Harper's Bazaar Front Cover and Feature Image Research

I  have chosen to create a Harper's Bazaar Cover and two page spread, featuring an established actress who talks about her new role in a feminist police drama, in which she also directs. As it is a fashion magazine, the actress will be stylishly and fashionably dressed in the latest trends in order to meet the codes and conventions of the magazine and also appeal to the audience. The magazines target audience is primarily women ages 25-49 in the socio economic groups A,B and C, they claim that 'Harper’s BAZAAR is the style bible for the well-dressed woman with the well-dressed mind. It is a fashion authority. It unapologetically celebrates luxury fashion and beauty while profiling the who’s who of pop culture — fashion, photography, celebrity, art and literature. BAZAAR doesn’t stand still.'

In order to gain a wider understanding of what a Harper's Bazaar magazine is composed of and the type of articles it contains, I carried out some secondary research analysing covers and feature images from the latest editions of the magazine.

Claire Danes, October 2014

This feature on Claire Danes reveals all the inside information of her Showtime series ‘Homeland’ and how she relates to her character. The images are all shot in black and white, creating a professional and classy portrayal of the actress. She is styled modestly, with little skin and cleavage on show to appeal to a female audience who will be interested in the article rather than viewing her as an object to be looked at.  The colour scheme used if fairly basic, but balances well with the black and white background. The titles of articles around the main image is in a bold black serif font, contrasting to her pale skin and the white background. The yellow and pink font, highlighting the magazine name and type of magazine, contrasts one another creating a flattering colour scheme, but also contrasts the black and white background, making it appear bolder and more eye catching.  The titles used around the image are also very basic, without revealing too much information on the front cover so that it clutters the page. Short and concise titles must be used that have a large impact by creating an enigma for the reader, titles such as ' The most beautiful clothes in the world' will immediately entice a fashion fanatic. The feature images are consistent with the front cover, following with the black and white theme. Again, the images are very classy and fashionable, appealing to the audience. There are a range of close up, medium shot and long shot images, all of which display her in different styles of clothing in different positions, and also representing her in different ways  

Jenifer Lawrence , November 2014

Unlike the Claire Danes cover, Jenifer Lawrence’s portrait has been shot in colour, however the range of colours used are fairly dark in hue with an unsaturated tone to the image, which contrasts well with her bold plum lips.  Again, a close up shot has been used of the actress, providing a trend of the type of images Harper’s Bazaar tend to use on their front cover. Her facial expression is posed, yet looks fair and relaxed; it is also clear that hands and are generally apart of the shot to create an elegant, sophisticated feel to the image. A single coloured white font has been used throughout the cover, unlike the Claire Danes edition, in order to appear bright against the overall dark coloured image. This has shown to me that the colour of the font on Harper’s Bazaar front cover is usually just relative to the image, and what blends or contrasts well, rather than a set colour scheme. The titles used around the image are also very minimal in comparison to the October 2014 edition, which highlights that Jenifer Lawrence’s own popularity has enough magnitude to entice an audience. The stunning photo in conjunction with well-known name immediately sells the magazine, without the use of catchy headlines to create an enigma. It is apparent that from both magazines, the front cover images has to translate high fashion. The image I produce must be shot professionally in a studio, where the model is dressed fashionably with the appropriate hair and makeup- without this, my front cover will not be convincing as a Harper’s Bazaar edition.  The images of Jenifer Lawrence within the magazine are consistent with the front cover image in the sense that they are professional and classy. However they do not follow the colour scheme of the front cover image, and they are much more posed than Claire Danes' images. Some have been shot in colour and some in black and white, showing that the images don't have to be consistent with the front cover image or with each other, to some extent.


Analysis into these two magazine covers has allowed me to establish the generic codes and conventions that each magazine follows, and also the components that can be changed to suit each edition. With now a strong knowledge of the codes and convention of the style of the magazine, I would like to investigate into the content of the articles and Harper's Bazaar interviews.