HUCK Front Cover Analysis

This editions front cover is a medium-long (or polaroid) shot of a white male with a loose curl
pattern and tanned skin. The man is dressed in a skin-tight wet suit which is predominantly
black but with yellow details. He is also dressed in long sleeved, waist-length, cheetah-print
outerwear. The model has a black gas mask on fully adjusted onto his face clasping a yellow
surf-board in his right arm; his left arm positioned upwards with his middle finger towards the
camera – a gesture of that nature - particularly unconventional to see in a contrived image.
This has been censored by huck. The model is foregrounded leaving the background an image
of camel-coloured sands that stretch back into the ocean’s mini waves; the sea stretching far-
and-wide into the early horizon. The direction of the surf-boards shadow suggests that the
sunlight is coming from behind the model.

The fact that the model is wearing a gas mask is pretty polysemic since on one hand, it strips
the model of his identity which highlights anonymity. This leaves the readership in a state of
wonderment; simultaneously, it also suggests a sense of counter-culturalism because we
rarely see gas masks being worn on a sunny beach setting – especially one that looks desolate.
This idea is reflected by the anchorage, “The No Heroes Issue”. The noun ‘no’ best describes
an absence of something – in this case – ‘Heroes’. In terms of context, surfers know the sea
better than most and in current day pollution levels are drastically high with garbage patches
in the sea being a contributing factor, perhaps the gas mask is a sign of defiance to represent
this idea that nobody is inhibiting these pollution levels and saving the seas (hence, ‘No
Heroes’).
Furthemore, the huck mission statement reads, “activists, and creative renegades” (further
backed up by the anchorage in top left “”activism”) in reference to target audience which can
be refined to the Reformer psychographic audience. The gas mask in the image perpetuates
this idea by being so out-of-place.

The model wearing cheetah print outerwear is symbolic since the cheetah being a unique
animal means it has unique connotations. For example, too often we lose out on incredible
opportunities because of doubt or fear of risk. Cheetah tells us that life is too short. They
symbolize speed, survival, passion, flexibility – all characteristics of which we expect a surfer
to exude. In turn, this could mean that the model is wearing that print on purpose – it just
leaves the readership wondering if the image was predetermined on behalf of huck, or not. If
the image was on behalf of the producer(s) then why use such imagery?

This photograph is taken with the absence of any other organism – just the model himself.
Beaches are best associated with being busy, however, this image is desolate which makes
the readership skeptical about how realist this image is; whether or not it was fabricated.
Coincidentally, there are also no boats, canoes, kayaks etc., which champions this idea that
the image was staged to make it seem as though the man is in solitude. Since he is a surfer
and surfers have a keen connection to the ocean, perhaps this semantic field of isolation is
trying to convey to the consumers that surfers should own the seas (hence the middle finger
up at the audience which is a rude gesture of non-verbal communication for ‘go away’). He is
basically claiming the territory. This chimes with idea that (conceivably) the surfers are the
‘Heroes’.

Huck uses their usual minimalist Housestyle with the lower-case, black serif font. This
connotes infantilism since this font type attracts the eye of the younger demographic; the
explorers (huck mission statement: ‘huck roam the globe’). They also have a curved corner
quadrilateral central image that takes up the majority of the front cover. Huck have used the
exact same coverlines at the top-right. They are unique because they are able to summarises
the entire magazine contents in 5 words.