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Magazine Genre Research- Elle

The cover of this issue of Elle is quite noteworthy. It is simplistic, yet is very appealing. It has a gray background, but then bright pops of pink and turquoise. The title is written in big, long lettering that covers about a third of the page and it is hot pink. I have noticed that with many magazines that it is effective to keep the cover simple and with not too many words and colors. It is visually appealing for covers to also use a neutral color for a majority of the cover and then pops of color spread throughout. One of the featured celebrities, Camila Cabello, appears in a half body shot wearing a turquoise fur coat. Since Cabello is one of the focuses of this issue of the magazine, her name appears in big, wispy lettering on the cover. There is a decent amount of writing on the cover, all using the same font and written in white. It points out the theme of the issue of the magazine and who will be mentioned in the magazine. The articles in the magazine are organized by category and get longer as it travels further into the magazine. The magazine starts off with shorter articles reviewing beauty products and such, then in the middle includes a type of look book of accessories. At the end of the magazine, there are many full articles on people, especially a large section on women in music. When a new celebrity is introduced, they each have the same design for their cover page, which is their name written in very thick, spread out black letters. About the first 40 pages of the magazine are numerous advertisements on high brand, designer clothes and accessories. This alludes that the magazine can be more high brow. Throughout the rest of the magazine, advertisements for makeup or other miscellaneous products appear, however most of the advertisements are for clothes, purses, and jewelry. In the smaller articles of the magazine, where products are reviewed or shown off, there are many photos. For example, in the Shops category, there are can be 12+ pictures on a page of clothing and accessories. However, when the magazine trails into the longer articles or the Accesories category, they include full page, very artistic pictures of products and celebrities. This is because either the picture itself is the entire focus of the article or the writing is more of the focus and the picture is there to aid the reading. The table of contents appears about 40 pages into the magazine. It includes the title of the magazine across the top with the month of the issue, volume, and number. There is two pages of the table of contents which is separated by advertisements in between. Each page of the table of contents has a large picture of one of the featured celebrities. The articles are arranged by page number in the table of contents and are separated by category. The distribution number of Elle magazine in the US is about 1,103,163. Elle Magazine holds its own award ceremony, the Annual Impact Awards.

Magazine Genre Research- InStyle

The cover of InStyle magazine is very simplified. The title is written in black lettering across the top of the magazine. The size and style of the writing on the cover varies which is eye catching, including some being written in italics, some being written in pink, etc. There is a half body shot of Elle Fanning, who is the focus of the issue of the magazine, and her head covers part of the title. This seems to commonly occur in many magazines where the models head covers part of the title. She is dressed to follow the color scheme of the cover. The color scheme is white, black, and pink. Most of the articles are related to fashion and more specifically celebrities and their fashion. This edition focuses more heavily on the Best Dressed, so a majority of the articles are about celebrities' displays of fashion. The Best Dressed articles span across most of the middle of the magazine. The longer articles appear more towards the end of the magazine which prompts readers to look through most of the magazine before reaching the featured articles. These articles are several pages long and focus on one person. Some of the articles in this edition of the magazine are about Elle Fanning (pg.134), Erykah Badu (pg. 144), and Rachel Maddow (pg. 154). Most of the advertisements in the magazine are for makeup/skincare products and jewelry. Surprisingly there isn't really any fashion advertisements and there isn't really advertisements for non beauty/style products. All the advertisements are full page. There is an Olay advertisement on the inside of the cover which unfolds multiple times. This was something interesting that really caught my eye. The cover has a large, simplistic picture with only one person which is important in not becoming overwhelming. The table of contents is multiple pages long. The articles are not put in numerical order, but rather put into categories of interest. The first page of the table of contents is about the feature and has a full page picture of Elle Fanning. The table of contents starts on page 21 of the magazine. The other pages of the table of contents have multiple pictures. All the pictures have models in them and some of the pictures include the pages and description of articles in them. Due to the fact that a lot of the magazine is on Best Dressed, many of the pictures are action shots of celebrities. This adds some realism to the magazine. The total circulation number for InStyle magazine is about 1,810,539 in the USA. InStyle has their own award ceremony where they recognize talents in fashion and beauty.

Magazine Genre Research- Marie Claire

This issue of Marie Claire magazine is a special edition which includes two magazine issues that appear on either end of the magazine. Both of the covers feature Gwen Stefani in either a full body or half body shot. The title of the magazine is written in large white lettering across the top of one of the covers and red lettering across the other, with Stefani's head covering some of the letters. Both covers are following a color scheme of white, black, and red. The black background in counteracted with the pops of white and red, making it look very sleek. In the top right corner of the cover, above the title, it states that it is the holiday issue for the magazine. Writing wraps around the side of Stefani's body as shown on the cover pictured below, with an overview of the magazine and Stefani's article as the focus. The other cover has almost no writing on it and fully focuses on Stefani. Most of the articles in the magazine are reviewing beauty products and fashion trends for the season. There is truly only one full article and that is the one on Stefani. The set up of the magazine is somewhat confusing because halfway through, the reader must flip the magazine over in order to continue reading. Also the cover that is more eye catching (the one pictured below) isn't the side of the magazine where the featured article appears. This is potentially misleading. The featured article on Stefani appear in the middle/end section of the magazine, which is effective in getting readers to enjoy a majority of the magazine before reaching the featured article. Stefani's article doesn't fully revolved around beauty, but rather serves more of an inspirational article about how she became her successful self. Almost all the advertisements are for makeup, fragrance, jewelry, or fashion. Also, most of what is advertised, is higher end products. They are all full page or multi page ads. Surprisingly, many of those advertisements are on fragrance. The cover will normally include a picture of what is being featured in the article. The table of contents for the side of the magazine that includes the article on Stefani has a picture of her being the background of the page. The table of contents for the other side includes many pictures of products and models to attempt to cover what will appear in the magazine. In the articles, there are many pictures, especially in the shorter articles. Most of the pictures are of objects and products, with pictures of people scattered here and there. The pictures are overlapping each other a lot of the time. The distribution number for Marie Claire is around 1 million. Marie Claire has won many awards. In 2011, at the Accessories Council of Excellence Awards, it was named Magazine of the Year and received an award at the Front Page Awards. 

Magazine Genre Research- Allure

The cover of the magazine revolves around a close up shot of a model's face. The title of the magazine spans across the top in thick, white lettering, written in font that looks almost hand drawn. This unique font makes the magazine very recognizable. There is very limited writing on the cover and the theme of the issue is written in larger text. Also, all the writing on the cover is in white. Most of the articles in the magazine are short with limited writing and lots of pictures. Some articles nearly fully consist of pictures. There is one article that spans across ten pages of the magazine near the end. This article is more descriptive than the rest of the articles in the magazine. A majority of the articles are about beauty products or techniques. The featured article follows the story of Amber Heard. About half of the magazine is made up of advertisements and they appear every few pages. There is a decent range of advertisements for beauty and non beauty products, but a majority of the ads are for beauty products. There is one close up picture on the cover of the magazine, which is effective in not overwhelming the reader with too many pictures off the bat. There is one picture that takes up about a third of the page on each page of the table of contents. Both the pictures are for the featured articles. There is also the same picture from the cover on the second page of the table of contents. As I stated previously, many of the pictures in the magazine are enlarged. In an article, there may be writing on a page and then the entire next page is a picture. One article is almost entirely comprised of pictures. I enjoy this technique because it gives a break to the reader to enjoy the picture and for it to truly have an effect. The distribution number of Allure magazine is about 1,175,000 readers per issue. Allure magazine has won around 45 awards including Magazine of the Year from Adweek (2017), 29 awards from the American Academy of Dermatology, and the Circulation Excellence Award (2001).

Magazine Genre Research- Shape

I have decided that for my magazine genre, I will make it a beauty magazine. For most covers of the Shape magazines, the title of the magazine is written in bold, block lettering across the top of the magazine. Normally it includes a 3/4 body shot of a model, Gwen Stefani being the focus on this cover, with the model's head covering the A in the title. The coloring of the cover is very simplistic and sleek in that the colors are very neutral with little pops of pink scattered throughout. There is not too much writing on the cover which is good in not making it overwhelming, and it points out the key elements of the that issue of the magazine. The magazine includes a featured article that spans across numerous pages in the magazine, and in this issue, Gwen Stefani is used as the feature. Many of the articles focus on products, beauty techniques, or ways to withstand your beauty. A majority of the advertisements at the beginning of the magazine are full page ads for makeup, skin, and hair products. As they move further into the magazine, there are full page ads for products and services not related to beauty, such as insurance or food. Most of the pictures in the magazine are full page pictures. Pictures on the cover of the magazine are always the same format for each issue. The table of contents has very limited pictures, but the pictures that are included are enlarged and related to the featured articles. In articles, there is normally one or more large pictures that serve as a sort of background for the page and then smaller pictures may present themselves throughout. The distribution number for Shape magazine is about 2.5 million readers per issue.