Magazine Cover Review

    Everyone reads magazines somewhere whether they’re at home, in the checkout line at the grocery store, or even at the doctor's office. In today’s world with our ever-expanding technology, magazines are becoming less and less popular. According to Keith Blanchard who was quoted by Michael Schere, our current generation has a “shorter attention spans than any previous generation; they are chronically over-stimulated and easily bored...People just don't have as much time to read" Many of the magazines we went over in class had a lot of pages that were just pictures, no actual wording or paragraphs, just picture. In class we reviewed many different types of magazines such as Oprah, Cosmopolitan, Vouge, Motor Trend, and Sports illustrated. Most magazines have a specific target audience. Some target women, some target men, some target both.

    I'll start with the Oprah magazine. On the cover is Oprah wearing an orange sweater for the month of October and for the spirit of Halloween. Her wearing orange is a contrast to the green in the background. This magazine focuses a lot on optimism and to stop focusing on the negative and instead focus on the positive. It is a very carefree and encouraging magazine.  

    Up next is Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan is all about women. It tends to talk a lot about sex, “If it says sex its most likely cosmopolitan”. My initial impression is that they aren't afraid to get political considering it says in bold “wear a damn mask!” on the front cover. The feature for cosmopolitan was for Joey King. There was a page that just had the word “King” on it like a movie poster. Overall a very feminine article because it talks about heels and sex and pink and white fonts on the cover. After this we looked at a Vogue magazine.

    Vogue uses more professional, urban women than other magazines such as the cosmopolitan. Vouge advertises many high-end brands and targets a much richer audience. The cover of Vouge featured Rihanna wearing more formal clothing compared to what she usually wears. The fonts used in the Vouge magazines are mostly just black and white which adds to the professional level of the magazine.  

    Next, I will go over GQ. This cover of GQ features Travis Scott with a lot of contrast between colors. There is a black background with Travis in the middle with a red light shining on him with a blue font for the text. GQ usually has formal attire but for this one, Travis has no shirt on. GQ tends to be straight to the point and has a richer audience. The first feature in this magazine has an interesting blue font that you won't see in any other magazine. As stated by Michael Schere, “The magazine-reading future, in other words, will be bite-sized. The narrative will surrender to the newsflash. Image will subsume the written word. It is already happening. It can't be stopped”. This magazine had a lot of pages that were just mainly pictures of Travis and nothing else. My overall impression is that this magazine or at least this issue is a lot less formal than Vouge but still appeals to the richer audience.

    Next is Men's Health. Now obviously this is one is geared towards mainly men. On the cover it features a big, muscular guy. This magazine is all about staying healthy and getting in shape. On the cover in red bold letters it reads, “RACE, RACISM & BLACK MEN’S HEALTH”. This is a clear understanding that Men’s Health is not afraid to get involved with politics and current issues such a racism.

    For our project, I have yet to decide if I want to create a movie intro or create a magazine. Both seem like they could be a really fun and challenging project. Once we go over the programs used to create the movie and the magazine, I will have a more clear understanding of which one I will choose.