Magazine Analysis: Front Cover and Contents Page - Fashion

Front Cover Analysis of Vogue

This front cover of the fashion magazine Vogue was published in the month of February, in 2014. The colour scheme of cold blue, white and soft red fit the winter season well; the red text stands out well against the blue background and adds an eye-catching effect to the front cover which is essential to draw in readers. The red text could also be seen to imply that bright times are ahead as spring quickly approaches. One of the cover lines in large text at the bottom left is talking about first looks at the upcoming spring fashion trends which can reinforce my previous statement.

A range of fonts are used in this front cover so that each text stands out by contrasting against each-other. It's important that the front cover is the most eye-catching part of the magazine in order to attract attention to itself. Serif - a mature font - is used in the title and a couple of cover lines; the header is always in this font for each of the magazines so that the magazine is easily distinguishable and maintains its appearance. Other sans-serif fonts used are bolder, others are in italics.

The image on the front cover is of Georgia May Jaggers, a British model. This model has an eye-catching flawless natural beauty: minimal makeup, soft pink lips, natural tousled hair, clear and smooth skin. She has a typical girl-next-door appearance which is what many people aspire to look like. She has a direct gaze and her green eyes are complemented against the background of the portrait and the denim jacket she's wearing. She has a well-known reputation of modelling for the denim clothing brand Hudson Jeans - the style choice in the cover also relates to the spring fashion that is revealed in the magazine.

The magazine is aimed at stylish females ranging from the ages of late teens to mid 30s, though some specific issues may have stories aimed at an older audience of 40s. Due to the audience aim, the language choices are appropriate for those with general knowledge of fashion, and those of the age range. This allows people to not be scared off by specific jargon of fashion, and instead feel welcomed to read into the subject. They use discrete terms in the cover: 'in bed with' which isn't unsuitable for younger, naive people to read. An interrogative is used in the cover which draws the reader towards the contents of the magazine to find the answer. Other texts featured on the magazine include brands for bad skin which many people can relate to and would be eager to find possible solutions.

Vogue is available to buy copies in print, and also to download as an e-magazine. Condé Nast Publications is the publisher that distributes Vogue. This company is an American mass media establishment who are responsible for many other magazines such as Glamour, Wired, The World of Interiors. The large range of magazines they publish are aimed at a large variety of different audiences which allows the publisher to make money out of many different people.

While this magazine's content doesn't directly apply to my music magazine development, it does help my research in magazine structure and professional image. My analysis has helped me to see the different language uses I can use to draw in an audience, and how to target a specific audience with just the cover.

Contents Page Analysis of V Magazine

This is the contents page to another fashion magazine named 'V'. Again, I am fully aware that I'll be producing a music magazine, but the beauty of fashion magazines is something I'm keen to include in my work. This issue was published in October 2008. V Magazine was launched in 1999, and releases a copy 4 times a year, for each season's fashion.



This design has a clear focus on the model of the image. She's the only person featured on the contents page, and the general colour scheme is set out to compliment her, for example using clear black and white writing, and grey background with a vignette to help the logo and header stand out. The model is also making direct address, and takes up at least half the page. She's wearing minimal clothing and her pose can be seen as seductive, and glamorous. Women looking 'sexy' is very conventional in the media, but it does help to promote fashion if the model is considered beautiful.

The font used for 'contents' is in bold, and clear writing so that the page stands out and is easy to distinguish, against the other pages. The writing for the sub-headings are in a fancy style with in a serif font. This can be seen to reflect the elegant and classy fashion within the magazine. Then the writing about the contents is in a clear font so it's easy to work out what is where.

The titles of the pages we can see featured on this page are short and quite ambiguous. For example, 'Barely There'. This could be referring to almost anything, but as we know that this is a fashion magazine, the connotations of 'barely there' are quite sexual in the way that there would be minimal clothing. This is likely to be what the main image on the contents page is referring to so that it draws the readers in.

Fashion is generally considered to be a 'girly' subject, and this magazine does seem to be one that targets itself at a trendy, young women audience. I am aware that this company produces a magazine called 'VMan' which is a fashion magazine aimed specifically at men.


In summary of these two short analyses, I can see that in fashion magazines they use a limited amount of colour, which tie each of the pages together by doing so. I think that it's important for magazines to be aesthetically pleasing in order to look professional, and I'm personally drawn towards these minimalistic layouts that keeps everything clear and organised.