MAGAZINE ANALYSIS WHATS EATING GILBERT GRAPE?.

By Emma Whelan

DETAILS MAGAZINE
-Details Magazine is an American founded monthly mens health magazine.
-It focuses mainly on mens health and fashion. -The Cover I will be analysing focuses on Johnny Depp and is from the May 1993 edition of the magazine

THE MASTHEAD

The sans-serif font used is relatively generic and far from unique, the red used is dulled yet contrasts the grey background giving the cover a fairly clinical vibe.

A sans-serif typography is used in bold red to emphasise the lighthearted nature of the magazine. The close tracking of the masthead suggest that the name of the magazine is fairly unimportant and rather an icon of a well-known brand amongst

The texts appears to be squeezed onto the cover, the tops of letters reaches the extreme top of the magazine furthermore emphasising the lack of importance to the brand name of the magazine and rather to its articles.

The masthead condensces the title Details to the far left of the cover, leaving the cover line with a quarter of the masthead to advertise Wild Palms Goes Prime Time.

THE MAIN IMAGE

The cover of Johnny Depp is used to align male readers with him as a person. His diagonal stance and direct look into the camera suggests he is looking at the reader therefore diminishing his fame emphasised through the cover line in bold Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp appears in a medium shot to advertise the magazine. His photograph takes up the majority of the magazine, a tactic used by Details magazine to sell magazines by using him as a feature.

The image of Depp appears as airbrushed and unnatural emphasising an image of him as to be admired by male readers. This is shown through the windswept look used for his hair and shadowing round his face to suggest an air of mystery.

THE LEAD ARTICLE AND ANCHORAGE TEXT

The anchorage texts appears in a deep purple border to emphasise the boundary between Depp and his character Gilbert Grape as the oddball. Therefore a contrast between the grey text used to advertise Depps name and the anchorage tagline is created.

The lead article features Johnny Depps name in a bold italic followed with the anchorage text behind the oddball. Not only contextually does this highlight the lack of development in the knowledge of mental illness and therefore appears as derogatory towards mental illness but uses this as comedic to create a light hearted article that will be enjoyed by a young male audience.

COVER LINES
The cover lines highlight the masculine vibe to details magazine. The cover line Army-Navy surplus is used to emphasise the masculinity of the magazine and make it relatable to American young men. Other cover lines appear advertising tubular balls Kelly slater rides surfings new wave. Once again sport is used to emphasise the masculinity of the magazine which is reinforced by the main image of Johnny Depp.

THE EFFECT OF THE PARADIGME

The use of simplistic colouring of red and grey allows a further focus to be on Johnny Depp who serves as a selling point to the magazine. The simplistic design choices allow a focus to be on the articles within the magazine rather than the branding of the magazine.

The cover is simplistic and allows a focus to be on the star selling point, in this edition Johnny Depp. Therefore it could be suggested that details relies on its stars to sell its magazines rather than its branding. Details is a monthly magazine and therefore rare, editions are released once a month which makes its demand higher yet its star features sells its magazines as on shelves the talent would be seen in the upper quartile of the magazine.