The Gourmand | Magazine #4

"The Gourmand Magazine"

Publisher: Lane & Associates Ltd. 

Genre: Food and Culture

The Gourmand was founded in 2011 by David Lane and Marina Tweed. It describes itself as an "annual food and culture journal." Each issue features 120 pages of both copy and images. It prides itself on producing content that is "creative, timeless and exclusive".

Text 1: Front Cover

This front cover is, like many other I have researched, very simplistic. The copy at the top if the page is in simple black font and takes up about a quarter of the cover, making it attention grabbing yet minimalistic. The cover does not include any people, unlike traditional magazines. It's main focus is in fact a close up shot of a pretzel with eyes and a mouth. This is unusual for a magazine and represents how it is not very conventional. Therefore I, again, could relate this to David Hesmondhalgh's theory and say that this means they are in fact minimising audience and maximising risk. Using Young and Rubicam' 4Cs model, the alternative elements of the magazine cover suggest that it would be best suited for a reformer audience - an independent thinker with freedom from restriction, and also explorers - those who seek out difference.

Text 2: Double page spread

The double page spread is similar to the rest of the publication actually looks in some ways like a typical, maybe mainstream, magazine. The main image, which takes up the entire of the right page is off an older gentleman in what appears to be a kitchen. His age, the setting and the overall style of the image almost shifts the focus to a more reformer or explorer in my opinion, as it is not typical of a magazine to feature this type of model. The article is entitled "Antonio Miralda, A Sign of Good Taste" and appears to be food focused also

Text 3: Website front cover