Front Covers - Women's magazine

Vogue is a fashion magazine aimed at a female audience. This issue consists of feminine, pastel colours. The text is black and hot pink to contrast against the delicate teal colour in the background. The colours, pink and the soft teal, are spring colours (cherry blossoms and grass) which go together with the month in which the issue was released, March.

Masthead

Vogue is a recognizable brand and therefore the whole text doesn't have to be seen for the audience to recognise it. Lady Gaga's head blocks a part of the masthead, which makes her stand out more out of the cover, and her face attracting a lot of attention from the viewer as her face lacks any distracting text over it.

Main Image

The main image is Lady Gaga, the star of this issue's front cover. She is wearing a robe of some sort, revealing her cleavage and leaving her shoulder exposed. She's standing straight up, with her hands on her hips and facing the viewer directly, showing confidence and also promoting her slim figure. She wears little amount of makeup, which is unusual for her, as she is often seen wearing heavy eyeliner and unusual clothing, but she retains her unique, attention grabbing style with her pink bob hairstyle and dark lipstick. The dark lipstick links the image to the anchoring puffs and masthead, which are also dark in colour. This allows the image to contrast against the dark text, but not clash completely against the surrounding dark fonts.

Cover lines and puffs

Vogue doesn't bombard the viewer with too many puffs on the front cover, as this would eliminate the sleek and sophisticated look. The main cover line is Lady Gaga's new album 'Born This Way'. It further intrigues the viewer into buying the magazine, especially if the viewer happens to be a fan of her music. The feature of her new album supports the Uses and Gratifications Theory's information needs within the audience, as the article would consist of plenty of information on the album. The title of her album promotes self esteem and love for oneself, which also links to Vogue's association with body image, and fits into the personal identity needs within the magazine's audience. This is because the majority of women who read this magazine would like to be as confident and successful as her, and the front cover leads to believe that reading the article would help the audience to reach those goals.
The other puffs feature women less known to us, but they are all women of power. 'Cry Freedom' is about a woman who lived 29 years in a cult - though the line is vague, the connotations of 'cult' and 'freedom' clash, which suggests that the woman this cover line relates to is a hero for being free, fighting for freedom, living in a cult for so long, or possibly freeing herself from a cult. 'Starved for Love' is a cover line with connotations of anorexia - personifying the 'food demons' makes the mother and daughter also sound heroic. It strongly leads to the topic of self-esteem, as Vogue here is trying to applaud the survivors of eating disorders, and links back to loving oneself. Magazines like Vogue are well known for triggering people to anorexia and bulimia, and how this cover line portrays the mother and daughter as heroic, shows that the magazine is standing against such claims and tries to promote a more positive message.