Enterprise and Innovation - Who Else Is Out There? How Good Are They?

Who am I competing against?

Cosmopolitan magazine

What do they offer?

They are a monthly women's lifestyle magazine features ranging from beauty and fashion to horoscopes and men. 

They are one amongst many women's fashion magazines, however I feel they offer a wider range and depth of material to their customers. For example magazines such as Elle and Vogue are more fashion based and rely on high end glamourous fashion shoots and advertisements to dominate their pages, whereas Cosmopolitan look more to 'real women' and real life stories to capture their audience. With tips and tricks to help your sex life and upcoming fashion trends they are the typical city woman's handbag essential. 

Cosmopolitan also have a magazine directed at teenagers called Cosmo Girl. This has the same type of features, however they are much more diluted and suited to the young teen girl following in mummy's footsteps. 

What makes me better?

Obviously comparing myself (a graphic design student) to a Transnational magazine company I feel is somewhat of a bizarre task. However, looking at the question and re-phrasing it slightly I feel is more appropriate considering I am still a student and this company are an inspiration to me. 

What do you feel you could bring to this company were they to employ you?

I enjoy working in an innovative way; given a task and seeing a possibly obvious and standard answer, I will try my best to look further into the problem and see less obvious way of solving the problem creating something that people will not have seen before. 

I would really enjoy giving the Cosmopolitan a new layout style, with more character. I like the layout style adopted by Elle magazine, I feel it has more of a personality and is more inviting and stimulating to the eye.

What makes me different?

Having such an established style such as Cosmopolitan's and having tweaked and improved the design for so long now it is easy to become numb and somewhat unaware of ways to restyle an already prefect design. I feel being a fresh pair of eyes I would be able to put forward new and innovative design ideas for the company. Including ideas for the cover and layout ideas for the story pages.

Cosmopolitan - Fresh but quite cluttered

Elle - more styled and clear. 

The Cosmopolitan front cover can be slightly overwhelming to look at at a glance because there is so much that it is trying to tell you all at once. The Elle magazine cover is more inviting and easy on the eye. 

Cosmopolitan layouts can lack a bit of personality and I feel Elle uses a wide range of layouts to create more of a story and less of a diary feel.