Harper's Bazaar Contents Analysis

Like Vogue, Harper's Bazaar's contents follows conventions because it incorporates the masthead onto the page; the same way that it is on the cover. It also has the word 'Contents' on the page to show the reader what page of the magazine they are looking at. It makes it more obvious than Vogue which suggests that the audience aren't as educated or high class. The masthead is written in black which is very contrasting to the background which makes it very visible.

In terms of the imagery, Bazaar uses images that support it's target audience as well as using them to portray fashion. There are two images used; one with a female model and one with a male model. This suggests that Bazaar magazine has an audience of male and female genders of a mixed race as the male model is white, but the female model looks as if she has a Mediterranean ethnicity. They may have chosen a model of this ethnicity because her skin is a tanned colour; and as this image is to promote swimwear fashion, the tanned skin would make the audience think of summer and hot weather. It also will make the audience think that if they purchase the swimwear that is being advertised in the magazine, they could look like the model. Also the sand in the background of the image will make the viewer think of the beach and will think that they can have a similar appearance to the model at the beach if they were to wear similar swimwear. The month of this issue is July, which fits with the image of the female model because of the colours and style of her clothing. She is wearing an all-in-one swim suit style piece that is quite revealing which links with Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory. The image of the male model, Cillian Murphy, doesn't really connote a summer feeling, but fits with his story in the magazine, 'No More Mr Nasty Guy'. The purpose of this being put on the contents page is to show the viewer that their will be some interesting news or gossip about this famous actor. This will make the reader want to purchase the magazine because they will want to know the latest news about famous people and won't want to miss out.

The fonts have been kept very simple on this page. There are only really two fonts being used; one modern font for headings and one more decorative times style font for the main text. The decorative font is used because it is very feminine so it represents the female audience. 

Like Vogue, there aren't very many colours used. Other than the bright colours of the model's clothing in the image of the female, the colour pallet mainly consists of black, white and an orange/red colour. This doesn't make the page very interesting to read, although the orange does help to break up the text. Similar to Vogue, the orange colour was probably used because it is a vibrant colour and in this case represents summer.

The layout of this page helps it to fit it's purpose because it is simple and easy for the viewer to read. There are two images used on the page which help set the text into columns.  

Overall, this page follows the simplest of layouts and isn't very creative. The coloured headings used in the text help to break up the text and make it more interesting to read, but other than that, the page is very plain. It does however serve it's purpose with sophistication on the simplest of levels.