MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

Front cover ELLE

ELLE is a world wide magazine which appeals to a more higher status of people because of the simplicity but sophistication of it. It is aimed at women from the ages of around 16-25. 

The cover is really organised and clean, so it looks quite neat. A grid can be clearly seen in the layout of the items on the cover as a lot of straight lines are used in the design, which you can see from the orientation of the text and the position of the models body. The cover includes a barcode at the bottom in the corner on the right, which is not very important for the customer, more for the seller.

The masthead is written in large serif font, which looks very feminine shows style and sophistication of the magazine. It has tall thin lettering with bold black colour to make it contrast. That means that it stands out against the white background.

The font colour is mainly written in pink with some bits in black. The background colour is white so all the colours stand out more. The discreet cover photo gives the magazine cover the right flare by using the colours black and pink for the shoes of the model. The pink lips of the model have been reflected in the pink colour of the text.By using lots of white space it gives the eye breathing space.

Most of the text is in capital letters and mainly bold. The text is written in sans serif to make it more readable. 

Most of the cover lines are written in pink, because they are more important than the expanders which are mostly written in black.

Front cover GRAZIA

GRAZIA is an Italian weekly magazine for young women about fashion, glamour and gossip.It appeals more for the lower to middle status.
The layout of the cover is structured very busy. You can't see the use of a grid or a structure of the written text. It includes more than one picture, so you get a better impression what the cover lines are about, but it also makes you looking around and not focusing the actual cover photo. On the cover photo are three woman, not only one like ELLE has. The dresses of them are simple in their colour but they try to use colours which should reflect some other colours of for example text. The colour scheme on this much more varied but less elegant.

The masthead is written in large serif font with tall, thin lettering similar to the masthead of the magazine ELLE. But the masthead of GRAZIA is written in a flashy pink, the same colour as some text and the symbols that are included on the front cover.
The font colour is mainly white with some pink and some green-brown. Some of the white colour has green-brown stroke. The main feature article is dropped shadowed. The black background gives the magazine a dark flair which has been reflected in the eye shadow of the models. The white snow which is included all over the page symbolises the season we have at the moment. 
All of the text is written in serif font, which makes the text look more playful. The structure of the text is not really clearly arranged, they appear to be trying to dazzle the audience into buying the magazine. 

Double page spread ELLE

The double page spread of the magazine ELLE is structured really simple but neat. They didn't use any colour, that means that everything is in black and white. 

The upper-case initial, called drop caps, "T" at the beginning of the main text show you instantly where the actual text begins. The capitalisation of some words show the importance of them. The text includes their own magazine name very often, which they also put in capital letters, that shows how important the magazine is for them selves. The pull quote at the middle of the left page is written italic and includes two words written in capital letters.

On the bottom of the left page you can see the name of their website, so they advertise for it and want to to visit it. 

Kylie Minogue, the model on the picture on the page on the right doesn't look into the camera, her eyes are almost closed and you can only see her from one side. However, her big and nice smile stands out very much. Her arm is in front of her body which appeals a bit like she wants to hide something. She wears dark lipstick which emphasises her teeth more.

Double page spread GRAZIA

The main picture of the double page spread of the magazine GRAZIA is black and white and goes over the whole page on the left and a bit of the right page. Whitey Houston, the model on the picture doesn’t look into the camera either, I guess that is because it's a documentary shot, not a studio one. She is holding a grammy in her right hand. In the left corner on the bottom of the left page the months where the story happened in are written in a thin, serif font (JAN/FEB). 

Looking at the the text now you can see the introduction of the pages is written in capital letters and some bits are highlighted in yellow. By using ellipsis at the end of the introduction you really want to know what happened and you are already thinking of it. Capitalisation is also used for the title, written in bold, of the main text. It it is put in the middle of the page on the right. The first word of it says “WHITNEY” it is also highlighted in yellow so you can easily see what the double page spread is about.

On the right at the bottom you can see a box framed with a black line where the life of Whitney’s daughter is shown after Whitney died. It is presented with small pictures in colour. 

All in all you really can see that the magazine ELLE is a more upper class magazine although both magazines are based on fashion and gossip. That might be because the magazine GRAZIA is aimed at a younger audience and ELLE for older people. By using feminine colours like pink it is clear, that the magazines are written for woman, which both magazines include.