Magazine Analysis

 

Analysis: 

• In this Vogue magazine front cover, A more bright, highly lit colour scheme (generated from the high-key Ambient lighting) has been used to display Cara Devigne’s natural beauty. ) 

• The giant Masthead of Vogue is covered by her head, projecting a modest image of the magazine company through her portrayal on the front cover. The company is well aware of her significance and relevance as a celebrity, so they’ve elevated that through making her image overshadow the company, portraying her as more dominant and significant than them.  

• The main image shows Clara Devigne posing in a revealing position, allowing the readers to see some skin under her cardigan in an attempt to attract the male gaze, which has been done to maintain a male target audience for the magazine. 

• The main cover line “The new look” allows the reader to understand that this is a fashion and Beauty magazine, which is further supported by the main image of cara Devigne.  

• The white and orange fonts used in the Magazine mostly match the Colours of Clara’s Clothing  and skin(her cardigan is grey and her skin is orange), which makes this Magazine cover more attractive to the eye, as the Colours allow for a beautiful crisp front cover.  

 

Analysis: 

• In this magazine front cover, a darker colour scheme is used through Channing Tatum’s clothing with the black suit and the dark blue jeans contrasting with the tanned tone of his skin, revealing his natural beauty, which is further extenuated by the low-key lighting and the chiaroscuro to make him more attractive to the eye. 

• The Masthead of vanity fair follows a typical convention associated with the paper through the celebrity’s head covering the logo, making the Magazine seem more modest and aware of its insignificance to the celebrity presented and displayed on the magazine, presenting an alomost god-like, omnipotent appearance of channing Tatum on this front cover.  

• The use of bold capital letters in the main cover line of Channing Tatum’s name highlights his importance as an individual and a celebrity, as it reiterates his important position in society through his roles in movies and tv shows. The size of Channing Tatum's name illustrates his significance to the issue of the magazine, making him seem like a dominant and formidable figure in society. The cover line below his name “brings back the magic” reminds the readers of Channing Tatum’s influence in the 2010’s as one of the sexiest men alive, as the “magic” is related to his sex appeal during those times. Because this magazine was released in 2023, it would have been about a decade after his groundbreaking influencing influence on Society and Holywood, so the timing of this magazine is spot on.  

• The three cover lines above the main cover line of Channing Tatum uses Capital letters to snip the topics in question down to two words, which allows more active, older teenagers and young adults to skip the unnecessary reading and cut straight to the chase. This is demonstrated through the “MAFIA MURDERS”, which has been snipped down and boldened to make it easier for readers to process what’s in the magazine, so that they can intentionally ignore the irrelevant words. This has been shortened down from “THE MONTREAL MAFIA MURDERS”.  

• Channing Tatum has been positioned in the middle of the frame to justify and reiterate his significance to the mnagazine issue.  

 

• This “dazed” front cover defies conventions of a typical magazinwe front cover by not including so much cover lines, so the readers are able to enjoy the aesthetics of the image and actor on this cover. In this way, it removes obstacles that might disrupt the spectacle of the image.  

• The actor’s head slightly covers the bold white Masthead “Dazed”, prioritising the actor’s popularity over the magazine’s, showing modesty and understanding that this is a mere paper that needs a lot of people in their employ to be sucessful, in contrast to the actor, who has worked his whole life towards becoming what he is.  

• The Colour scheme consists of darker, more neutral colours to match with the mixed clothing to give the actor a hot, farmboy Complexion. It could also be a sign that it’s a magazine that doesn’t take itself as serious as traditional mainstream newspapers due to its limited popularity and figures supporting it’s readership.  

• The “Dazed” font size is quite large, so people notice its relevance and presence, but doesn’t over-exentuate this by establishing its superiority over the actor represented in the front cover. This is also eveident through the plain white font used for both the Masthead and one cover line “the boy next door”, communicating that it’s aiming to make an impact in some way, not dominate and take over the market, appealing to actors and figures seeking publicity, but don’t want to discomfort themselves by entering a shoot with desperate, unapologetic cameramen of mainstream magazines. 

• The hay in the background of the main image carries a message of the past about men taking over the family name in trasditional farms, displaying traits of Hegemonic Masculinity through the self-reliance and responsibility it would’ve demanded, cementing the Niche “Dazed” magazine as a magazine that embraces the awful past in an effort to move forward in the future, contrasting to many mainstream magazines, who wouldn’t attempt such a daring feat in the fear that it would tarnish its reputation through including such insensitive imagery.  

• The main cover line “the boy next door” highlights the type of roles the actor in the image is typically associated with, informing the actor’s style and role type. However, some might argue this has a risk of typecasting the actor in question, who must appeal to other roles in other genres to acquire a successful and prosperous career. 

• Whilst most typical mainstream magazines utilise the rule of thirds to stay in line with other magazines, this magazine doesn’t really use the rule of thirds, but focuses more on the inclusion of a foreground and a background, through the actor being apart of the foreground, the hay being apart of the midground and the Unsettled sky being apart of the background, challenging conventions of a typical magazine front cover by trying to purposely make it have a more darker aesthetically pleasing style than typical magazine front covers, which usually have a more upbeat, pleasant vibe to them, making this magazine more cinematic in the process. 

• These bold approachges through the darker colour scheme, daring represntations, lack of cover lines and challenging composition of this magazine front cover equate to it’s motive to appeal to left wing, liberal people from their mid teens to late 20’s all around the world, who get bored of the typical conventions associated with magazine front covers and yearn for something that challenges these by spicing these conventions up, creating a more daring product.  

• The front cover also doesn’t include a dateline or a selling line, informalising the paper, so that it’s unsophisticated enough to appeal to that younger audience of teenagers and young adults, who see this features as unimportant and just want to read the magazine in question.