headlines that correspond with
each headline. The headlines can’t be too long and in this case they
aren’t.

11. Double Page Spread

12. TEXT
The double page spread in this edition of vibe is very text heavy.
This is because it is an interview. Usually a double page spread
would consist of around 600-900 words depending on what content
is involved in the text. I would say this double page spread is around
the 2000 word margin.

13. TITLES
I like what vibe have done the these titles. The effect used on
them is subtle enough to allow you to still read the words but it
is a very extreme effect at the same time. It gives the title a
sense of flare. The colours used are a part of the house style
for this magazine and we see them used constantly throughout
the magazine.

14. WRAP TEXT
Text wrapping is very commonly used in magazine articles as
it allows the magazine company to expand out a quote from
within the body copy, usually explicit, in order to entice the
reader to want to find out more on the subject.

15. THE LEAD
The lead is an introductory paragraph that leads into the body copy. VIBE have done
things a little differently here because although they have written it in bold to set it
apart from the body copy, it is much too long, however they are able to get away with
this as it is a very text heavy article, or interview in this case.

16. FIN