Denotation: This is a magazine cover of a man in mid shot spinning a basketball with his finger.
Connotation:
-Masthead: The masthead is black which is the opposite colour to the background which is white, this makes it stand out more than if the setting was a different colour or a completely different background. The font used is a sans serif and is similar to sports writing used in logos for teams and connotes American sports culture. The masthead, “College Basketball”, tells the audience that the magazine is about basketball taking place at universities.
-Coverlines: The main colours used are blue, red, white and black which seem to tie in well together. The colour of the ball matches the colour of the cover lines on the right side. Also the colour of his shirt us the same colour as the selling line and the sub cover line under the main cover line. The main coverline is “The Cult of Calipari” which also relates to the other coverline “Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari”. This tells us the man in the photo is John Calipari and “the cult” is probably a reference to the basketball team that he coaches.
-Character:
-Settings: There is little setting and it isn’t too clear, but there seems to be a part of a logo of the university basketball team, which is a basketball with UK written in bold letters. The logo seems to be on the right side and the rest of the background is white. I think this was done intentional to make the main image of the head coach stand out more and it makes his blue shirt look more appealing. It also looks like he could be in a basketball court which links in with the basketball theme.
-Lighting: The magazine front cover uses high-key lighting because the photo is meant to display daytime.
-Costume: The man seems to be wearing a sports/basketball kit. He looks like a sports man but he looks too old to be a basketball player, he looks more like a coach which the writing below the main cover line shows.
-NVC: He is standing casual and smiling while spinning a basketball which could show his love for basketball and could show that he knows or knew how to play basketball by showing the trick he can do with the ball.
-Props: The basketball is used as a prop to show his love for the game.
-Anchorage: The handwriting of the masthead, main coverline and other coverlines are big, bold and links in with basketball.
-Selling Line: The selling line used in this front cover is "Conference Previews/Athlon's Field of 65/Recruiting" which is short and sharp and would catch the mind of the target audience.
-The website link, dateline and barcode are all shown on the front cover.
-Target Audience: I think the main target audience are people who are interested in basketball played at universities and college students who either play basketball or are interested by basketball. I think mainly men over 30 who like the sport would be the most interested in the magazine.
