Media Assignment - Vogue Magazine.

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GCSE Media Assignment- Vogue Magazine

Vogue was first published in 1892 and ever since has reflected the rules of the fashion world. Vogue means ‘fashion prevailing at any given time’, which is why Vogue it such a good name for the magazine. It talks about the ins and outs of the fashion world and is under the arm of any chic fashion conscious chick.

My first impressions of the front cover were optimistic. The cover was bright and colourful. The magazine presented itself as expensive and up-to–date. I saw that the magazine was preparing itself for the summer and that it was aimed at women who want it all, whether or not they can afford it. I could see that the editors of Vogue have tried hard to aim the magazine to suit their target reader; very wealthy, fashion conscious, celebrity watching women. However anybody can buy the magazine, the readers may be from all areas of British society.

The design and layout: the front cover has ®Vogue written at the top of the page in luminous orange large font that is easy to read, and stands out. To the left is the month and price in pounds. It is white and approximately font size 12. The editors display the price like that deliberately so that you are not put off by it and are drawn to the magazine by the articles and the pictures, not value for money. Directly diagonal to the price is the barcode, which also explains the small price label. Many shops that you can buy this from have a code reader so typing in the price is unnecessary. This could also indicate that the shops selling it are not usually sweet shops and independent newspaper vendors but high street retail stores with a lot of business with the magazine and ones like it. This shows the magazine is aimed at the more expensive shops that the Vogue team wants their magazine in. They want to show that their magazine is up market and fashionable by selling it in the up market fashionable shops.

Two of the sell lines are luminous orange and three are bright white. They are pushed into the corners of the page and act like a frame for the model. I feel that this accentuates her well. The colours alternate white, orange, white and the font size and style remains the same whereas in other magazines the font styles differ to draw the reader in. The picture of the model is used as the audience magnet in Vogue.

The sell lines are thought out and put together well. There is no alliteration or rhyming in the sell lines except for one. The line “The Fiennes line, its Joe’s time” is a witty pun on the saying ‘the fine line’ because this article is about the famous actor Joseph Fiennes and it fits in with his popularity at the moment. The other text is very misleading because when you read the sell lines on the cover you expect them all to be informative articles but in Vogue three of the sell lines come under “Vogues Eye View” showing you the best outfits of the month with the cost and information this appears in most lifestyle magazines but is never usually advertised on the front cover. The articles are blatantly about fashion by the way they are written. No other magazine would lay down “The New Rules of Sophistication” because they are not as highly regarded as Vogue and have not been around as long to witness sophistication at its highest and lowest points. The text “GO FIGURE the waist returns” tells me that the waist is back and the figure is more defined than ever. Vogue keeps a check on all the fashions and has done for a long time. They know that the waist is not just ‘coming’ but ‘coming back’ from its unfashionable era while other fashions came and went. This is not a magazine where true-life stories are needed to sell it. Vogue appeals to readers because of the glamour factor not because ‘someone’s half brothers step sister ate theirs cousins wife’s second pie bald hamster’. In all of the sell lines there is a bold statement not giving the reader any information about the articles just a small pun or statement such as “ GO FIGURE” and “ALL CHANGE”.  After this is the article information summing up the preceding statement. The bold writing of the sell lines makes a loud statement telling what you need to buy and what is in fashion this season. All the sell lines except one talk about clothes, which is appropriate for a fashion magazine although not necessary as fashion is about more than just clothes as this magazine is trying to tell you. The sell lines didn’t affect me in anyway when I was buying the magazine. I knew what I wanted to buy when I went to the shop and I didn’t look at the sell lines until I got the magazine home. However, when I buy other magazines I always look at then sell lines to see which one is best value for money.  

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The model is portrayed in a sexy, seductive way not to attract men to the magazine but to attract women by the idea that if they buy the make-up, clothes and accessories they can look like the ‘picture perfect’ model on the cover.

She is pictured from head to hips wearing a very colourful 50’s style skirt covered in pink and purple flowers and delicate black writing. She displays a bare midriff with silver belly-button bar. She wears a stretchy very short vest top that copies the shape of a bra. Her arms are bare and she is wearing deep ...

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