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.