Magazine Covers Review

 Magazine Covers Review 

 

Magazine covers are the first thing readers see as they walk past and, the first thing that would spark any interest. a memorable or bold cover is a guaranteed way to boost sales in the quickest ways possible. A well-designed and well thought out cover with just the right amount of colors, images, and text has the perfect formula to peak interest about the inside content which the magazine could and would hold.  

Authors from every type of magazine targeted
to all types of audience such as specifically women, men, or, specific topics like sports or cooking.

For example, the magazine titled “O” featuring Oprah Winfrey is presented with all matching color schemes and positive messages across the front. The cover was very bright and friendly, with images of her smiling holding a puppy. Inside the articles are short and simple appealing more towards maybe younger audiences with shorter attention spans. Another example would be Vouge. The volume of Vouge we looked at in class was featuring the pop star Rihanna. The magazine includes very bold images with dark lighting and very straight forward messages. Inside the content is clearly directed to women being super elegant, simple, and classic. The magazine “Better Homes & Garden” is clearly directed more specifically to moms or housewife's. Just like every other example so far, the author pays attention to how they picked the theme for the overall cover, depending on what contents were inside. Considering this magazine was Halloween themed the color scheme was more black and orange with the usual Halloween décor displayed with images. To switch gears,  some examples of magazines that were more directed or targeted to men but still portray the idea of covers being very important to the complete magazine could either be “Men’s Health” Or “Motor-trend”. The cover of the magazine “Motor-trend” is presented with several images of cars with very faint text, making the reader focus more on the images. Comparing whichever are being shown, again foreshadowing for what is to come throughout the inside pages and reads. “Men’s Health” comes off very sharply with bold issues and problems straight out front and center. This magazine cover happened to be very goal oriented.  

The article, “Chances are you won't bother to read this article. It is just one long block of text, after all, unbroken by alluring pictures, snappy captions, or eye-grabbing infographics. You can't click it. You can't flip it. All you can do is read it. (Does Size Matter?)” written by Michael Scherer really helps explain the importance of very thought out magazine covers and what the point of them are. He starts out the article with the statement, “Conventional wisdom has it that readers are losing patience with long magazine stories.” With quick, short, and simple captions and heading readers are more likely to read and become hooked. Magazine covers are often a parallel to window shopping. You get a quick glance at what you might spend 20-30 minutes reading and flipping through. The author of the article also includes the statement “Most magazines now resemble movie posters more closely than they do the dry pages of a book. They are filled with color, oversized headlines, graphics, photos, and pull quotes.” Further pushing that concept.  

I personally really admire the work and thought that gets put into creating the perfect cover that includes the right amount of text, pictures, and colors, while at the same time being the right parts. Although I would much rather use my creativity to create a movie introduction or opening scene; both are very significant.