For this analysis, I chose an issue of TIME Magazine published over the summer. The main title reads, “The Pursuit of Happiness”. The title of this main story as well as the illustration on the front are what drew me in.
The initiator of this publication is the editor-in-chief. They intend to produce a magazine that people will be interested in enough to pick it up and read it. The mission of this publication is to offer people current information including U.S. news, global news, as well as updates regarding culture and technology. The main audience for this magazine is made up of adults living in the United States who are interested in current affairs, culture and technology. I say this because most of the content relates to adults. Some visual clues that lead me to these conclusions include the fact that the layout is pretty basic. It isn’t flashy or overdone which tells me that the content is important enough to stand on it’s own. It almost feels like a newspaper. Aside from a few two page photo spreads, the body text takes center stage reinforcing that the content itself is what’s important. It takes up most of the room on most pages with an illustration here or there to add interest.
One thing about this layout that was interesting to me was how much space each of the elements on a page gets. There’s plenty of white space to separate one thing from another. No element really has to compete with anything around it. Some of the other magazines I browsed through tried to cram to much content and visual elements onto one page. That made it difficult to focus on and understand the content. There is also a great deal of organization and separation. Due to the use of photos and large type, it’s easy to see where one story ends, and another begins.
The artifact I’m working with is a magazine, which can be found on a store shelf or in your mail box, if you’re a subscriber. Online content is also produced. The print edition is produced once a week, while online articles are being updated daily.
