Magazine Project Research- 1

FOODIE CRUSH MAGAZINE

 For my magazine research I decided to take a close look at Foodie Crush Magazine, an online magazine created in 2011 by a magazine designer out of California. Because Foodie Crush is a food magazine, I thought it would be a good place to start. By taking a closer look at this magazine, I hope to gain ideas of  how to structure and design my own food magazine.

COVER PAGE

Although this is not my favorite cover page, I do like the fonts used and the cover photo. The use of light backgrounds colors and crisp fonts creates a very polished and neat look to the cover. Something that I would include into my magazine cover. The bright pink font and bright Popsicle stands out against the white background and draws attention to the center of the magazine. Because of the bright summer colors, the magazine does a great job of grabbing the viewers attention. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The table of contents only addresses a few big stories within the magazine, instead of every page. I thought that every article would be on the table of contents; however, I like that only the big articles are. The use of pictures in the table of contents also helps the reader gain interest in the articles. Instead of just putting the name of the article, pictures of the dish or people who created the recipe are included.

RECIPES/LAYOUT

The layout of the recipe on this page is not my favorite. I think that the pictures on the right page should have been bigger to ensure that the readers can see, and understand, the instructions. The bigger pictures would also eliminate some of the white space on the page and make it look more put together. I do like the full page picture on the left side of the page, because it shows the reader the end product of the recipe before they start. I will include pictures like these when i create the recipe pages in my magazine. 

ARTICLES/FONTS

This article includes a question/answer portion, as well as a recipe at the end of the article. I like the set up of this article because it has enough in it that the reader is interesting but not overwhelmed. I think it is important to have different aspects to your article instead of just information. This way the reader doesn't lose focus or interest. The columns and pictures also break apart all of the writing. This makes the article look very clean and put together. The font used looks a little larger than what you would normally see in a magazine; however, it is not too big. The bold font allows the questions to stand out to the reader and makes reading through the article easier.

PICTURES

I think including pictures into food magazines is incredibly important. This magazine includes a lot of full page pictures like the one below. Most of the pictures I include will be with recipes or on pages with restaurant reviews. The bright colors this picture has adds to the magazines theme of "Summer Cool." It is important to have pictures that reflect the overall theme of the magazine like the summer theme pictures in Foodie Crush.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Because this is an online magazine, the magazine itself doesn't include any advertisement pages or articles; however, the website the magazine is on does include ads. The advertisements are all for food related tools such as bowls, and kitchen utensils. Advertisements for restaurants are also included. In my magazine I plan to include advertisements for local restaurants.