Thursday, February 12, 2009

A picture tells a story and sells a magazine


A magazine feel to today's posts definately.

I wrote earlier about how a magazine cover can sell or not sell the magazine and the news that Cheryl Cole's appearance on the cover of Feb's Vogue has put nearly 20,000 on its circulation reiterates the point.

There is another magazine cover story that caught my eye though courtesy of CJR which comments on the cover of Fortune magazine

Sometimes it’s better just to keep it simple, and in that spirit I give Fortune credit for profiling several unemployed people and illustrating the story on its cover with a photo of a downsized training-firm executive and his wife.


It is a case of the cover selling the story

The photograph is quite arresting. The colors are all grays and browns; the husband is in sharp focus andhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif closer to the camera, with the wife a few feet behind him and slightly out of focus, a bit like a specter. Yes, the symbolism relies on traditional gender roles (she depends on him, get it?), but the point is made. The expressions more or less tell the entire story—his is a combination of determination tempered by depression and worry. She’s just worried.

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