Real Media Analysis 2
The Thrasher masthead is iconic and remains the same every issue, a bold yellow font that goes across the whole of the top third of the cover. This makes it distinguishable from the other magazines in the shops and makes it easier to pick up; Thrasher does this deliberately because of the target audience, skateboarders and followers of the skateboarding culture. Skate culture is usually anti-mainstream, anti-hero, rebellious lifestyles so the masthead is challenging the norm. Thrasher only uses three colours on the front cover, with the exception of the yellow typography masthead; the colours used are complete contrasts, black and white overlapping. This helps make the magazine simple and stand out and is once again challenging the typical codes and conventions of magazines. There are only two fonts, the front cover also only uses two fonts to keep it simple and to stick to its common codes and conventions of the magazine and to not overdo it with fonts and colours making it too much. There is only one photo on the cover; the cover photo is of popular skater, Mark Appleyard. Straight away for skaters and the skating fan base this brings attention towards the magazine as Appleyard is a well-known skater. The mise-en-scene in the image is on location at a skate park, this can draw curiosity to the audience, skaters want to know good skate parks and spots and Thrasher magazine’s cover photo usually features a good skating spot or skate park. As this magazine is a special “Skater of the Year” issue the magazine has big name and big brand subtitles across the cover. This is to re iterate that this magazine is a big deal in Thrasher’s calendar. “Mark Appleyard Skater of the Year” is placed strategically above the masthead in block capitals to draw attention to that as the feature article, coinciding with the image. Other sub-titles such as “Anti-Hero the Movie” and big names like Danny Way and Ryan Sheckler bring further interest in the magazine and encourage readers of the skating culture target audience to purchase the magazine as these are big brands. “Special edition” is once again reminding readers that this is a special edition. The “& much more” is slotted next to the big skating names to entice the reader into reading on to see what else the magazine has to offer. The barcode is placed in the bottom left corner to show that the magazine is in fact for sale, it also specifies issue date and price so that readers can see it is in date and how much they are paying, in this case $5.99