Second on the list is V!
V Magazine
Issue - Fall, Issue 85
Price ( I paid) - £10
Editor - Stephen Gan
The first thing you notice about
V is the paper size. It’s A3, which isn’t typical of high -end fashion magazines,
but I like it, as I feel you can see more of the images. I have found magazines
that are this size generally have more editorial than features in them, which
isn’t necessarily a bad thing and have found this is definitely the case with
V.
The
cover has minimal content, using san serif font instantly giving it a modern
feel. Moving onto the contents page, they introduce serif fonts in the main
body text but generally use san serif fonts throughout which I like. Also I
feel the font is quite small but compared to the page size, it makes it feel
like when the page is full of text that you’re getting a lot of information. The
text width grows from close together to quite wide in their title fonts, which
again emphasizes its graphic nature, yet is still easy to read. The stand out
title of the magazine covers the whole front image, and takes on a different
matter texture compared to the majority which is gloss and is something I
really like. This is also they’re signature attribute that they use on every
issue, again emphasizing there identity in the magazine industry.
Graphically,
I feel it’s strong and the imagery used throughout runs consistently. They vary
from a one, two and three grid and column system; with the majority of one
column pages being on less important ones such as the contents page, where the
images behind take president. Although they are a lot of ads alike Paris Vogue,
you get straight into content it seems a lot sooner and you get a lot of it
with a tiny dose of an advert here and there but it’s not as noticeable to some
magazines. Stories range from interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Lee Daniels and
their cover star Lady gaga. The ‘Icons’ feature was lovely to read as they
feature content from Cher to Liza Minnelli. The set up on a page makes it easy
to read and has fluidity into the next without seeming too dramatic of a change.
The
balance between fashion and lifestyle is good; it particularly focuses on
editorial, which are really striking and thought made the magazine quite
unique. One article featured photography by Bruce Weber, which I’ve previously
looked at as part of my degree, so it was nice to see some more of his work in a
current publication.
With
it only being their 85th issue, I really enjoyed reading V, its nice
to have a change from Vogue and ELLE, which sometimes I feel you get the same
from, even with the revamp that ELLE had last year. However, it’s not an easy
one to carry around with you if you have little space and arm strength due to
its size.
