Magazine Cover Review

      I found the magazine articles to be pretty interesting to look on a visual standpoint. The different styles and fonts of the lettering really make the magazine covers really compelling and make the reader want to buy the magazine. With big lettering and a variety of different fonts and colors, these magazine covers want the reader to read their magazine fully, but some people, mostly young adults and teens, read magazines and may have a low attention span because of the lengthy articles in the magazines. Magazines like Rolling Stone used to have long and wordy articles because "Back when Rolling Stone was publishing these seven-thousand-word stories, there was no CNN, no Internet" (Scherer, 2002). But recently, they have accomodated the way they write articles by reducing the word count and highlight the most important details so that it is quick and easy to read in order to appeal to a younger audience, which is why visuals play a big part in magazines.

     Women's magazines use a lot of visuals in order to attract its audience. “Most magazines now resemble movie posters more closely than they do the dry pages of a book” (Scherer, 2002). Some examples of women’s magazines with striking visuals are Vogue and Cosmopolitan. Most of the visuals in both magazines comprise of pictures of diverse models with various high-end fashion pieces from Versace or Louis Vuitton, and intense font styles with different colors and sizes. Cosmopolitan seems to be the magazine that takes more advantage of the intense font style out of the two magazines, since Cosmopolitan’s trademark is to advertise the idea of womanly independence and beauty; on the other hand, Vogue takes more advantage of its images to present itself as more high-end and classy. Background colors and theme play an important role as well. While Cosmopolitan has more lively colors in order to promote freedom and happiness, Vogue uses more grey and brown tones to present a classy and sophisticated theme.

     Men’s magazine covers also use these strategies in order to captivate their readers. Magazines such as GQ and Men’s Health are examples of magazines with notable features that make them interesting to the reader. The male models in both magazines are diverse and promote good looks just like the women’s magazines, but they have one key difference compared to women’s magazines. The difference being the topics they present in the articles, which are more political and thought provoking than the articles in Cosmopolitan and Vogue.

 

     Magazines have the art of knowing exactly what their readers are and want, and if I ever make the magazine cover, I would be as aware and creative as the examples stated previously.