Analysis of Dominican University Magazine Cover

Analysis of Dominican University Magazine cover

There are numerous aspects to consider when looking at this cover, in fact compared to the other covers for school magazines this one adopts a fairly novel and intriguing approach to advertising and selling the magazine. I will try to analyse this now.

There are five images used in this cover, as opposed to the one central picture that seems to be in every other cover for not just school magazines, but for magazines as a whole. I feel this is done to give the impression that the school is focused on a variety of aspects and that all are equally important to the system, it also adds to this idea of the school as a melting pot of ideas and futures, where it is possible to go on and do anything if you go to the school.

Looking at the images in detail, the first to point out is a shot of a church, obviously this tells the audience that the university is religious, but the fact that the sun is up in the background could also give the impression that the feel of the school is warm and tender on top of having a religious aspect (it also challenges the idea that religious schools are quite firm and cruel by presenting this image, putting the readers at ease). Also, the idea of mentioning religion could also give students and parents the idea that the school is moral and that morality is a big part of the school’s ethos.

The next shot of the three students (a white boy, a black boy and a girl) is put there to tell the readers: one, that the school is multicultural and accepts people of all creeds and ethnicities where all live in tranquillity and are happy (hence the smiles and the fact that they are hugging); and two, that sending students to this school ensures success as the students are all dressed in graduation garments and are all happy, suggesting that they did well in their exams and that they have bright futures ahead of them, the use of sunlight again could further this concept. The fact that they’re successful also implies that they are intelligent, suggesting that if you send your child there or if you are going there that you too are intelligent and thus are likely to succeed in life.

 The shot of the building sight is somewhat simpler to analyse, it simply suggests to the reader that the school is about moving forward and is about change for the better (sunlight is used here to further this concept), which is possibly another way of challenging the stereotypes readers may have about religious schools being stuck in their ways as it were.

The piece of artwork in the bottom right hand corner of the magazine implies that the school encourages creativity, and furthers the idea that intelligent and enlightened people attend the university as creativity is often linked with these concepts.

The picture to the left of that of the group of people, like the one of the students, implies that the school is diverse in it’s mix of students as people of all colours are present in the shot, but focuses more on the idea of family than anything else. The subjects are all cooped up together as if posing for a family portrait, implying that attending the university is like having a second family, which of course carries the concepts of stability, happiness and comfort, an image that may comfort parents worrying about their children becoming home sick. The idea of the school being a family also carries the idea that the school has family values, implying that the students will be guided in the right direction and taken care of in what most would call a wholesome environment, furthering the idea brought up in numerous other pictures on the cover that morals are a big part of the school’s foundations.

The last picture of the woman that seems to be in the spotlight (on the red carpet perhaps) furthers the idea that the students that attend the school become successful, and can lead a glamorous lifestyle (the fact that she’s wearing gold combined with the connotations that the red carpet provides- power, success, talent ect.- get this point across effectively.)

Looking more at the colour scheme incorporated throughout the piece, we can see that it uses simple blacks and whites, with a flash of purple to emphasise the school’s religious inclinations; blacks and whites are used to make the pictures and all that they say about the school stand out more to the reader, making them automatically see the potential that the school has before they see or think about anything else. This then, means that they already have good thoughts about the school before even looking beyond the front cover