When considering the target audience for this project it was important to first assess the ways in which the existing magazines try to attract the attention of their audiences. For example, Heat magazine uses a heirarchical grid system and celebrity photographs to present the front covers of their magazine. By doing so the reader is aware of the style of magazine from first glance and is likely to recognise this genre if they saw it by another company.
Men’s Health magazine
One of the most well know magazines on the market today is Men’s Health, which promotes a certain body image for males aged 18-30 to aim for. As seen from the front cover of many issues of the magazine, it is clear that they intend to impose certain routines and ways for building muscle on their audience. It is also clear that there is a link between how body image is portrayed and ways in which the reader can ‘better’ their sex life. For example, through showing images of muscular male models, Men’s Health is able to portray an image of power and status, which they believe can help their readers to be better at attracting women or having sex.
It is likely that the magazine targets men aged between 18 and 30 because they believe they are most likely to have more time in their lives to workout. From what we can see the magazine also tends to target white and black males in particular, as many of the cover models shown are either black or white. This could also be to do with the fact that certain ethnicities are more likely than others to workout.
In terms of the layout, it is noticeably different to the gossip magazines as it relies more on the typography elements rather than the imagery. However, each issue tends to show one large image of a male model in the centre of the cover, which is surrounded by text. By laying out a magazine in this way it is clear that the text is supportive of the central image and furthermore intrigues the reader into purchasing the magazine.
GQ magazine
When looking at GQ magazine, we can instantly see that it is aimed at male audiences aged between around 18 and 65. It is also noticeably less focused on body image as a subject and more about world stories and interests that men may have. In this way the magazine is able to broaden their audience as well as help their readers to better their image in their own way. For example, by adding sections about the latest clothing styles for different age groups, there are more options for the reader to pursue rather than seeing a single body type being promoted.
Although the GQ cover approach is similar to Men’s Health, it is clear that it is less judgemental in its intentions. It also uses simialar typopgrahy styles and layouts, however it is more sophisticated and formal in its approach. For example, on the cover of their magazine, Men’s Health says ‘build a beach body’, whereas GQ says ‘167 winning looks for spring racing’.
After researching the ways in which body image is portrayed by the media and particularly in these magazines, it became clear that body image in gossip magazines are promoted towards women, where as body image is more likely to be promoted to men in health magazines. In this way it seemed necessary to try and create a cover which could apply designs suited to both men and women in a more positive way.
This could also mean that the style of the magazine layout and colour schemes would change in accordance with the audience preference. For example, where womens magazines likely show bright colours, particularly pink and purple, mens magazines are more likely to show neutral colours like white or dark shades like navy. This way the media is portraying colours as being suited to certain sexes.
The idea with the design of the magazine cover would be to try and break out of this norm by using both colour preferences in one design. Therefore, the designs would show that these colour schemes can be applied to context without being steriotypical. The overall result of this would be that the magazine design can attract both sexes and subsequently draw in a larger audience.
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