Look Magazine Analysis (Inspiration)

Although I am creating a music magazine, for inspiration I decided to look at my most desired fashion magazine, Look. I buy this every week, and I absolutely love the layout and themes the creators choose each time. For this specific front cover, I really like the colour scheme for starters, mostly pink and white hues. Although I’m not a huge fan of these colours, the way in which they’ve been presented on the page gives them a very appealing look for their target audience, which obviously will be women ranging from around 16 to 50 years old. Assuming their target audience buy this magazine often, ‘Look’ always have three blocks of colour, sometimes even the model’s dress sense ties in well with the palette (as shown). This gives their readers a subliminal message that, to find this magazine in their store, they will know that they use the same style each week, constantly varying the colours to keep themselves fresh and updated.

Firstly, for me the key aspect which stands out first of all is the masthead and main sell-line. The masthead is in a contrasting pink tone against the cover model and light-blue background, giving off a sense of feminism towards the buyer. The masthead’s font is quite classy, yet plain all the same; this is a great feature as it doesn’t make the reader squint to read what it says. Secondly, the main sell-line, “Your Big Beauty Issue” stands out as well, especially the last two words, and I find that it’s all down to the text size and gleaming white contrast, giving off a real sense of professional class.

In relevance to the colour scheme, it’s rather clever how they’ve made it appear as if a deep pink lipstick has been smeared across the bottom of the page, which ties in greatly with the fact that it’s a beauty issue. If I wanted to create something like this for my music magazine, I’d try and find a small aspect of music, perhaps like an iPod or CD and add this in to a small section of my cover. The smaller model fashioning “Figure-flattering Outfits” has been modelled in very invitational and somewhat seductive poses, and I also like the fact that her outfits stand out against the lipstick background and even the white text explaining what she’s there for.

Lastly, the cover model has a ‘super-smile’ pose, showing her teeth. She looks extremely sophisticated and elegant, two elements which are important at times in this magazine. Her outfit fits in with the palette used for this issue even if it’s a different shade of pink. Overall, it could be said that the cover model symbolises the term “beauty” for this issue, as she seems to give away a glowing and cheerful nature about herself.

The contents page of Look usually always has a white background like this one, which adds a nice touch of simplicity and style to the theme. In relevance, the text is usually always black too; a great contrast, which isn’t too harsh on the eyes. With this colour scheme, I always like how add black background against white text, as well as black borders, instead of a sudden change in colour, like a harsh red or yellow. Although there is a dark fuchsia colour, only the numbers are put in this, adding a sense of simplicity yet again.

On the left-hand side is the editor’s note for that specific issue, which has been sectioned off from the rest of the contents with a beaming photo of her at the top. She begins with “Hello!” which catches the eye of the reader immediately as it’s been sized up, and at the same time it’s a message of invitation. The photograph of her at the top has been given a white background, fitting in with the background of the page but at the same time, the contrasting purple background of the image connected to it, defines both images in a very smart way, especially through the different tones of lighting used for each one.

In relevance to the images, I really love the idea of making the three photos on the right look like a strip of photos from a booth. I’d absolutely love to use this idea in addition to my magazine as I find it very quirky and original. Along with these images, one rather big image on the left is a great feature of Look, as it usually gives an indication of what fashionable clothing people would be able to find in an issue. Overall, the aspects complement each other really well on this page; they’re professional, original and I’ve really been inspired to use certain features for my own magazine.

This specific double page spread of Look was an interview with the actor, Robert Pattinson from around 2009, which really leapt out at me because, like Kerrang, the image of the actor has taken up one whole page. I’m quite sure that I will want to use this aspect in my magazine; it’s really professional as the entire interview is kept on one page. The background again, has been kept white to keep a minimalist appeal, with mostly black and white text, with the one interview line in the middle a fuchsia colour. The font is the same throughout which is very appealing as it isn’t difficult to read. The larger text has been made italic, indicating that it’s part of the actor’s interview.

The actor’s image on the right is probably very appealing to most women as his look oozes a masculine aura with his pose yet cheeky hint of seduction with his smile and look of charismatic charm. This draws in the eye of the reader; this man is well-known globally and oozes stardom. Although his clothes are rather plain, this adds to the subtle charm and appealing aura about him to women of mostly any age in their target audience. The images on the bottom-left of the page are small yet still stand out from the rest of the page, due to the borders of each having a subtle grey colour added to them, and in general, still having their original backgrounds.

Overall, there isn’t a lot of detail going on with the double page spread, and that’s why I like it. It has so many minimalist features yet they all go perfectly well together, because of the way they’ve been structured on the page, along with the basic colour scheme and style.