Harper’s Bazaar doesn’t have their color palette listed on their website and if you take a look at the magazine, you would understand why. HB doesn’t use color in its publication design arsenal at all. All of the typography is either black or white, depending on what the color of the background is. However, this isn’t a monochromatic magazine. Color is commissioned through beautiful photography, which is a vital aspect of HB’s identity because they don’t use illustrations and only use Bidoni as their display typeface.
HB isn’t afraid of color. They like to use bright color and fun prints that they display through fashion, shoes, accessories, and beauty items. I think they could definitely incorporate more color into the publication with design elements but I think the reason they don’t is because they want a sleek and sophisticated aesthetic and they’d like to achieve that by only using black and white text. I think that this approach works for them because it makes photography the focal point of the magazine.
However, they don’t exclusively use loud colors. They also use muted, soft colors depending on what the tone of the article is so the above photos give more of subdued personality. I think that because they don’t use color to connect concepts, it is important that they use typography the way that they do otherwise readers would find the magazine hard to follow along. The color that is in photography brings meaning because you get a better understanding of what kind of brand HB is and the type of reader they want to attract, creating a whole picture.
