Don't miss this: Glamour has no feet to stand on

Glamour has done what all magazines want to do and all readers beg them not to - it underwent a redesign. Or in the case of Glamour. It got a taste of its own medicine and got a full-on makeover.

Have you seen it yet?

Here is this month's cover:

I realize you all (gentleman) may not be as familiar with Glamour as some others, so this is one of the 2011 issues just for a quick comparison.

(Oh, hey, JLO!)

Looks a little bit different, wouldn't you say?

While there have been changes throughout the magazine, including reorganizing the order of the magazine to include an expanded version of its popular "Dos and Don'ts" section and place it closer to the front, relocating the features to the front and the fashion section will be more celebrified (I know ... really?), I am going to focus on the cover for this post.

The first thing I noticed when I saw Glamour's makeover was the lack of sell lines. I think this is because one of my professors was recently talking about them and their importance for getting potential readers to buy the magazine off the newsstand. Like most magazines, Glamour was known for cramming as much as they could about the magazine's itself contents on the cover.

In the redesign, the words have a lot more breathing space. Dare I say the cover almost looks naked, although the model is modestly dress for most women's magazines.

Even without the jam-packed sell lines, the most important words are there: Sex, Shopping, Guys and Beauty. The only thing I am surprised to see is that none of those have numbers. Magazines love giving reader 5,280 ways to do anything. There was also nothing about fitness or health, which I also found surprising.

Something I did find intriguing was that there really are only two sell lines because the bold and pink words act almost as one line of text and then there is just one more line about cover model Amanda Seyfried.

(Note: I had no idea she was the one who broke up Reese and Ryan's marriage! Also, doesn't see look like a Bratz's doll on this cover? Moving on.)

I think the next big change on the cover is that the masthead is not its typical lip-stick shade of pink or red that is classic "women's" magazine. The yellow is totally attention grabbing because it doesn't look like Cosmo or Glamour, for that matter. They also added this drop shadow.

I have scoured the web for reactions to this new cover, and I bring you these:

"Our first thought when we glimpsed the new cover was: Did a group of 14-year-old girls hijackGlamour?"

-Huff Post

"The old covers — celebs standing in front of a blank background — were just so typical. This is fun! And fresh! I love that she’s in a BATHROOM. That has WALLPAPER. I mean, her outfit is pretty much the worse. WTF that scary appliqued top + bad whiskered jeans. But the earrings rule."

-Julia, Styleite.com

""Sex", "Shopping", "Beauty", "Guys", "Gossip". Right- but what of it? I mean, it's not like I'm expecting to open up Glamour and find articles on fishing or the newest video games. They still need to entice their readers with interesting subject matters. We already know what the focus of the magazine is."

-Andiwaslike, comment on New York Magazine's article about the redesign

I found Julia's comment interesting because the fact that Amanda wasn't just in front of a white background didn't even cross my mind until I read that. I think it is because a girl in the bathroom "getting ready" is just so natural, although this image is pretty much anything but natural.

What I did notice throughout the magazine and why I called this post, "Glamour has no feet to stand on" is because almost all of the text one you move to the inside of the magazine is sans serif. I mean - it is SO sans serif and large, like a children's book. There are also these "torn page" elements that just has me asking, Glamour, what were you thinking.

OK. So they have made quite a lot of changes that I do like, including the yellow "Glamour," but unless you are like Esquire and you change your look practically every issue, I think there will always be a lot of huffing and puffing until everyone gets used to the "new" look.

Oh, well. Congratulations to the designers who got to flex some new muscles to create a new-ish look!