The importance of colour cohesion on magazine front covers and contents pages.

DEFINITION Colour cohesion is the scheme of colours used on a magazine front cover, contents page, and normally throughout the magazine. The ‘cohesion’ of the colours, is the idea that they are bringing them together. This could be shades of one colour or several colours, e.g. using red, black and white for every magazine.

BRAND and IDENTITY I found that each magazine used colour cohesion to brand their magazine’s style and focus. It allowed them to be recognised instantly by their name and regularly used colours. For example, Kerrang! uses lots of bright clashing colours, whereas Mojo uses a more sophisticated combination of colours; reds, blacks and whites and Vibe uses 3 to 4 colours, often bright, depending on the artist being represented.

Kerrang! Magazine Kerrang will use brighter, clashing colours for their front covers and Contents pages as the vivid scheme will attract the younger audience that their magazine is aimed towards. Kerrang doesn’t have a fixed colour scheme, although tend to use the same bright shades of yellow, red, green etc. Their front cover is always full with people, images and uses lots of colours to mirror this. The title and feature article are always written in a vibrant colour such as yellow, black, white or red, in order to make these stand out in the magazine. The background colours also uses the main four colours (normally); red, yellow, black or white. This makes the title and artist(s) stand out too.

Vibe Magazine Vibe also doesn’t have a fixed colour scheme, although only 3 or 4 different colours are used on the front cover of each individual issue, for example this issue used red, black, grey and white. The colours used on the cover are also used for the contents page. Vibe tent to use more sophisticated colours for their magazine front covers and contents pages, I think this is because their audience is usually older than that of other music magazines, such as Kerrang! The title is normally one block colour, but Vibe sometimes use a gradient of the colours the artist is wearing or colours that relate to them. This colours/ these colours are normally used to highlight the feature article on the artist as well. The colour used for the background is usually a shade of white, grey or black. It can be a brighter colour, like blue, if the artist or the artists clothes do not stand out.

Mojo Magazine Mojo doesn’t have a fixed colour scheme, although it have similar colour cohesion to Vibe, using only 3 or 4 different colours are used on the front cover of each individual issue, for example this issue used red, black, grey and white. The colours used on the cover are also used for the contents page. They also match the colours on the free CD that comes with the issue. Mojo has a classier, more mature feel to the front cover; I think that the colours and layout help to show this older style, and this is probably because the primary audience is older, and Mojo is an older magazine. The title is normally white, but on some issues it may be coloured due to the colours in the photograph and on the free CD that comes with the magazine. It also depends on the artist. The colour used for the background depends on the issue. Older artists generally have less brightly coloured and less vibrant backgrounds and are often in black and white, compared to younger artists, who normally have colourful backgrounds.