This double page spread from a popular Cornish magazine makes the most of the space it has by filling it with 16 images and only one column of text which gives it a very modern look as it is unique and appealing to look at. The layout of this feature mimics that of a blog post which is mainly down to the style of typography and how photo heavy and simple it is. The colour scheme, masthead of the article and fonts mimic the soft and elegant tones of a wedding.
The images are mainly of a couple presumably on their wedding day which would suggest that the target audience is females, as stereotypically women are more interested in weddings/marriage than males, between the ages of 18-30 as this is the average age of marriage. However because the colour scheme is not stereotypical 'girly' colours but rather neutral colours of green, white and black, this may suggest that the overall magazine is not just targeted at females and that the audience of this article is likely to be for grooms as well as brides. The social grade of readers of this magazine suggested by this feature is likely to be between C and A as weddings are notoriously expensive so to be able to get full use from this article the reader is likely to be someone who has their wedding coming up and is looking for ideas. As this is a regional magazine there are no celebrity star vehicles in the feature spread which means it has to try harder to occupy, interest and draw an audience in. This is why there are so many images used, as well as there not being much text as readers will be less interested in the content of the feature as it is not about someone they admire or look up to. The masthead of this feature is not eye-catching nor does it have much to do with the article itself. This means that the images have to do most of the work indicating what the article is about.
The typography of this article is not in a colour that stands out (it is white and black, which is usually a colour that stands out as it is on a white background but as the text is so small on this feature spread, it does not stand out), but it gives the impression that this was the aim of it however it has not worked. This may be because there are around 3 different shades of the same colour in the text which makes it harder for the whole text to stand out. This symbolises that the main body (the darkest lexis) is the one that is to definitely be read and that the slightly paler lexis are things such as links and information that may not interest the reader (as much as the main body (the actual article) of text).
The main colour in the colour palette of this feature spread is white. This is likely to be because connotations that surround the colour white include 'pure' and 'innocence', which are old-fashioned stereotypes that are associated with your wedding day (as this is why the bride wears a white dress - to represent her innocence). As the main colour is white, the other colours used had to be similarly soft so that the whole double page remained soft and easy to look at. For example, if they had used a colour such as bright red, this would have been too harsh and would have changed the tone of the article, as well as this, it would not go with any of the colours in the images, whereas the colours used (pale green) does go with the images as this colour is in a few of the main images.
The lexical choices of 'peaches, cream and parasols' set the tone of the feature before even looking at any of the images of reading any of the main body of text. This is because the connotations and denotations of these 3 words are similar to those of weddings and the colours used. Connotations include sweet, soft, feminine, happy etc etc.
This feature spread from 24/7 magazine is very different from the previous one I analysed in all aspects such as typography, the information presented, the colours used etc. However it is similar in layout as the previous one also had features in boxes (previous had images, this one has text and images). The feature of this double page spread that hints to what genre the magazine is, is the layout. It is simple, tidy and neat, something that is not typically seen in magazines of the fashion genre (as seen in the double page spread below this one) as they have different target audiences who appreciate different styles. For example, the target audience of this magazine is not likely to pay attention to the layout of the images and text, but rather what is in the images and what the text says. Whereas readers of fashion magazines are likely to notice layout and appreciate if something looks 'nice'. This is a feature that hints to the target audience and shows how audiences differ greatly depending on the genre of the magazine. It also shows that you have to be a certain type of person to enjoy a certain type of product (someone who regularly reads fashion magazines might look at this layout and think it is boring and plain, whereas someone who regularly reads this magazine is likely to think a fashion magazine's layout is unnecessary and time/space wasting).
Considering the information in this feature I would suggest that the target audience is male and female students from the ages of 18 (no younger because there is alcohol and nightclubs mentioned) to about 24 as these are the average ages that people go through university and live the typical 'student' life. Another feature that suggests the target audience is both genders is the graphology used. There are no specifically feminine or masculine fonts used on these 2 pages however the colours could suggest there is a masculine slant to the target audience as there are no colours that are stereotypical to women such as pink and purple. By looking at the people in the images used on this feature spread, it is likely that the gender this magazine is aimed at is males, as there are no females for girls to aspire to be and relate to. The use of males in the images suggests that the information to go with the images is to do with activities that females are not stereotypically interested in. One of the main clues that it is targeted to males is the word 'brothers' in large, bright and bold letters.
The busy layout of this double page spread matches the busy lifestyles of students/people of this age. The busy layout will also excite the audience into thinking that there are a lot of things recommended for them to try by this magazine, 24/7, and as a magazine is 'recommending' the audience these things, they must be VIP events which will also excite the reader and make them feel that they can live the celebrity lifestyle by going to these events. However, as the target audience of this feature spread is students, it is not a common convention for there to be much text as stereotypically, students are known to be 'lazy' and will not want to read much. This feature spread conforms to these stereotypes and has used little text, making the images its main feature. This is interesting as the previous feature spread I analysed does not have much text and the target audience for that is people of different lifestyles and age than this one so that causes it to seem like these 2 feature spreads have swapped target audiences which means they have both challenged the generic conventions of their target audiences. As the target audience is mainly students, the social grades this will appeal to is E-D as these are the grades that students fall into.
In terms of theory, it is clear by looking at this feature that it is aimed at young people because of the use of bright colours. This links to Stanley Hall's theory (1904) that young people must have excitement in all aspects of their lives (the excitement in this media product is portrayed through the use of bright colours) else they will term to criminal activity. This feature also links to Gerbner's theory that society is scared by the media portrayal of youth as if they looked at this feature, some of their fears would be confirmed as one of the main things that the media portrays youth being interested in is alcohol abuse.
The main colour used on this feature spread is black. Connotations of black include evil, power and mystery. These are all connotations that surround students, whether it be a connotation given to them by older people or connotations they give themselves. However, the black is contrasted out by the use of brighter colours such as yellow, blue and white as these have opposite connotations to black (such as happiness, purity and childishness).
Even though I am creating a regional magazine I plan on putting a genre slant of fashion into it which means I need to analyse a fashion magazine as well as a regional. This feature spread is from Company magazine and differs from the previous 2 I analysed as this is strictly fashion related. It contains no star vehicles which will impact how many people read this page, especially because there were star vehicles on the cover and contents page which means a lot of people who bought this magazine would have bought it to read the features on the star vehicles who were on the cover and contents page.
Whilst it is a completely different magazine the layout is actually very similar as the previous 2 as they have all used the 'box' layout where they put each different feature/image in a box shape, however it is harder to see this in this feature spread as it is a bit more 'jumbled' and random. Another feature that adds to its 'random' layout is the text that is used. It is similar to handwriting (this is backed up by the magazine being paper instead of glossy) and is slightly messy causing it to seem like it is more creative and modern, which are similar connotations to the fashion that is featured on this page. This may also indicate the connotations that surround the target audience of this magazine as if they are interested in this style of feature and magazine (I can tell that the whole magazine is of this style as the contents page I previously analysed is also like this), they are likely to be modern and have a 'random' personality.
This feature spread directly speaks to the reader as the style of this page is similar to that of a diary, which is a very personal belonging. Another way it speaks to the reader is by the text 'to get you street-styled in 2014'. This suggests that this page is exclusively for the reader to read and to get ideas for their fashion style in the upcoming year, there are no features that suggest it is for more than one reader which makes it seem very personal and will make the reader feel exclusive themselves.
This feature spread resembles one on Vogue's website in terms of content which means this magazine is likely to be slightly higher end (which shows because there are mentions of designers such as Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton on this page alone) whilst managing to keep a relatively high street tone to it by including affordable clothes which means that they will likely have a larger readership because Company is not a massively known magazine so if they included clothes that were made by designers and costed hundreds of pounds for a scarf they would likely not sell so many copies (which is the sole aim of creating a magazine) because Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle etc have a strong core following of hundreds of thousands who buy every single issue and it would not impact them if they lost 100,000 readers whereas with Company it would. Company also do 'high-street edits' of their magazines which means that it gives the audience a variety depending on what kind of clothing and accessories they want to see in the magazine.
Victoria White, the editor of Company, has stated that "Company is the go-to brand in the UK for creative fashionistas. The girl who gets dressed each morning dreaming of being street style spotted. The girl who loves fashion but doesn't want to just follow the trends - she sets her own fashion agenda." This means that readers of this magazine are likely to be young, between the ages of 16-24 (because Victoria referred to the reader as 'girl', and if the reader was an older generation she would have referred to them as 'woman') and because they are this young they are not likely to be able to afford to buy high end fashion, but is very much in touch with high end fashion and would more than likely dress in designer clothing if she could afford it. Victoria said that the readers of this magazine do not want to follow trends and this shows in the fashion that is used on this page because it is not necessarily the most popular and mainstream fashion with colours and designs steering away from the generic shapes and colours that are popular. Victoria has also said that "The Company reader is stylish, individual, creative, opinionated, ambitious and cool. She comes to Company for street style fashion, edgy beauty ideas, nail art inspo, playlist ideas, rising star interviews, career advice, blogging tips and high street shopping. And then she tweets us a pic of how she's recreated something we've suggested she try. And Company tweets her back…. ". This shows that Company is magazine that is very in touch with media and their target audience.
This suggests that the audience of Company magazine are Aspirers or Individuals. Aspirers are people who look to the media to change themselves so they can be 'cool' and interesting, they use media products to define themselves. Individuals are people who are highly aware of the media and the effects it has on society but do not let it affect them.
As Stanley Hall (1904) stated, "Teenage years are full of storm and stress", and that most teenagers experience identity confusion. This links to the target audience of Company being mainly aspirers, as they use this magazine to confirm their identity.
The colour palette used on this page is pink, white and black which suggests that the black and white are to seal the connotations of 'modern' and 'classy' (as these are the 2 colours Vogue and most other high-end fashion magazines use which supports my theory that Company are a higher end, high-street magazine) and the pink is to add a 'girly' and 'fun' side to it and to add dimension as if it just used black and white it would have the risk of looking too bland and plain. Using the pink suggests that Company know they are not exactly the same style of magazine as Vogue and that they are going to embrace this. These colours also seemed to have been specially picked so that they do not clash with the colours of the clothes that are worn in the main images on this page.
Whilst it is a completely different magazine the layout is actually very similar as the previous 2 as they have all used the 'box' layout where they put each different feature/image in a box shape, however it is harder to see this in this feature spread as it is a bit more 'jumbled' and random. Another feature that adds to its 'random' layout is the text that is used. It is similar to handwriting (this is backed up by the magazine being paper instead of glossy) and is slightly messy causing it to seem like it is more creative and modern, which are similar connotations to the fashion that is featured on this page. This may also indicate the connotations that surround the target audience of this magazine as if they are interested in this style of feature and magazine (I can tell that the whole magazine is of this style as the contents page I previously analysed is also like this), they are likely to be modern and have a 'random' personality.
This feature spread directly speaks to the reader as the style of this page is similar to that of a diary, which is a very personal belonging. Another way it speaks to the reader is by the text 'to get you street-styled in 2014'. This suggests that this page is exclusively for the reader to read and to get ideas for their fashion style in the upcoming year, there are no features that suggest it is for more than one reader which makes it seem very personal and will make the reader feel exclusive themselves.
This feature spread resembles one on Vogue's website in terms of content which means this magazine is likely to be slightly higher end (which shows because there are mentions of designers such as Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton on this page alone) whilst managing to keep a relatively high street tone to it by including affordable clothes which means that they will likely have a larger readership because Company is not a massively known magazine so if they included clothes that were made by designers and costed hundreds of pounds for a scarf they would likely not sell so many copies (which is the sole aim of creating a magazine) because Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle etc have a strong core following of hundreds of thousands who buy every single issue and it would not impact them if they lost 100,000 readers whereas with Company it would. Company also do 'high-street edits' of their magazines which means that it gives the audience a variety depending on what kind of clothing and accessories they want to see in the magazine.
Victoria White, the editor of Company, has stated that "Company is the go-to brand in the UK for creative fashionistas. The girl who gets dressed each morning dreaming of being street style spotted. The girl who loves fashion but doesn't want to just follow the trends - she sets her own fashion agenda." This means that readers of this magazine are likely to be young, between the ages of 16-24 (because Victoria referred to the reader as 'girl', and if the reader was an older generation she would have referred to them as 'woman') and because they are this young they are not likely to be able to afford to buy high end fashion, but is very much in touch with high end fashion and would more than likely dress in designer clothing if she could afford it. Victoria said that the readers of this magazine do not want to follow trends and this shows in the fashion that is used on this page because it is not necessarily the most popular and mainstream fashion with colours and designs steering away from the generic shapes and colours that are popular. Victoria has also said that "The Company reader is stylish, individual, creative, opinionated, ambitious and cool. She comes to Company for street style fashion, edgy beauty ideas, nail art inspo, playlist ideas, rising star interviews, career advice, blogging tips and high street shopping. And then she tweets us a pic of how she's recreated something we've suggested she try. And Company tweets her back…. ". This shows that Company is magazine that is very in touch with media and their target audience.
This suggests that the audience of Company magazine are Aspirers or Individuals. Aspirers are people who look to the media to change themselves so they can be 'cool' and interesting, they use media products to define themselves. Individuals are people who are highly aware of the media and the effects it has on society but do not let it affect them.
As Stanley Hall (1904) stated, "Teenage years are full of storm and stress", and that most teenagers experience identity confusion. This links to the target audience of Company being mainly aspirers, as they use this magazine to confirm their identity.
The colour palette used on this page is pink, white and black which suggests that the black and white are to seal the connotations of 'modern' and 'classy' (as these are the 2 colours Vogue and most other high-end fashion magazines use which supports my theory that Company are a higher end, high-street magazine) and the pink is to add a 'girly' and 'fun' side to it and to add dimension as if it just used black and white it would have the risk of looking too bland and plain. Using the pink suggests that Company know they are not exactly the same style of magazine as Vogue and that they are going to embrace this. These colours also seemed to have been specially picked so that they do not clash with the colours of the clothes that are worn in the main images on this page.
Some proficient research/analysis here but needs further development. Use the 'how to progress...' Blog to help you with some pointers/ starting points.
ReplyDeleteThis is more detailed and has a better scope retaining high levels of proficient research into similar products and comment on audience and with some excellent features.
ReplyDelete