Wired Magazine Cover Analysis

This cover is from Wired's March 2013 edition.

• Codes and conventions:
  Elon's crossed arms - This acts as a symbolic code of the person performing the action to be no nonsense and firm, or perhaps even defensive in their demeanour about particular subject matter.
  Elon's gaze - The fact that Elon is looking aside rather than directly at the camera gives the symbolism of someone in deep thought or consideration, and by doing so implies that by purchasing the magazine and reading it you'll get a better glimpse of his mind, etc.
• Layout and design
  The design makes usage of the Z-line technique to guide the eyes along from the skyline and title of the magazine, right across the celebrities gaze and through the main articles/ issue name, then finally the main article at the bottom, producing it in such a way makes the information all more graspable to the viewer.
  
  We see the rule of thirds being utilised quite heavily in this magazine cover, (and most magazines at that) in that the important details are laid upon the leading lines to bring more attention towards them with a nearly symmetrical layout giving a structure of columns to the cover.
   
• Composition - positioning of masthead/headlines, cover lines, images, columns 
  The masthead is placed slight below the very top of the cover, with a trio of skyline article titles placed above it, next on opposite sides of the celebrity's (Elon Musk) face we can see the title of the particular issue which holds an overview of the magazine closely below it, then another article upon the other side of Musk's figure which has it's importance implied by being prioritised and larger comparatively to the skyline articles. At the very bottom of the cover and aligned centrally is what is arguably the headline piece that attaches to the photo of Elon Musk and acts as the main article of the paper.
• Font size, type, colour 
  The fonts within the front cover are all sans-serif, which applies a feeling of modernity to the magazine's aesthetic feeling, the colour palette consists of green, white and black; Though the majority of type including main article title and headline are in mustard yellow, the choice in having yellow as the most prominent colour leads to a feeling of optimism within the cover.
• Images/photographs - shot type, angle, focusThe single photo is taken  a close up taken flat-on to Elon, with full focus upon him, it's clear in it's intent that it doesn't want to guise the front page celebrity in any mystery. 
• Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 
  The colour of the photograph is  seemingly quite a high contrast, obviously to put more emphasis on the celebrity while the intense lighting perhaps conveys that he has nothing to hide/ he's going to be bringing something important to light in the magazine article, the attire is his signature simplistic black shirt, which implies that what he speaks of in the paper is more than likely genuine to his character and not artificial.
• Graphics, logos 
  It's a little hard to make out, but there are various faint outlines of geometric shapes upon the cover, with one below the I in Wired shaped to look like a rocket ship as a reference to the content of the issue, the logo itself is white with black boxes covering the backing of every other letter, it helps to try present the magazine as creative and thinking outside of the box in the complexity of it's name, the graphic of the yellow rectangle running through the W in Wired its clearly an embedded reference as to the name of the magazine itself, a sign of an actual wire.
• Language – headline, sub-headings, captions – mode of address
  The overall lexus of the cover reads as educated, albeit informal, with the sub-heading of the main headline going for the usage of brackets. The mode of address is direct with the usage of 'we' showing that Wired would like to present itself as apart of the community more so than a formal figurehead of some kind, not above the viewer.
• Copy 
  Above all else, copy is the largest element of this magazine cover, everything aside from the name of the magazine is imploring the viewer to find out more about them by creating a mystery of suspense by merely hinting on the content of the respective articles entailed, for example, 'The Car that drives itself' leading the prospective viewer hopefully to question as to how, then having to look further into the magazine to find out an answer to their question.
• Anchorage of images and text
  The design creates anchorage of text by having it placed along the z-line accordingly to how the designer wished for it to be consumed by the viewer, the pieces of information have also been scaled and placed for the purposes of such too.
•