Magazine Cover Review

             My initial impression for these printed magazines were that I could tell the audience each magazine was trying to attract. For example, “Vogue”, this magazine is unique by their high fashion and high-end brands. Their audience is towards affluent women as their advertising brands include Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc. Depending on the magazine, I noticed how there would be certain ads that would be attracting to the specific audience. Magazines would also try to lure an audience by the type of font of color they would use for the lettering. A reoccurring pattern I've seen was a black, red, and white theme for the articles as it stands out to readers. One specific topic I'm most interested in that magazines do is the way models dress according to the theme of the magazine. 

A magazine that attracts rich men could have the model wearing an expensive suit with nice accessories. For example, I observed the magazine “GQ” which usually features celebrities for their cover models. Although, this month’s issue for this magazine was a bit different than the others as it features Travis Scott. His cover not only was he not wearing a full-on suit, but his theme was a lot more different but also perfectly matches his style. His shirt is off while he wears a nice jacket, and I could also see the advertising of Calvin Klein. Having celebrities as the cover is key to attracting the bigger audience as they’re very influential in today's pop culture world. According to the article “Chances are you won't bother to read this article. It is just one long block of text, after all, unbroken by alluring pictures, snappy captions, or eye-grabbing infographics. You can't click it. You can't flip it. All you can do is read it. (Does Size Matter?)”, Playboy’s Kaminsky agrees that “it is absolutely critical these days to reach out and grab the reader”, therefore one of the best ways to do that is to feature a trending artist on the cover. 

 Another magazine in which the model is wearing something according to the theme of the magazine is Oprah’s magazine “O”. The issue that I observed was the September/ October issue. Around this time, fall is starting so Oprah wears orange and she's out in a bright green field with her dog. For the magazine “Men’s Health”, it’s obvious what the theme of the magazine is from the title and who the audience would be. The cover would usually be a man with a muscular figure so I could assume that the magazine would advertise products that are in the topic of body building or health. Some magazines on the other hand won’t even have models such as home living catalogues such as “Better Homes and Gardens”. The September/ October issue had fun DIYs that a mom would enjoy making for decoration. The audience for this magazine seems to aim towards stay at home moms who wants to get creative with home and family building. The magazine even has some articles with some family fun activities. 

Overall, looking at magazine covers is quite literally judging a book by its cover as there are so many things you can assume just by the way someone is dressing or specific items that represent the themes of the magazine. I think the Magazine project would definitely be a good fit for me. I feel like I really understand the concept of magazines and I'm excited to make one of my own.