ESSENCE has a few furniture elements that help readers with navigation. At the top of each section, there is a ribbon that provides insight to what section the reader is in, such as books, beauty or style. This ribbon is not overwhelming on the page, and it always lays in the top left corner of the page; it even keeps track of subsections of the main divisions of the magazine.
At the end or bottom of all major stories, there’s a box with a picture of the author of the story; more than just a byline. The picture put a face to the name of the person who wrote it, and is usually accompanied by a short blurb about the writer, an accomplishment or two, and why the story is important to them.
At the beginning of each story, there is a drop cap letter that usually spans three lines. It’s used to indicate the beginning of a story. The drop cap is usually in the theme color for the magazine for that issue.
Pull quotes are very stylized in ESSENCE, they usually span the page width and really draw attention to them. Arranged to the back of the quote is usually quotation marks in the magazine’s display typeface, Lust. The quote sometimes has a colored line of text that highlights or emphasizes the point of the quote as it relates to the story.
