Magazine Cover Review

             

       My first impressions of printed magazines were the amount of styles and topics there are to choose from. Many people don't realize the amount of thinking and effort that goes on before you get the final copy that you buy at the store. Many people also don't know how much the cover image and feature articles, either lure readers in or shy them away. It is important to think about who you are wanting to read your article and what information they are going to grasp from reading it. 

 
 

        The author Michael Scherer of 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?)"Michael Scherer (2002) states, " 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. The gray text page, once a magazine staple, has been all but banished by a new breed of art directors who have gradually made their way up the masthead. "They have reduced the amount of text and increased the pictures boxes, and captions" says Roger Black, the chairman of Danilo Black, who has redesigned dozens of magazines. " This shows that in the past you didn't need to put all of this color and big graphics to get people to read the magazines, people just read them. Now a days society is so busy and distracted from other things that you have to add more colors and designs in order to get and keep readers attention. For example, in the magazine, "Conde Nast Traveler " Its cover page is full of different colors, fonts, designs, etc. It is a wild cover. For some this may not be appealing but for others, it can catch their eye and maybe even form questions in their head making them want to read the magazine. In this magazine there are also many ads that follow with the theme of traveling to expensive and exotic places around the world. This shows that someone who bought the magazine is maybe into traveling, so when having ads about traveling to exotic places in the magazine it can bring in business and make other companies want to advertise in their magazine.  This can also help follow along with the magazines theme and what they stand for overall.  

 
 

        To keep their attention and to read the whole magazine is another story. The magazine, " Better Homes & Gardens" shows a lot of visuals in between groups of texts. They also show the same theme, colors, and fonts throughout the entire magazine, this can be really appealing to the eye. In 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?)"(2002) It states, " So why aren't magazine readers, especially young ones, picking up long-form magazines in droves? One reason may be found in the changing magazine--and media--landscape. Magazine consumers may still have a great appetite for reading, and more time than is generally realized, but they also have far more choices. " There are so many options for younger people on what they want to do or if they want to learn about something, they don't have to read it from a magazine they could just look it up with their phone.  

 
 

        There are now so many techniques that magazine writers use to grab people's attention. What many magazine company's do is use certain words or popular people to lure customers in. The magazine "Cosmopolitan" shows a great example of this by putting Joey King big on the cover page. Joey King has just recently blown up and became more popular for teens. This can make teens want to buy the magazine to find out more about Joey King that they didn't already know about. Magazines also use certain colors to provoke different emotions. The magazine, "O", shows on the cover pages orange, and yellow colors. These colors give off a happy vibe. The setting is a beautiful green field that looks relaxing, fun, and happy. This can grab certain people's attention who are interested in a more calming magazine.   

 
 

         Another important thing that readers look at is the feature article. The magazine, " Men's Health" has a feature page with big lettering and the same colors continue from the cover to feature page. This is appealing to the eye and draws the reader's attention. 

 
 

        Overall, a lot of work and thought gets put into magazine designs to grab people's attention and keep them reading. The cover and feature article of a magazine have such a huge impact on many aspects to the magazine. It can affect the interest the audience may have , the amount of money earned from selling, and can also affect the types and how many advertisers you get.   My current position on selecting the magazine for my portfolio project is I think I am leaning more towards magazine. This is because I love designing and using different colors and fonts to create things. I am also not very tech-savvy and more of a paper person so I think I would do better at making a magazine.