Magazine cover

Main image:

The main image on this magazine is a close up shot of Harry Styles. They have used high-key lighting on his face so you can see all of the detail, as it is a male fashion magazine and Harry Styles attracts a very wide target audience. Thousands of girls love him and find him very attractive, and also a lot of men aspire to look like him because he is such an iconic figure who gets a lot of female attention. GQ is aimed at more of a mature age than what his fan base is. The way that he has been styled is to make him look a lot more mature to appeal to the older audience  aimed at by this particular magazine, so he then looks like he fits in with this age range and not just the younger generation that he is stereotypically associated with. His facial expression look very deep in thought so, it is intreging to the audience as they want to know what he is thinking about.  The price is £3.99, so this also shows that it is to a more mature audience because a student would probably not pay it for a magazine every week.The image is also laid out in the rule of thirds, so the magazine cover is structured and easy to read.

Main cover line:

The cover line says 'World Exclusive' gives the effect that you will not read it anywhere else and that it is breaking news. The main cover line itself is about the amount of girls that Harry has slept with, it gives the impression as it is a man's magazine that he is being applauded for the number of girls he has slept with and they are therefore congratulating him as it makes him look a lot more mature than what he is thought to be due to his main fan base and audience, as they are a lot younger than him. so by the magazine then talking about the amount of girls that he has slept with it makes him seem a lot more mature and then appeal to this more mature audience that read this specific magazine. 

Masthead:

The masthead is very big and bold so it draws the reader to look at the magazine name and title. It is also red which is a very bold colour that it a much brighter colour than the picture so it stands out from the rest of the magazine but it does not detract from the main image of Harry Styles as he is the main subject of the magazine cover.

Dateline:
The date line is very important on a magazine cover because it signifies how new a magazine is This is very important if it is a fashion magazine as people only want the latest fashions, they do not want to reading a fashion magazine that is months old because fashion trends change so quickly and people only care and want to read about the latest ones as they want to keep up with the new styles and trends. The dateline is also very important in other magazines, for example ones about celebrities. As people want to know the latest news and stories about celebrities. So they want to know the most cent stories and news so they are up to date with celebrities lives. They do not want to be reading stories about things that have happened to celebrities months ago as then everybody will know by then and people like to be the first to know and want the inside scoop as soon as they can.

Cover lines/ puffs:

GQ use a lot of cover lines, which are distributed around the main image without distracting from it too much. This is a main often occurring mistake that cover lines can over run an image that has a to of colour changes. As GQ is a mens fashion magazine, they have a cover line on 'Winterising your wardrobe, autumn style special.' So this then still gives the magazine the fashion information, but then as fashion is considered a more feminine type of topic traditionally they have also put in Cover Lines that are very manly topics like 'Why boxing should be taught in every school' and 'What really happens when you have your prostate removed'. So because it is a male magazine I think that they have also used these more 'Manly' topics like Sports to talk about as well because men are still making sure that they are the dominant gender and still do the things that men are thought to do, like be 'strong' and 'fighting with one another' which is why the boxing article ha also been put into it. They want to be thought of as still being the strong, dominant gender still, and not thought to be less of a man because they are interested in Fashion also.