Cover: The cover of Esquire is to let people know what publication they’re reading, but also to distinguish what types of readers the magazine wants to read the publication. The cover features some of what the publication thinks are its most important stories for this month’s issue. Also, the cover features a cover star that typically produces the cover story for the month. It’s a clean layout that has the nameplate centered at the top, in the middle, in order to inform readers what publication this is. The typefaces used on the cover are clean and simple. Some of the typefaces, in conjunction with others, provide a little more depth to the cover. Also, typically, there’s a contrasting color featured amongst the white text in order to keep the reader engaged and interested.
There is a plethora of pictures used in Esquire. For smaller segments where they analyze a trend, they get a picture of the trend on models in typical or peculiar places, in order to highlight the trend or look depending on what it is. The fashion spreads are used to display what the publication dictates as a trend as well. The other photos are service piece photo spreads for gift giving ideas, grooming tips, or the best restaurants in America, etc. This is the pattern of Esquire.
The nameplate is the in the middle of the cover. The typeface is cursive and bold. The folio is on the bottom of the page. With the edition of the issue on the left facing page next to the page number and photo credit on the right facing page next to the page number. This isn’t set in stone as it tends to vary from page to page.
The number of stories varies from month to month. In the Winter_2020_Esquire, there’s 9 stories total.
Esquire is organized in a sense of engaging and fun content. There’s fashion content in the beginning of the book and as the reader treks along, Esquire starts to touch on every segment of “lifestyle” when it comes to men. But, Esquire wants to try and hook their readers, so they put the more important stuff at the middle/end of the issue.
There’s consistency with the cover. There’s always a cover star, the same fonts are featured, and the nameplate does not change. Also, there’s at least one fashion spread per issue. Esquire tends to do several service stories per issue in order to help their readers.
The tone/attitude of the cover is simple. It’s a men’s lifestyle magazine that wants to appeal to the modern, trendy, fashionable man and give them reading material that matches their interests. The cover features Michael B. Jordan. The photo works well with the cover template of Esquire. I think that the lighting of Jordan’s face really complements the color yellow that Esquire decided to use. It provides great contrasts and helps depict Jordan as a stern and debonair figure in Hollywood.
TOC/Index: There are promos all throughout the magazine. There’s a more masculine approach to promos. Advertisements come in many forms in this magazine. Watches, cars, beers/liquors, luxury designer brands, and popular food is featured in this magazine from month to month.
The Table of Contents is not normal. It doesn’t say “Table of Contents” across the listing, it just says “Contents.” It’s on one page and is usually in the front of the magazine. In this issue it happens to be on page 7. This works because it makes the magazine look more modern and sophisticated. The hand on the page works because it’s pointing to the contents and helps to guide the readers eye there. Also, there’s a section on this page that foreshadows a service piece that’s found later in the magazine. It also gives what page the service piece is on. There are 30 promos in this issue.
Departments/sections:
According to the contents page, there are 7 departments. The Editor’s Letter is on page 16, “The Code” is on page 19, “The Big Bite” is on page 37, “Divorce: A Love Story” is on page 50, “The Night The Capitol Did Not Sleep” is on page 54, “The Best New Restaurants in America, 2019” is on page 57, and “How We Dress Now” is on page 120. Features tend to be in the middle of the issue, whereas, fashion spreads are consistently in the back of the book. This plays into what really works with today’s lifestyle/fashion publications. There’s ads spread throughout with engaging content along the way. The fashion spreads are crucial to a magazine like Esquire since it covers menswear. The food and op-ed pieces are right before and right after the feature pieces. The cover story is typically close to the fashion spreads in the bob. In order to let reader’s know where they are in the magazine, there are red colons, or other parts of the byline or headline underlined or printed in red.
