Genre Research Day 5: Style Guide

     For today's research, I took a look at the style guide (typography, color, design) of contemporary lifestyle and luxury fashion magazines. 

    https://www.designyourway.net/blog/category/design-resources/typography/best-fonts/ 

Regarding typography; high-contrast serif fonts like Didot and Bodoni are often key staples when it comes to luxury fashion branding in the headlines and feature titles. Characteristics of the serif fonts include elegant curves and sharp lines, with sophisticated and iconic moods. For subheadings. captions and plugs there are clean geometric sans-serif fonts such as helevetica now, futura PT, avenir next, etc. These are often minimalistic and crisp with contemporary moods.

< Harper's Bazaar magazine cover

There are often wide margins and asymmetrical layouts; aswell as oversized dropcaps for feature stories.

Muted backgrounds allow photography to create contrast.

Regarding the color palette, colors used most significantly are typically neutral tones; like charcoal, ivory, grays and taupes, serving as the base for majority of fashion layouts. Colors used more sparingly, particularly and especially for emphasis include metallicy accents; like gold, champagne and rose gold to create highlights. 

    There are also seasonal color palettes that remain pretty recurring every year; like Spring:pinks, sky blues and sage, Summer: Corals, sandy yellows and turquoises. burnt colors for fall and icey colors for winter.

https://fashionuptoday.com/creating-a-fashion-magazine-layout/

https://yesimadesigner.com/anatomy-of-a-magazine-layout/

https://www.flipsnack.com/blog/how-to-make-a-fashion-magazine-like-vogue/

    Regarding layout; magazines often use a 12-column grid and wide margins for a modern look. Whitespace is a luxury symbol, often prioritizing visual heirarchy; or in other terms allowing for generous space around headlines and allowing photography to dominate when necessary. 

    Photography varies based on what the aspiration is. Ex: editorial photography uses high-fashion cinematic lighting with strong shadows and rich textures. product photography uses minimal backgrounds, occasional real or conceptual styling. Lifestyle photography incorporates natural light and warm tones.

    There are often minimalistic line drawings or abstract shapes; aswell as collage-style compositions on trend pages.