Analysis of Reader's Digest

Reader's Digest

Analysis of Front Cover

Front cover of the May 2007 issue of Reader's Digest

This is the front cover of an issue of the general interest magazine: Reader's Digest. It's a very interesting magazine that appeals to people with all kinds of interests, filled with something to suit everybody's needs. The front cover of this particular issue of very eye catching because there is a lot happening on the page. There is a bucket of popcorn with the text "America's 100 Best New Discoveries". The popcorn bucket with a wide variety of subjects inside represents America's most common and popular interests. The title underneath reads "People, Places and Gotta-Have-Its & More". This would mean that there is a section in the magazine, or the magazine is entirely about these things that Americans are interested in, presumably in the form of a list. Among the subjects included are Brad Pitt, which would symbolize entertainment and film, hotdogs and cupcakes which would represent comfort food or America's unhealthy eating habits, shoes and roses which would symbolize beauty or high-fashion, cars and iPhones, the Empire State Building representing New York, and beer and cards representing America's favorite past times. The background of the magazine is all white so as not to distract the reader from the main subject of the page, the bucket. Additional information is added to the cover in yellow banners or speech bubbles to make the text easy to read and understand.

Reader's Digest

Analysis of Double Page Spread

This is a double page spread of an issue of Reader's Digest called Laughterpedia. The page advertises Laughterpedia as a segment that compiles a series of people, quotations and headlines, presented in a humorous and unbelievable way. Some of the people featured include Barack Obama, Jay Leno and amusing Twitter posts. As for the design of the page, it's littered with images and illustrations of characters or real people acting amusingly, in order to act as a visual aid for the wall of text beside it. Additionally, there are lowercase letters with faded colors in the background appearing to be alphabetically ordered, and would continue into the next page. The design of the page itself is quite simple and minimalist, which is appropriate and effective for its purpose. There are no outrageous and ostentatious designs anywhere to be found so as not to distract the reader from the text and images. The images are what the reader notices first, and upon it are therefore compelled to read the wall of text to understand the meaning of the image. The text is usually presented in a relatively large font so only a small amount of writing is visible on the page so as to keep the reader constantly searching for something new to look at on the page, therefore keeping them interested.