Bazaar has a total readership of 164,000 in the UK with the average age of the reader being 41 years old. Bazaar's audience is almost 90% female as (like Vogue), it caters mainly for female fashion. In terms of the demographics, 56% of readers fall into social grades AB, and 87% fall into social grades ABC1. Overall, Bazaar targets their magazines to high class working women as 21% of it's female readers have an income of £100,000+.
In terms of the masthead, 'Harper's Bazaar' (originally Harper's Bazar), got it's name 'Harper's' because it was founded by the Harper & Brothers Corporation. The second part of it's name, 'Bazaar', is more difficult to find the meaning behind. It's possible that it could have developed from the word 'bizarre', meaning eccentric or unexpected; but nevertheless, the word works for this genre of magazine and shows diversity in terms of fashion and it's audience. Unlike most fashion magazines, Harper's Bazaar has two words in it's title, although Harper's is written very small compared to the main part of the masthead 'Bazaar'; which is what the magazine is often referred to for short. Bazaar, like Vogue, is aimed at a higher class audience, and all of the masthead show this (the font, style and colours). The masthead follows conventions in that it covers 1/8 of the page so that the audience would be able to recognise it easily. The font in particular suggests the genre of magazine as it makes a statement and has a classy style. This particular issue features an illustration that goes through the masthead which makes the Old Times font look more decorative; this links with the heading at the bottom that reads 'Jubilee Chic'. I would like to incorporate something similar on my magazine cover because I think it makes the page look more interesting and helps show what the issue will be about.
The model featuring on this issue is Victoria Beckham. The lighting in the photograph suggests that the photograph was taken in a studio environment, the the floral background maybe being added as a separate image later on. The mise-en-scene portrays her as classy and powerful which fits with the heading 'Queen Victoria'. The theme in this photograph will be better for me to use inspiration from than the photograph from the Vogue magazine that I analysed because this is a spring/summer issue, so it will include colours and stories similar to what I will be including for my summer issue. The image of Victoria Beckham used is a medium close-up which goes against conventions as a close-up is usually used on magazines; but as this is a fashion magazine, seeing her clothing is quite an important aspect. Her outfit is quite low cut and revealing which links to Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory that states that women are used for the pleasure of male viewers in the media. The way she is holding herself and her facial expressions connote power and class, which is something that I want my model to have in my fashion magazine.
The colour scheme used on this cover connote a power and a summery mood with purple, blue and white. Purple is a colour that is associated with royalty and symbolises power which link with the main image and heading with key words such as 'Queen', 'conquering' and 'Jubilee'. Most of the text is written in white so that it stands out over the floral coloured background. The colour pallet that I use on my magazine cover will be similar to this in that they will connote summer and power, but they will also need to represent Cornwall.
Two main fonts are used on this cover; the one used for the masthead and the text at the bottom that reads 'Jubilee Chic' and the one used for the headings and text around the page. Another font is used for smaller headings around the page such as 'Prints Charming', and 'Fitness Focus', and other odd words within the stories such as 'on' and 'of'. I like how the use of this font mixes up the text and makes it more interesting to read. Another way they have made it look more interesting is the use of different sized font and occasionally setting the font to italic. The font used around the page is a light plain but modern, so it works well to have it different sizes and in italic. The text on this page advertises the summer season as it talks about popular summer topics; floral prints and dream bodies. This will make the reader want to buy the magazine because they will want to find out how to get a dream body and what to wear in the summer season. I will have to include summer stories similar to these, but mine will have to relate to Cornwall.
The layout of the page consists of a medium close-up shot image in the background with text forming around the outer sides of the page leaving a clearer view of the model behind. There are not any smaller images on cover to show any other content of the magazine, but this seems quite common in the fashion genre. The smaller headings and information are placed to the left and right sides of the model with some overlapping. The fonts are different sizes depending on what should catch the readers eye first. The font 'Jubilee Chic' is written in a large font because it relates to the main story of this issue. I would like to include a word/heading in large at the bottom of my cover to suggest the main story and theme of my issue. This cover also follow conventions by including a bar code in the bottom left hand corner; I have found this to rare on fashion magazine covers that I have found on the internet, but this might be because they are covers from the online versions of the magazine so a bar code will not be necessary.
As a conclusion, I think this magazine cover would work well for my inspiration for my own regional fashion magazine because it has a lot of features that I would like to incorporate into my own magazine cover; particularly the fonts and layouts of the text. Because I will not be able to photograph a real star model, I will have to change my main story/feature article to something related to fashion or Cornwall. The sophistication and power in the colour scheme and main image is something that I would like to portray in my own cover image, which relates to Bentley's 'rearranging of the old to make the new' theory.
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
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