Magazine Research

Here is the research for my magazine. 

Reflection : Personally i don't like the tacky colour of a magazine, i would not use this on my magazine because of the unaesthetic colour combinations and the colors that are way to much for my personal preference in a magazine. 

Cosmopolitan 

Cosmopolitan is an American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City. Cosmopolitan is one of the best-selling magazines and is directed mainly towards a female audience. In this magazine, cosmopolitan is featuring an actress Halle Bailey who played in a movie called "the little mermaid".

Media language: The genre of the magazine is characterized by the topics related to fashion, lifestyle. The elements that shows the genre is from the well dressed character in the cover of the magazine, the statement in the magazine "it's time to get dressed" is directed toward audiences who are interested in fashion. The presence of a well-dressed character on the cover is a common feature in fashion and lifestyle magazines. This is meant to attract the attention of readers interested in fashion and style. This magazine conforms to this convention, by the bright and bold headlines, bright colours (green) for the overall appearance for the magazine, the body language of the celebrity which is directly looking at the camera, and the colour of the model being contrast therefore making the magazine a typical "go to magazine" because of the familiarity. Another element that attracts the audience is the celebrity looking directly towards the camera making a direct mode of address, this causes the audience to build up a personal connection with the audience. 

Reflection : This is a good example of my magazine preference, i like the way the colors look nice (color theory) and all the images, celebrity and fonts are well placed and easy in the eyes. I would use this idea on my magazine. 

Representative : The actress halle bailey was represented in a good way which is shown from the way she is dressed, her posture and pose and conforms the conventional representation of celebrities. She also differs from the conventional representation from her race, usually the celebrities chosen in the magazine are white race people. The affect on the audience is that it creates a sense of uniqueness and makes the magazine more eye catching. Inclusion of non-white celebrities, like Halle Bailey, promotes inclusivity and diversity. The celebrity is also looking directly at the camera, creating a bond between the audience and magazine because it feels more personalized. Therefore the celebrity's difference makes the audience more interested because it follows the convention of a fashion magazine but differs a little, making it unique and promoting diversity. 

Audience: Fashion magazine's target audience are people who are interested in fashion, which can be identified by the choice of colours in the magazine which are well coordinated, the type of font used in the magazine which is slim and pretty types of fonts. Its content aims to influence consumer behavior by offering shopping guides and brand advertisements. The target audience is probably from 20 - 35 age range, because in the magazine's cover line talking about pregnancy. From the cover the words and type of fonts chosen is fonts that are less formal, also the good colour combination which would attract audience who are interested in fashion. 

Industry : Cosmopolitan magazine stands as an iconic and influential publication. The magazine has a long-standing tradition of featuring celebrity interviews, lifestyles and "big sister" advice.  Cosmopolitan is known for fashion and lifestyle industry, serving as both a trendsetter and a reflection for the audiences. This magazine aims on a wider range of audience, meaning that they get more readers and audience from this. This edition is released after the movie "little mermaid" live action went trending, the magazine is using the star appeal "halle bailey" to rise up the reader of the magazine. 

Vouge

Vogue is a very famous fashion magazine known for its articles about fashion and lifestyle. It's published in many countries, and it often features famous models and celebrities on its covers. People read Vogue to stay up to date with the latest fashion trends and to get inspired by stylish and elegant looks from the magazine. 

1. Genre : fashion

2. Demographic :

- age : 20 - 35

- gender : targets women because of the star appeals being all women with good style.

- Location : For the people in the America mostly which is known from the race of the star appeals

- Ethnicity : American

- Income : upper class because of the high style worn by the star appeals

- Star appeal : lots of famous actors, singers and models.

3. Psychographic : 

- hobbies and interest : interested in fashion and latest stories from famous people.

- lifestyle : shopping, fashion

- spending habits : spontaneously or alot 

4. Uses & Gratification :

Fashion magazine aims to help people learn about the latest trends, therefore making the audience up to date about fashion magazines. Uses & Gratification takes part in finding personal identity and for entertainment. 

5. Further analysis : 

- Masthead/title: Title of the magazine is put in the most top part of the magazine cover, filled from right to left with the brand image or title (vogue). The masthead is bold with the colour blue which differs from the other colours in the magazine, which are monochrome themed to stand out even more.

- Typography : The typography type that is usually in a fashion magazine are slimmer and more elongated fonts, usually slanted too. This suggests that fashion magazines are more informal, attractive and inviting to the audience. In this magazine it conforms the usual fashion magazine by the placing of the text and the fonts used for the magazine. The bold eye catching colour and text "vouge" is used to catch the audiences attention with the biggest font being the first the audience will look at. In the main cover line, the words that are most important are on caps lock, therefore making the audience look at it first before other text (because it is most important). 

- Image : The 4 main appeal are all well dressed and represents the fashion ideology for a magazine. The ideology of a fashion magazine's models are sophisticated models, well dressed, unique. This magazine follows that ideology, but with the additional models in the front cover magazine, the fashion magazine's target audience diverses because of the different races put into one cover magazine. The models on the cover are shown wearing dark silver or black colour clothings which connotes for powerful, strong for women. Therefore, this magazines divers abit from the cover magazine models usually looking feminine but in this magazine they look strong, powerful and bold. Their poses also shows and supports this statement because they have a unique pose each and everyone of the models. Furthermore, the eye level of the models looking to the camera creates a sense of connection between the audience and the magazine, this makes the magazine feels more personalized toward the audience.

- representation : The representation of people who are takes in fashion are sophisticated, high class, wealthy, and does shopping a lot. These are shown by the media in the adverts inside the magazine from well known brands such as chanel, louis vuitton and many more. Therefore, this support the convention of a fashion magazine from people who takes interest in fashion as their lifestyle. Women are often represented as weak, helpless and "just looks pretty" but this magazine divers from the convention because women are represented as bold, independant, strong and powerful in here. This creates a tug in the audience because of the difference from the normal fashion magazine therefore making this magazine more attracting. 

Reflection: I personally like this different convention and i might use this on my magazine because of the bold and independant vibe from the magazine (which interest me).

- Industry : Vogue is a well known and one of the most famous fashion magazine from all over the world, targeting women and men who takes interest in fashion and lifestyle. Vogue is a famous American magazine about fashion and lifestyle which starts at 1892. As time passed, Vogue became a big deal in the fashion world, known for setting and showing off the latest trends.

1. Genre : Fashion, selfcare, lifestyle

2. Demographic : 

• Age : 20 - 35 (there was a word about marriage, meaning it must be from 20 above)
• Gender: women as we can see from the star appeal
• Location/Ethnicity : Indonesian, because this is vogue for Indonesia (written in Indonesia language)
• Income : high income 
• Star Appeal : Indonesian 

3. Psychographic :

• Hobbies/Interest : selfcare, fashion, shopping 
• Values: high values in life, shown from the way they dress ( how they dress shows the way they value life)
• Spending habits : often spent of beauty care, fashion and self improvement. 

4. What i like from this magazine :

The only thing i like from this magazine is the last page where there are minimized words and less strong bright colours. The picture taken gives out a vintage vibe which catches my attention because it looks natural as well. I like how the model looks blend with the background. I would use this idea on my magazine to make it look more vintage and attract the audience's attention. 

5. What I dislike from this magazine : 

I strongly dislike the usage of yellow as the colour to attract the audience's attention. This magazine looks tacky in my opinion, although eye catching i personally won't use this on my magazine and this is the example of magazine i should avoid to make. The colour combination really don't match and the words are covering the model too much.

1. What i like from this magazine: 

This magazine has good colour combination that doesn't look tacky but blends in well with the background catching attention but not in a bad way. The fonts used in the contents page is well chosen as well with the pictures used on the double page spread magazine. I personally like this magazine's outline and colour choice, therefore i would keep in mind that this is a magazine i would take ideas from.

2. What i dislike from the magazine : 

Although i love a lot of things from this magazine, there are some things that i wouldn't use such as the too much star appeal in the magazine because the magazine doesn't look as eye catching as one star appeal only because it is harder to focus on a star appeal.

1. What i like from this magazine: 

This magazine has good colour combination that gives the impression of classy and elegance. The fonts used in the contents page is well chosen as well with the pictures used on the double page spread magazine which isn't too tacky but blends in well. The colour of the font on the front cover also makes the impression of high class. 

Reflection: I personally like this magazine's impression making it classy and elegant which is the element that attracts the audience. 

2. What i dislike from the magazine : 

Although i love a lot of things from this magazine, there are some things that i don't really like as much such as the really empty front cover which looks really nice but doesn't catch the audience attention immediately. I will take note of this for my magazine. 

Self reflection : For me the task was very challenging because of the many many research and analysis needed in order to do this task which is 6 analysis of magazine, some needs to be very detailed and it is very time consuming. In the end I see how necessary it is to do research of magazine in order to make my own magazine and to know which i should apply and avoid in my magazine.  

Here's a link to my double page spread research + development.

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