Complex Magazine Cover Image Analysis

The Image I chose is a cover from aJanuary 2012 issue of Complex magazine. Complex is a New York based, young men’s lifestyle magazine. They report on style, music, sneakers, entertainment, girls, and technology. They cater to a very specific audience. Complex Media’s tagline is “Welcome to Complex Media, a multi-media platform reaching a much targeted audience: influential young males ready to buy, collect and obsess.” Complex media is the company that runs the magazine. The cover features Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky and fashion designer Jeremy Scott. They are two very influential people in the niche community that the magazine caters to.

The cover is styled after a classic boxing match advertisement. Well actually, it is a parody of an art show advertisement that was styled after a boxing match advertisement. The cover is styled after an advertisement for an art show featuring Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat. Warhol and Basquiat are two artist whose work has been highly celebrated and studied by the culture that this magazine targets, especially over the last few years. From what I understand the show was some sort of competition between the two artists, so the boxing match theme works well. Styling the magazine cover after the show advertisement says a lot. It draws many parallel between the two groups of artist. They are both interracial friendships between influencers.  It also draws parallels between the magazine and an art exhibition.

The cover has the phrase “style defines culture – our people define style” written on it. This goes back to the purpose of the entire magazine. It is basically a rephrasing of the companies tagline minus the part about them readers being obsessive. The cover does not need to tell them they are obsessive. They just buy, collect and obsess naturally. They do make sure to let them know that they are influential. Or should I say, let us know, because I am definitely a part of this culture.

Putting A$AP and Jeremy on the cover was also a calculated decision. At this time A$AP was in his first year in the mainstream and was making a lot of noise on the internet and Jeremy was about to release his spring/ summer 2012 collection for adidas, so both of these artist were big in the minds of this culture. This cover is a really good cover as far as magazine covers go. The reached out to their audience perfectly and influenced the influencers.