Q - NME magazine comparison

Both Q magazine and NME share similarities in the use of presentational devices. The mastheads both consist of red, white and black, with the red in particular being the heaviest in use. Red is an incredibly bold colour, which symbolises wealth, passion and royalty, which could therefore connote that the magazine itself will share the same attributes.

The backgrounds for both magazines however appear to be very different and contrasting to each other. ‘Q’ background appears to be very simple and plain, so it doesn’t happen to be particularly exciting to look at however it still remains appealing and attractive nonetheless. It is very straightforward, and simply does all that’s needed to be done, nothing too excessive and unnecessary. However the ‘NME’ is much the opposite and is incredibly clustered with images and owns a heavy background, which makes things very exciting to look at, yet also somewhat confusing even though appealing. Although, the overload of pictures and images does seem to fit the theme of the magazine, as it is supposed to possess a ‘Rock’ and ‘Indie’ vibe, which would suggest that things should indeed seem very exciting and jumbled.

The images and font that ‘Q’ uses is very eye-catching and serves to be plain and basic which seems to work well with the magazine, and creates a sensible look. What also helps to create such a sensible look would happen to be the structure of the magazine, it is really simple and easy to look at as it is straightforward and organised, unlike the ‘NME’ magazine where the writing is all over the place and there are many slanted edges between the images and the writing which also adds to the messy style of the Rock magazine. There also happens to be a variety of font styles present within the ‘NME’ magazine that helps as well to create a more exciting and bulging look within the magazine, where in contrast in the ‘Q’ there is only perhaps two different styles of font to be seen, and two different sizes of font making things appear more structured (‘NME’ happen to have a variety of font). Another thing to notice is the appearance of the ‘stars’/ celebrities that are involved in both covers.
The ‘Q’ magazine consists of sensibly dressed, mature looking celebrities with straight faces, that could perhaps help to lure a more mature target audience, opposed to the younger, ‘fun’ audience of perhaps teenagers that would supposedly be drawn by the much younger, rock-dressing rock band with smirks on their faces to appear more immature, fun and ‘cheeky’. Another thing to add for the colours would be the use of gold for the ‘Q’ magazine and the use of yellow for the ‘NME’ magazine as gold has a much more exquisite and rich look which will therefore symbolise this, and the yellow for ‘NME’ creates more a sense of danger and caution, and is incredibly bright so sticks out powerfully and exuberantly among the images.