Case Studies:

i-D Magazine:

National Geographic:

The second magazine which I am going to analyse is the National Geographic, a science, geography, history, and world cultures based magazine that has been publishing since 1888. The edition which I am going to discuss is July 2002's issue which features an eagle as the cover model. Eagles are connotated with strength and often nicknamed the kings of the sky. They are witty, strong, large, and thirsty for domination but are never really described as beautiful or cute, proving that the National Geographic isn't concerned with beauty but instead facts, knowledge and pizzazz.
Ever since it's first issue release in 1888, the National Geographic has supported a yellow frame. Yellow is the colour of the sun which is a common thing brought up in scientific, geographical, historical, and cultural debates, making it suit the magazine really well. Additionally yellow is representative of wisdom and smarts and National Geographic has a very niche audience of people who appeal to these values. Aside from the border, the cover features blue, black, white, red, and again yellow. The blue sky is clear of clouds or the sun making it look like a block colour; the appeal of adding a block yellow border, a block blue background, and block red font is that all colours are twined into the primary colour scheme and they look attractive together, as well as bold. The white feathers all have a natural twinge of grey making them not too loud and lively but instead allowing them to diffuse the excess vibrancy from the sky and border. The gradient of black feathers force the text to stand out and be read without too much effort.
The magazine has the bird overlaying the masterhead which proves that National Geographic is so famous and popular that they do not need to show their title fully. Additionally the height of the masterhead is the same height of the passage dedicated to coverlines. The coverlines aren't bombarding the cover like most magazines chose, and so it is once again demonstrated to us that the National Geographic is so popular that it does not need to hype up every edition on the cover, because they intend for it to gather sales without excess coverlines, thanks to it's cult following. There is only one thing in the coverlines which is red and this is the start of the main coverline which reads "Bald Eagles". Considering that this coverline is placed directly below the bald eagles face, this serves the image like a caption which is probably what the editors foresighted, and why they made the text red. Below that in white and the same shade of yellow as the border are various coverlines. The editors have written the contents of the magazine in a way which doesn't precisely  tell the audience what the articles are about, for example they write: "Somalia (-) A Failed State?". Here they could of let us in by saying 'Somalia, why it is a failed state' or 'Somalia, a failed state? No', but instead they haven't expressed their views in an obvious way, which pulls in their audience even more as they want to know what National Geographic thinks.
The contents page of National Geography is neatly divided into three sections. There is a big image which has the issue number, date, and title overlaying. The image is of a man walking on water lilies with a big leaf as an umbrella, and this image appeals to the audience of the National Geographic because it shows a different and interesting culture parallel to Western society. The colours in this image are also red and green which are complimentary colours which suit each other well. The largest section is the "Features" quartile and to my surprise the features of the mag are the same on the contents page as on the front cover. This is a surprise because I was expecting for such a famous magazine and a magazine which is practically the only famous one in it's genre, that it would have more content in an issue to brag about. The smallest quartile is dedicated to two topics, thanking Norbert Rosing for photographing the eagle on the cover, and to promoting the National Geographic site.
The editors letter discusses nuclear waste, global warming, and cancer. Normally editor's letter are meant to welcome the consumer and thank them for buying an issue of the magazines, but this editor's letter, written by Bill Allen instead scares the audience. Perhaps Allen's aim is to show his disgust at global warming and influence his audience by scaring them, however I don't believe this theory to be 100% because Allen is mainly highlighting nuclear waste as a cause of global warming. More so I think that Allen's goal is to educate his audience of people who pride themselves on being intelligent, into understanding and being aware of global warming, it's causes and effects.
The editor's letter overlays an image of a nuclear explosion. This is probably because global warming (which is the topic here) is hard to show in an image considering that it's a process. To represent it one would maybe have to draw a diagram or something, but National Geographic is more up-market than this and strives for exceptional photography. Therefore they probably chose to have an explosion as the underlay because it is something that the readers do not see everyday and it sort of has to do with global warming.

To notify the reader of the section of the magazine about wildlife in the Philippines, there is a double page poster of a lizard's eye. The picture is sharp and high contrast making it interesting to look at.
The next double page is mainly an image, this time showing off a fig tree in the rainforest, next to a river. This picture is captivating because like on the contents page, red and green are the main colours and these are complimentary colours. This picture also grips the reader because the figs look different from the way figs usually look, most of them are red (not green or purple), they're also slimy and covered in small yellow seeds.
The next double page is written in a descriptive story style with the journalist telling us about her experience in the Philippines, for example she tells us that "sun and rain poured down together as the storm passed the Puyoy-Puyoy river, drenching the forest in gold". The double page spread also features some factual information, for example captioning the picture of the bat sucking the fruit on the left hand side, we're told that flying foxes weigh "up to three pounds, with a wingspread of 5.5 feet.