Analysis of Cover Pages

Southern Living: Our Best Recipes
This particular edition is Volume 4 from November 2007. The cover page is a picture of cinnamon rolls on a wire rack. The rack is on top of a burgundy cloth napkin, which is on top of a dark, circular, wooden tray. The cinnamon rolls are the main focus with a wooden spatula pulling one of them out, making it appear closer. Parts of the napkin and the tray is blurred on the left side to make the words making up the cover lines, the burgundy napkins on top of two off-white plates are also blurred in the background, to the back left of the cinnamon rolls. Clearly these things are not extremely important indicated by the blurring, however, they do help make up the cover page so they were chosen for a reason. The colors of the napkins, plates, and tray come together with the theme of the edition, which is fall. The cover title is bright yellow and white to contrast against the wooden table in the background. The cover lines are the same colors, and some are larger than others to emphasize them for importance. The cover titles consist mainly of types of recipes (rather than article titles).  The number 131 is the largest to catch the audiences eye, so they know there are 131 recipes in the magazine.

Kraft: Food & Family:
This edition of Kraft: Food & Family is from the spring of 2014. The primary focus of the cover is a rainbow cake. The cake is on a light pink plate with a pastel colored napkin peaking out from under the plate. All the other background images are extremely blurred and not able to make out, so therefore they are not as important as the cake. The cake is what draws attention to the specific audience the magazine is trying to attract, which is people who like to bake. All the colors on the cover page tie together as spring colors. The background colors are orange, pink, and yellow. The cake, which is the main focus, has four layers: pink, orange, green, and blue, iced with white icing. The cover lines are visible but minimal. They are placed on the bottom right hand corner of the page which again, allows more attention to the main image. Numbers are used in this edition as well, but instead of recipes, it says, "51 reasons to celebrate our dreamiest, creamiest desserts." There is also a page reference in small font that gives the reader the page that the image's recipe is located.