Cover Research

September 5th, 2023

Layout

Allure, Vogue, and Image are just three out of hundreds are widely known magazines pertaining to the beauty genre. While doing my research on the layout, I made various observations which I would like to bring attention to. These observations include things such as color palette and design composition.

MastHead

The mast head is usually the largest letters on the cover and located at the top serving as a title. In this magazine, "IMAGE" is its mast head. It's easily located at the top of the magazine as the biggest font and bright orange. Underneath the mast head in white lettering is their magazine deck "Imagine Now." Age Later".

Main Image

This magazine cover's main image is obvious since it is the only image. It is large enough to catch the viewers' attention without completely taking away the attention from the masthead. The model is a woman wearing a white tank top and has a bottle in her hand as a prop. The bottle is in white and orange with no major design, being some type of skincare product. The model's hair is a dark brown-black color cut into a classic bob with bangs. She also is a bit in the 3/4 low angle mid shot with the light source coming from the top right side.

Leading Articles

The leading article is the article that is the focus or story of the magazine so therefore it is usually the headline with the largest lettering to grab the viewers' attention. In this case the cover line New from ILUMA for your most radiant skin ever will be the leading article. The cover line uses a combination of both bold dark gray and bold white to have the lettering standout from the background and the main image.

Barcode

A barcode's purpose is used as something to help identify a product through its wholesale distributor, product/issue number, publisher, and other ways. The barcode is usually found on the bottom of a magazine cover so that it can easily be found without it immediately catching the viewers' attention. It is always meant to be hidden in plain sight.

Cover Lines

Cover lines are usually scattered around the sides of the cover to surround the main image. On this cover Magazine there are four different cover lines titled, See what's new with Vital C, Pro Treatments, The next big things in ingredients and Our six cult-favorite products you need in your routine. These cover lines include three different colors which include a bright orange, white and dark gray. These colors were chosen because they both compliment and have a high contrast against the blue from the background. The orange does not seem misplaced since it resembles the model's skin tone and the white also does not seem so out of place since it matches the white of the model's tank top.

Other Covers

Here are some other examples of the covers that cover the beauty genre. They all follow remarkably similar formats in which they all have a single main image, have a clear mast head, and have its cover lines and leading articles. For COSBEAUTY the leading article is Everything you need to know about Rhinoplasty, for Allure it is The Future of Beauty, and the third example, Eminence's leading article is Best Sellers & Hidden Gems. The leading articles are clear due to the larger cover line. The other cover lines are scattered around the main image without being too distracting. The models who are the main image all have something appealing to them and are all at a 3/4 angle although it is important to note that other angles like face front views are still quite common in covers as well. The barcode can be seen at the bottom left corner of the COSBEAUTY magazine hiding in plain sight. Some of these covers also have accent colors, making them easier to read against the backgrounds and also looks more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Other covers with similar yet different elements:

Other Note Worthy Conventions :

Magazine Deck - acts like a slogan, it helps set a brand to the magazine
Dateline - Usually a seasonal dateline for my magazine genre

Color Palette

Color always plays a significant role in the flow and feel of a magazine. Color holds a lot of emotion and symbolism which becomes useful when making a magazine. In all the of the Magazines you can see that they all follow color theory. They all follow the same shades, contrast, and complement each other. Even the smallest changes in the coloring of letters can affect the flow of a magazine.

Color palettes from the cover examples that were shown.

Take Away

After researching and analyzing all these magazines, I learned many different aspects of a magazine. I saw how each part of a magazine cover has a key role in the magazine's presentation and how it all connects. The main image helps attract the viewer and the cover lines capture the viewer's curiosity. When I make my magazine cover, I will use all of this information to my advantage.

Content Research

September 16th, 2023

PSA:

There are hundreds and even thousands of magazines that fall under the beauty genre. For today's research we will be going over one specific magazine by New Beauty. The cover of this magazine only shows one cover line which is the lead article. In the magazine itself there are several stories that are not mentioned on the cover.

Story 1 (Leading Arcticle):

This article is titled Kyra Sedgwick's Next Chapter, this story is in an interview style. She gets asked various questions about her life, such as her work ethic or lifestyle. The questions that pertain to her lifestyle are also related to beauty. For instance, she is asked about the way she does her self-care, which is a major factor in how someone can achieve their version of beauty.

Story 2:

This next story is titled Sun Smart by Brittany Burhop Fallon. This story talks about sunscreen and how it is being handled and disregarded in the United States. Throughout the article it talks about the difference between sunscreen in the U.S compared to the rest of world. Other countries in the world seem to be more advanced and seem to value the importance of sunscreen. It is becoming a well-known fact today about the significant role that sunscreen plays in our skincare and our sense of beauty. An article like this makes sense for a beauty magazine.

Story 3:

The next story titled Good Hair Day, also by the writer Brittany Burhop Fallon, is much shorter than the other two stories. This story is only about two paragraphs long. This story is specifically about explaining what hair porosity is. It gives a well detailed explanation and even uses expert information to further provide insight and to give the feeling of reliability.

Take Away:

Regardless of it being a story about life experience, sunscreen, or hair; They all have one thing in common. They all pertain to beauty. They all also try to offer some time of expertise in the stories. The leading article may not have expert information, but the person being interviewed is testifying as someone who has lots of experience and knows what they are talking about. The other two articles have various instances in which information is being taken and backed up by experts. While creating my magazine content I will keep those three points in mind: Beauty, Experience, and Expert Information.

Target Audience

September 19th, 2023

New Beauty Demographics

While looking at New Beauty's demographics it can be concluded that it is directed towards mostly American women. They have the highest percentage of the 25-34 age group standing at 30.68%

Eminence Demographics

The demographics for Eminence show that they have the highest percentage of Americans with 71.21% and of women being at 76.42% as their target audience. Compare to the other 2 magazines this one has the lowest percentage of male audience (23.58%).

Allure Demographics

Allure's demographics seem to have the highest percentage of male consumers out of the 3 magazines that has been compared. Although it has the highest male percentage, it still has females as the majority. Americans once again take over 60% of the geographical demographic. The largest age distribution among Allure's consumers is from the ages 25-34.

Overall Demographic Comparison

Overall looking at the demographics, Women tend to be the majority in the target audience. Based on demographics most of these pople are from the United States and ages between 25-34. There is still quite a large percentage of men reading these articles and people from different ages reading these magazines. Both younger and slightly older people all also have a high percentage and are almoist reaching to the 25-34 age category.

Psychographics

The type of people that would normally read these type of magazines are, people dealing with skin issues, people who like learning about skincare and makeup, ermatologists, cosmetologist, makeup artists, estheticians, and possible teenagers who are starting to explore the beauty world.

Content Analysis

Different things that appear as content in beauty magazines include things such as skincare or body journeys, ideas about the beauty industry, personal experience in beauty, experts talking about their specialty while giving advice, and informative stories about products/ingredients. It is important to note that a lot of stories that are in these types of magazines also talk about beauty products so they may also seem and come off as advertisements or something similar.

Advertising Analysis

Advertisements commonly appear in beauty magazines would include hygiene products, skincare products, fragrances, makeup, lotions, jewelry, accessories, etc. They are all things that come to mind when you think of beauty. They promote things by advertising that will also appeal to the target audience in which this case is American women in the ages 25-34.

Social Media Presence

On social media most magazines have their accounts in which they tend to post things like celebrities trying out and/or promoting quality and reputable products, skincare, beauty/makeup hacks, new clothes, fragrances. They tend to post things to stay relevant such as trends that pertain to the genre and may even at times make Q&A's to engage with their followers. Hey may even promote different brands whether that it is fashion, makeup, or skincare. Beauty magazines normally have their own official website and a social media account on platforms such as Instagram, X (formally known as Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads.

Take Away

After doing research on the target audience, I am now aware of what to add to my magazine to reach the right audience. Things such as considering their jobs and hobbies; looking at advertisements and why they would be in a magazine; looking at the stories and content within the pages; and looking at demographics all play a key role in the making of my own magazine. I will take all of this into consideration when developing my stories and ideas for my magazine.

Specs Research

September 29th, 2023

To look at the table of contents and the general content/specs of a beauty magazine, we will reuse NewBeauty: Kyra Sedgwick's Next Chapter magazine. This magazine has roughly 112 pages and a "spotlight" section with an expert guide "Top Doctors" at the end, which is 48 pages, which would add up to 160 pages. Although this spotlight section is in this magazine it is important to note that it is not mentioned anywhere in the table of contents that leaves me to believe it should not be considered as part of the magazine. This would mean that the final page count will be 112 pages.

There were about 11-13 advertisements found in this magazine and about 23 stories. It is important to mention many stories were either a four paged spread or were longer than 4 pages. Some stories included pictures of products that made them appear as if they were advertisements although they were not. In the table of contents 24 stories were listed in sections. The table of contents was also very decorative with 18 photos used that matched up and/or correlated with the stories listed. The design of the four-page spreads was either evenly spread across or they had one page filled with wording and smaller photos and the other page with an image taking up the entire space and a few smaller words written on the side.

PSA: There were double page spreads found throughout my magazine genre, but it was not as common and conventional as seeing stories that spread through 4 pages or more.

Table of Contents Example 1

Table of Contents Example 2

Some Examples of a few Double Page Spread that were found.

A few out of various examples of a Four Page Spread.

Take Away

While working on my magazine I have to keep in mind that i need to make the pages heavily filled with photographs of people and the products that are mentioned/being used in the stories. I also must remember there is still advertising on many pages and these magazines have around 100 pages. The heavy photography also applies to the table of contents which I need to keep in mind. I will also have to keep in mind that my type of magazine usually uses a four-page spread rather than a double page. Most if not all stories are listed in their table of contents with their respective page number. While working on both the table of contents and the four page spread, I have to keep in mind the importance of the formatting.

October 3rd, 2023

All these tables of contents are easily identifiable due to the images, color scheme, and the terminology that is being used. They all have a clean look to them that almost gives it a medical feel to them. They have muted colors with a few pops of more vibrant colors but still use the white background and maintaining gray accents. Words such as product, glow, beauty, ingredients, brightening, etc. are all words that are normally associated with the beauty genre and especially skincare.

One of the main things that helps distinguish beauty. magazine from other magazines is the images used. Images and designs are made to represent the genre. Skincare and makeup products are normally what is shown in these magazines' table of contents. While these photos are used to match the genre, you can even argue that even the aesthetic of the photos also plays into the overall look of the table of contents to reflect what will be shown in the rest of the magazine. There will be occasions where people's face may also be used but they all have something else to manipulate it so that it matches with the beauty genre. For example, in a sports magazine, the face of a soccer player covered with dirt is going to drastically differ from someone else's clean face who is using a serum or a moisturizer. The people that show up in these images will be performing actions like washing their face, which correlates to the magazine's genre and topic.

Layout & Design

To talk about the layout of the magazine we first need to address how many pages the table of contents has as it will affect the layout and design of it. The tables of contents of beauty magazines tend to be 1-2 pages and does not seem to ever go past that. There may be those few rare magazines that do go past 2 pages, but it is not something that I saw during my research. Whether the table of contents is one or two pages they both have a clean and organized feel to them. The fonts reflect this as it is standard and easy to read. In the table of contents, the page numbers usually are in a bigger font than the rest of the text so that they can stand out. If the table of contents is one page, then it will normally follow a vertical like design where the table of contents seem be more like a list. Although it is in a vertical format, it does not fail to maintain at least a few images that go along with the stories that are mentioned in the table of contents. The two-page table of contents has a horizontal format using squares to separate the stories. In this horizontal format, each story mentioned has a photo to go along with it. For both formats, under the name of the story normally has a small description that can range from 1-2 sentences.

Take Away

While thinking about the design of the table of contents of my magazine I need to remind myself of a few key things; to make it clean and professional-looking while still being creative, the images play both a decorative and informational role and how the page numbers in the table of contents usually reflect the total number of stories in the magazine. While looking at the table of contents I thought about how just based on looking at it, why would I continue to read the magazines? What about it would capture my interest? I ended up with two conclusions: the images and the titles of the story. Two things that play huge roles in the creation and success of my magazine. These are the things that I must keep in mind as I create my own table of contents.

Font Research

October 9th, 2023

Masthead Meaning

Eminence is a word that means things like rising, distinct, superior and renown which could be used as good connotations when trying to describe skin. Everyone's skin is unique and different so a word such as "eminence" feeds into the idea of the importance and greatness of our skin. The word style perfectly aligns with the two genres. The word Allure from Allure Magazine means to captivate, to charm, to fascinate, or to attract. This means that the word allure would correlate to the beauty genre in which Allure Magazine falls into. New Beauty is self-explanatory for its name being correlated to the genre that it falls into. The magazine name itself suggests that the magazine will always be showing different forms of beauty. All the names of these magazines suggest that the content within the magazine will always in some way involve beauty.

Font Classification

New Beauty's Masthead font falls into the San Serif classification since it is v simple without any extra design or things popping off the side of it. It is bold and easy to read allowing it stand out and be easily recognized in the magazine cover
Allure's Mast Head seems to be a handwritten type of font. Its unique because the edge of the font is not straight but instead are slightly bumpy. The ends of the letters are round rather than having sharp corners. It still maintains a strong and bold feel to it. It may have been chosen for its authentic feel. Handwritten font is unique and is distinctive compared to other fonts. Allure magazine may want to appear authentic to its readers so choosing a bold, distinctive, and authentic font hat will further enhance the aesthetic that they are going for. Allure sometimes even uses the red version of the font which helps them stand out and be more easily recognizable.
Eminence's font is fancier and more elegant while still maintaining its simplicity. It falls into the Serif category since it has little detail sticking out at the ends of the letters. The color also helps give an aesthetic of something that fancy and elegant would fit into that idea of something being rich. A fancy font can give the illusion that the magazine is for those in high status which may appeal to the readers especially those who are more in the lower income side.

Masthead and Font Selection

Name Options:

CAPTURA
NATURAL BEAUTY
BARESKIN

Chosen Masthead: BARESKIN

Coming up with original magazine names was difficult since many names were already taken when I searched them up. I wanted something that was simple but nothing too short. Doing skincare not only can help improve your skin but also help improve your self-esteem. To deal with skin conditions and disorders, you need to deal with the skin from the roots and that requires the skin to be real and bare. Bare skin also gives a sense of vulnerabilities and exposure and allows things to be more real without anything being an illusion. My magazine is meant to help people and connect with people by being real and not sugar coating anything or giving false information to the readers.

Font Choices :

I wanted to have my font to be simple yet elegant and fancy. Although there are many fancy fonts that were available in script or decorative; I noticed that other beauty magazines kept using something simple and readable. While Sans look fancy, I felt as if the font was a bit too much and the simpler the better. I kept the Sans script and the main categories, and I just chose boldness/line thicknesses to see what I felt like would suit the cover for not just the genre but also for the aesthetic. At the end I decided on the font on the top of the list called Romelio Sans.

Take Away

Developing a magazine masthead is not an easy task as there were many things that had to be considered, the style and aesthetic of the magazine to choose the proper font, the meaning behind it and the originality of it. Being original in this genre can be difficult since many things are similar. For the mast head to stand out in the middle of a bunch of lookalikes with similar fonts, the meaning behind the word is what needs to bring the uniqueness and creativity to the table.

Photography Analysis

October 23, 2023

For the purpose of this Photography Analysis, I will be using a magazine from Skin Inc. titled Embracing Diversity

Examples of Product Photography:

These 3 photos here are a prime example of different versions of product photography. The first and third photo can be categorized as simplification since there is not much going on besides the main focus being the product. The background tends to be a solid background and is usually just white. The second/middle photo on the other hand has two other things going on. Although it also does include a product is also has flora next to it to enhance the idea that the product is almost natural like. The other thing going on is the contrast in colors. The background is yellow which allows the green of the flora and product to stand out.

Photograph 1:

This photograph has four things going on: Bird's Eye View, Portrait, Floral and Odd Numbers. The photograph has three women lying down and we see them from an angle above them like looking down straight them. They are also seen surrounded and holding flowers. The flowers also serve as a catalyst to fill most of the empty space. The amount of the body that is showing can be seen as portrait. It is not headshot because there is no intense focus on the faces; your eyes can wander around the whole photograph without looking back at one of the faces. The reason it is also classified as odd numbers is because three is an odd number which is the number of women seen in the photograph.

Photograph 2:

This photograph has 2 main things going on which are framing and a headshot. It is framing since the women is under a sheet and the sheet is visibly surrounding the borders of the photograph and almost trying to hide the women. It is also a headshot since her face is up close and the main focus of the photograph. It is hard to not notice her and have your eyes try to focus on something else.

Take Away

While there are many distinct types of compositions and styles of photography; headshots, portraits and product photographs are common when looking at the photos found in a beauty magazine. There will be moments where other styles and compositions will also be found (fitting into the genre) and/or will be combined. After doing my observation I came to a few important points to remember while making my magazine.

The simpler the better. It makes things look cleaner and more organized.
You can combine different style and compositions (but make sure it can stay simple)
Product Photography and Photography involving people (whether it be their face to show different things or them doing an action that makes sense for my genre) are heavy. They are the main 2 types of photography that dominate the beauty genre. Other types of photography would be rare to show up or would not make sense for my genre.

Audience Interest Survey

November 8th, 2023

Purpose:

The purpose of creating these surveys was to figure out what the audience of a beauty magazine would expect to see when viewing a magazine. For a magazine to be successful, it must attract and keep a reader's attention. To capture a reader's interest, not only does the author write stories to their own desire but also write stories that would interest the general audience. It is not always easy attempting to figure out what the audience would like to see in the next magazine they pick up, so to counter this problem surveys and or questionnaires must be used. To figure out what exactly my target audience would want I created three different surveys each consisting of one question. I had these surveys completed by people that I believed would fall into my target audience so that it could provide me with information that may reflect the general population of those who read beauty magazines.

Poll 1

For the first poll I wanted to figure out what topics would most suit the interests of my target audience. This survey was completed by 18 different people. 11/18 (61.1%) pf people said that "How makeup can impact your skin" would interest them making it the most interesting topic. This makes sense as my target audience mostly consists of women who are in the ages 15 and up. This set of people would likely use makeup, so learning about how makeup can impact their skin could be something that they may want to apply to their own lives. The second most interesting topic is "The importance of sunscreen" which was 9/18 (50%) of people and the third was "Skin Care Myths" which was 8/18 (44.4%) of people. It is reasonable that "How acne works" is the least interesting topic since it may be considered more common knowledge. Something more common knowledge tends to be less interesting compared to something not as well known.

Poll 2

For the second poll that i conducted, i wanted to know about what topics regarding skincare my audience would know the least about. This would allow me to not only create an interesting story but also allow me to educate my readers. For this poll 17 people were questioned for knowledge. Looking at the results there is a clear difference between the numbers. 'The layers of the skin" and "Basic Makeup techniques" had the same number of votes but also had the least number of votes as they both had 11.8%/. This means that this type of information is a lot more common to my audience. "How beauty products are made" on the other hand is a lot less known as it takes up 29.4% of the votes. By far the topic that my audience knows that least about is "How certain ingredients affect our skin" with a notable 47.1%. This means that about half of my audience has no little to know knowledge on the topic and it is something that I should highly consider adding to my magazine.

Poll 3

Since my magazine will be focusing on things regarding Skin Care, I wanted to know what my audience struggles with regarding their own skin. Knowing what types of things my readers struggle with may help me create stories that will not only entertain them but may also educate and benefit them. The issue that my audience struggles the most with is Acne and Blemishes as it takes up 43.8% of the chart. This is not too surprising to me, and acne and blemishes are commonly found in people especially in their teenage and young adult years. 25% of my audience deals with hyperpigmentation which is also common and is sometimes associated with acne. 18.8% of the audience deals with skin texture and 12% deal with another skin disorder that is not as common as the others.

Take Away:

These polls and their results give me useful information regarding my target audience. This information will help create stories for my magazine that can entertain, help, and educate my audience. I will have an idea of what they may find interesting; an idea of what they do and do not know; and an idea of what information I can provide that they can apply it into their own lives.

Double Page-Spread Analysis

November 21st, 2023

For the purpose of this analysis, I will be observing a double page-spread from an IMAGE magazine.

Elements Found In the Double Page Spread:

Main Image:

The main image is the largest photo of image in the layout/design. The main image from this double page spread is at the center and is spread across the gutter. The image seems to be large droplets zoomed in to a microscopic level. Since the image is a teal color, it also matches the background color, so it is noticeable but does does not contradict the layout and instead blends in.

Gutter:

The gutter is the part of the double page spread where the inner margins where the two pages are bounded together. The gutter is at the center of the magazine.

Secondary Image:

These images are smaller and tend to serve as extra support to the text of the spread but also to the overall design. In this case it would be these smaller images of products being shown. They match with the idea of certain treatments and exfoliating helps the skin in which these products may be used for.

Headline:

The headline for this magazine is titled "New Year, Glowing Skin" is located at the top left of the first page and is in bold dark, teal-colored letters and in a bigger font than the rest of the text. The first part of the headline "New Year" is in a sans serif font while the second part "Glowing Skin" has a serif font which allows for a sense of importance or emphasis as it looks much more prominent.

Sub-Heading:

To separate the information into sections, subheadings are being used in five different areas of the magazine.

Body Copy:

Although the center of the spread does not have any concrete information, the sides of the magazine do. This allows for the majority of the double page spread to be covered with text and information all while still maintains spots that have a design (or are empty) without any text.

Author's/Expert's Note:

This little note gives like this give insight to an author's clarification or experts advice/background which allows validity and credibility to the author as they are getting their information from someone who would know what they are talking about (If the author themselves are an expert, then here they would also list their credentials. It helps confirm their information to be true and they this is not information being pulled from nowhere. In this magazine Dawn Clifford

Lead/Byline:

Also known as the introductory paragraph, it allows the reader to have an idea of the topic of the double page spread and the tone it is going to set up for the story.

Folio:

This provides the page number and the magazine season edition it is being published under. It is at the bottom right of the spread's second page.

Take Away & Final Analysis

Overall, there were a lot of elements that I did not see here that I would sometimes see in other genres of magazine and this layout also included things that sometimes would not appear in other magazines. When I am working on my magazine, I need to make sure I do not include anything that would not normally appear in the magazines of my genre. I need to keep in mind that the organization, layout, and overall design of the spread flows and make sense for my magazine. I need to make sure that the images and colors also do not clash in a way that it distracts from the text/story of the spread.

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