Magazine practical task: RESEARCH

SHORTLIST 

Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Dazed&Confused

DAZED&CONFUSED

My chosen magazine is 'Dazed & Confused' since I find it's alternative, edgy style intriguing as well as the use of colour and urban aesthetics to push the house style regardless of edition. My new edition is going to be a take on teenage culture - especially the stereotypes that still plague our society however make it into a more editorial (?) staged candid perspective. I chose Dazed&Confused since it's a magazine I enjoy reading as well as a magazine I feel emulates the cultures and habits of 2019 without conforming to the same cycle of narratives.

Analysis of 3 front covers

Girls Rule The World
 This front cover incorporates the primary colours to create a stark contrast against the deeper skin tone of the model. The bright colours connote passion and revolution whilst the female on the cover subverts the eurocentric beauty standards that usually grace the magazine rack. This cover is a clear depiction of new wave feminism, with a reference to 'Girl Power' an idea made global in the 1990s. The bricolage of decades within this front cover brings these ideas to a contemporary audience with a slightly high angle putting the power with the model and the strong colour palette, creating an eye-catching piece. An aspect of Dazed's house style is a minimalistic front cover and the clear lack of copy, excluding the flash and the credits, definitely keeps in line with this consistent aspect of the brand and gives this cover a contemporary, modern alignment in the media. 
Not Everything is Black and White
This front cover juxtaposes two contrasting aspects of mise-en-scene. The costume on the left fits with the punk era of the late 1980s, and the right fitting the clean-cut image of a 2010s social media influencer and further connotes an underlying message of the complexity of masculinity particularly from a modern perspective. This cover is especially political in its message and the copy of the flash centred below the central image of this Jekyll/Hyde character reads 'Not Everything is black and white', which has an obvious link to the idiom 'It's black and white' but also could refer to the racial controversies within the modern age and how the ideologies surrounding race and racial stereotypes are increasingly outdated and constructed by those who are ignorant to everything that isn't 'black and white' when it comes to race, gender, sexuality etc. This front cover fits the house style and the brand ethos of nonconformity and contemporary art.

The New Agenda
The New Agenda was a series of covers that explored teenage influencers throughout the media. On this cover, we have 'The Hate U Give' star Amandla Stenberg, on a monotone background with words scrawled across her face. The monotone colour palette, suggests a serious and austere tone will follow with the issue, with the minimal copy and spread out flash giving the front cover a minimalist aesthetic and amplifying the political subtext of this issue. It connotes a discussion of the change - or beginning of a change, from the teenage generations and revolutions that have sparked in the last decade regarding police brutality, unfair mass incarceration, women's rights and even environmental issues. This is extremely apt for the brand's ethos and aesthetics whilst also using star power to appeal to a wider audience. Dazed use urban fonts across all their covers with a classic sans serif almost retro title copy and a less bold flash copy and credits which appeals to a younger demographic, whilst also catering to that demographic through their content.