Vogue Magazine: A Study of Design Evolution and Digital Presence

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Vogue magazine's design evolution, from its inception in 1892 to its current digital presence. It examines the key design elements, including cover page design, font styles, and imagery, and how these have changed over time to reflect evolving fashion trend...Read More

Running head: VOGUE MAGAZINE
Vogue Magazine
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s Note

1VOGUE MAGAZINE
Introduction
The complete design of a magazine all together has vital impact on its popularity and the
process of attracting the readers. Ranging from the cover page to its content pages, the editors
need to consider attractive and unique designing to draw the attention of the random viewers.
The consideration is applicable for all types of magazines over various topics as the basic
principles of magazine designing remains constant. The primary principle of designing a
magazine is to communicate the content in its cover page allowing the reader to form idea about
the content they are offered (Whittaker 2016). This article will identify the overall design of
Vogue Magazine and its evolution over time. It will further address the digital publishing and
modification related to it.
Vogue Magazine
Vogue is an international fashion magazine of America and is one of the leading
magazines in the industry from its first publication in 1892 (vogue.com. 2018). The magazine is
furiously dedicated to the fashion and the information provided in it is considered by many as the
final word. It is due to the updated and authentic information it provides for the readers. The
magazine company has considerably changed its design over time and introduced innovative
designs to keep the attraction alive.
Examination of Design Evolution
Vogue has been changing its appearance since its initiation days. However, they have
managed to keep the content intact. The brand is still the same in providing fashion updates in
the same fashion with minor modifications for refreshing the outlook. The framework of the
brand is of classic appearance with unique imagery for its each single session. This helps them in

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communicating the content of Vogue magazine (Das 2016). The predominance of visual images
that marks the uniqueness of Vogue leads them to focus on the design of their magazine.
The magazine in its starting age focused on attracting the high society people of New
York. This cover of the magazine then used to depict the well-polished women in the society
who were called Gibson girls. They were considered as the epitome of the society. They then
used to write down the content of the magazine for getting attraction from both the male and
female of the society. Vogues used to present the content in different section of its magazine
such as “Society Snapshot”, “Of interest to Her” for satisfying the upscale tastes of the readers
(Das 2016).
The content of the magazine since then has significantly changed along with its design
and moved towards depicting the fashion industry. This contributed in the evolution of the
magazine design. The fashion plates considerably enlarge in the time in their magazine along
with the expansion of the departments and the sections (Haeusermann 2013). They also included
a number of sections in their content, out of which, some received controversies such as the
“garment patterns”.
Complete reformation of the magazine was brought by Conde Nast as he changed the
format of the magazine. He introduced solid colour front and back covers for the first time in
Vogue. The design also included society specific departments for addressing different
components differently. It helped the readers to identify the field of interest easily (Stam 2014).
The design of the magazine also included a section that allowed the women to sell or purchase
their products, which was innovative for a fashion magazine. This helped them in drawing more
number of customers.

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Inclusion of Baron Adolphe de Meyer in 1913 was revolutionary for Vogue Magazine
(Condenast.ru 2018). They introduced romantic and seductive images and softer backgrounds
that created a new world of imagery. The magazine further focused on the cover pages. They
included imageries on the front and back cover of the magazine that contributed in attracting
greater attention (Haeusermann 2013). They further focused on the quality of the printing for
proposing greater value to their customers. The coloured photographs started to appear in Vogue
magazine since 1932 that attracted greater customers (Condenast.ru. 2018).
The magazine now put multicolour cover pages along with imageries. The fonts used by
the company remained similar in their lifespan with simple and decent fonts.
Approach to Digital Publishing
Vogue had always considered using multiplatform for addressing the greater section of
the society. The online presence of the magazine allows the customers to explore their content
from anywhere and anytime. They have launched their official online site in the year 2010. They
are also present in the social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and
Snapchat. The approach considered by Vogue magazine is to establish themselves in all popular
platforms for gaining and maintaining the attraction. The newly launched website o the magazine
helped them in gaining a hike of 80% attraction in the international market (wordpress.com
2018). They also expanded their reach in the mobile applications that allows their readers to avail
the digital copies of their printed copies. The social media platforms are utilised as the medium
for promoting their articles from the printed media and digital platform (Ft.com. 2018).
Digitalisation of the brand brought various modifications, however, keeping the structure
more or less similar to the printed version. The website is divided into a number of sections for

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clear accessibilities for the readers. The overall structure of Vogue digital magazines is similar
(vogue.com 2018).
Conclusion
The design of Vogue magazine is intriguing for drawing attention of the readers. The
combination of simple font style and enlarged pictures enabled the company in holding the
readers’ attention for years. Magazine’s follows more or less similar structure in their digital
publishing for holding the essence of the magazine. However, they have extended their reach
using social networking platforms for attracting greater attention.

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References
Condenast.ru. 2018. Vogue - History. [online] Available at:
https://www.condenast.ru/en/portfolio/magazines/vogue/history/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].
Das, S., 2016. Magazine Publishing Innovation: Two Case Studies on Managing
Creativity. Publications, 4(2), p.15.
Ft.com. 2018. Vogue goes viral. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/969bd98a-
5ba4-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2 [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].
Haeusermann, T., 2013. Custom publishing in the UK: Rise of a silent giant. Publishing research
quarterly, 29(2), pp.99-109.
Stam, D., 2014. Inside Magazine Publishing. Routledge.
vogue.com. 2018. Vogue Magazine Online. [online] Available at:
https://www.vogue.com/magazine/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].
Whittaker, J., 2016. Magazine production. Taylor & Francis.
wordpress.com. 2018. Vogue – Digital Publishing: Assignment 1. [online] Available at:
https://digitalpublishing2017.wordpress.com/tag/vogue/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].