Magazine Cover Review

 My initial impression of printed magazines was that I really liked them, but I didn’t think they were very complicated. The impact of the cover image and feature article entirely depended on the target audience of that magazine. In magazines targeted towards women it’s all about commands, the classic “stay at home moms”, the middle-aged white women, high fashion, and beautiful celebrities.  

In the “The Orpah Magazine” it targets women. The title of this magazine is, “The Joy on the Mourning” it’s positive, happy, it’s spiritual, which brought along a new audience. It has a cultivating loyalty to it because the same type of people purchased Orpah's magazine because it singles the middle-aged white women out and targets them. This is their type of magazine. 

Another magazine that targets women, especially young women mostly in their late teens is the “Cosmopolitan”. There is always a celebrity or model on the center of the cover who will be the main issue. On this cover, big and in the center is Joey King, an up-and-coming actress, who is thin, beautiful, and her name fills up the page. On the side of the cover there’s commands saying to look like her, be young, thin and fit, and be as beautiful as Joey King. It’s all about how you look and the standards of being a young woman. 

The “VOGUE” magazine cover had a celebrity in the front and center-Rihanna. The colors were white, black, and grey looking more like a men's cover. It’s high fashion it targets women who are rich, educated, and buy high fashion. The cover had Rihanna wearing a white suit, it was stating gender-neutrality.  

The magazines that target men include articles about race, racism, being safe, but they are also about cars, the outdoors man, and many pictures of women. For example, in the “GQ” magazine there was Travis Scott on the cover, a lot like women's covers in a way, except it’s not. The font is jagged, flashy, it’s about fashion, gender neutrality, it’s big and bold. It talks about things happening in the world and things about change.  Not any of the women’s magazines had anything about change or issues. 

In addition, in the “Men’s health” magazine it had bold text, and the article is all about race, racism, and how to be a black man and be safe going home. It’s modern and current ad it talks about all the many issues going on in the world. But magazines targeted to men are also not like that. For example, in “Sports Illustrated” it’s a swim issue, but what's on the cover? A beautiful, angelic women in a bikini. There is nothing about swimming and there is no bathing suits that would fit the dress code for competitive swimming wear. 

My current position on selecting a video or magazine for my portfolio project is leaning towards a magazine cover because I think it would be very interesting. In class I like how we learned how the colors coordinate and how to make our font go with the cover.