Industrial Contexts - The Brand

 Condé Nast

Condé Nast is an international mass media company founded by Condé Montrose Nast in 1909. The current CEO is Roger Lynch, who has been in the position since 2019, and the current headquarters lie in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City.

The company owns many media outlets, including Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, The New Yorker, Wired, Bon Appetit, Ars Technica and Pitchfork and many others. It is predicted to have an audience of 72 million print consumers, 394 digital consumers, and 454 million social media consumers throughout all their outlets. 

Condé Nast is largely considered to produce high quality, high end content targeted towards a high class ABC1 audience.

Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair is a high-end monthly magazine published by mass-media company Condé Nast. It features pop culture, fashion, politics and lifestyle. It is originally an American Magazine, first published between 1913 and 1936 before being revived in 1983 after being bought by Condé Nast. Vanity Fair has five international editions - The United Kingdom (first published in 1991), Spain (first published in 2008), Mexico (first published in 2015), Italy (first published in 2003), and France (first published in 2013).

Here is one of the earliest editions of Vanity Fair.

We can see how drastically this brand has evolved over time - however it still connotes the same ideas of elegance and style.

The masthead is still at the top of the magazine, and in a serif font.

However, the picture is not a photograph and instead is a painting, presenting how technology has advanced in the magazine industry over time.

Here is a recent edition of Vanity Fair from 2024 featuring Selena Gomez.

It follows stereotypical conventions of a high end magazine, typically of Condé Nast brands.

It includes a serif font masthead, connoting ideas of sophistication.

The cover lines covering celebrity lifestyle and current affairs which may appeal to an ABC1 audience. 

There is an A List celebrity as the main model, and a neutral, classy and polished style, appealing to an ABC1 audience.