Typography plays an important role in making the magazine look professional and appealing to the audience. In this post I'm going too look at the common typography used on this regional lifestyle magazine by Cornwall Today.
To start with looking at the masthead its in a very large and dominates the top quarter of this front cover. Furthermore this masthead uses two lines which make its seem even larger again. The first line of the masthead is in block capitals which is done to stand out to the audience and symbolises importance. The second line is not in capitals which does look very effective as it contrasts the top line. The font style used here is commonly used to target an older audience, because of this I will be looking for a more modern font for my magazine as Im trying to attract a younger target audience. Furthermore the colour used for this masthead in a conventional colour, White, and this is also traditional for a regional magazine. Additionally Cornwall Today has traditionally used the colour white for there mastheads which creates a sense of familiarity with the audience. The masthead also adopts a serif font style which seems very popular throughout regional magazines and traditionally appeals to an older target audience which Cornwall Today pitches at.
The next use of typography on this front cover is the cover lines. The font style used here is different from the masthead. The font style is slightly more modern than the masthead which is slightly unconventional as Cornwall Today's primary target audience is for the older generation. The use of colour here is very effective too. They use a traditional white style font which matches the masthead on some of the cover lines and then colour some of the cover lines in a salmon pink colour which matches the colour scheme of the front cover. Further more all of the cover lines are capitalised to symbolises their importance.
This front cover does incorporate a plug and also a include a pug. The pug is all the text positioned around the bar code. The text here includes the issue number, bar code and price. The text is located in its conventional place along with the bar code down the bottom right hand side. Furthermore the text here is actually very small and this is done because it doesn't have a huge amount of relevance to the audience. Additionally the price is made very small so it would not off put the audience from buying it. The plug is the 'WIN' section down at the bottom. This is made to look like a sticker has been placed here. On other magazines you can see the plug placed in a more significant position but in this case the plug wasn't given a great deal of attention.
The rest of the text used on this front cover is the small print where evidently its small. The text here again doesn't have a high priority of the attract the audience and is subsequently small. This text follows a basic font but does contrast the background well so it still does stand out the audience.
Typography also plays a big role in the contents page. I decided to continue to use a product from 'Cornwall Today' so I can see if they use any similarities in terms of typography on their contents page.
To start with the heading which is not placed in a conventional placed has a more modern font and is not the same to the masthead. Furthermore the heading is all in a lower case font so give a relaxed feeling and to invite the reader in. Looking at this contents page I believe that the heading was placed on the lower left of the page rather than the higher left because they wanted the heading to be white. They're background is the sea but with a white background at the top and because of this they couldn't but it at the top as it wouldn't be visible to the audience. The heading is still the biggest font on the page which is conventional as it stands out to the reader.
This contents page a lot of sub headings which split up the text on the contents page. The purpose of sub headings is to be able to split the content inside the magazine down and allow the audience to navigate around the magazine with ease. This is down here which a bold black font. This text contrast the whit background and as its bold it stands out over all the other small print. The style and the colour of this font remains the same thought which gives the contents page a professional look.
The small print on this contents page is conventional and appropriate to their target audience. The small print is also in a black font so it contrasts the background but its not in bold as its job is not to attract the audience, thats what the sub headings are for. The style of the font is basic but yet effective and will appeal to Cornwall Today's target audience. The font size is conventionally really small to make to contents page look professional but also to allow to contents page to use more information.
This is also a double page spread from Cornwall Today. The heading used on this double page spread has an interesting use of typography. To start with they use three lines for the heading with all of them being in block capitals with emphasis on the middle line which adopts a bolder font and is larger. The 'A' in 'Boatshed' is cleverly changed to the shape of a boat. This is a nice feature as not only does it look good but it makes the spread look very professional. Furthermore the whole of the heading is in a strong white font which contrasts against the black background like we have seen before.
The subheading is located just below the heading and is also in block capitals to symbolises importance and make it stand out the viewer even if it significantly smaller than the heading. The font type again follows the rest of the magazine and is basic sharp font. The colour again is white but not as strong as the heading purely because this font is not bold. This makes sure that the sub heading doesn't over power the heading while still being noticeable to the audience.
The byline is conventionally used somewhere on the double page spread, normally in the corner of the picture or page. The byline simple informs the reader of the photographer/journalist. On this double page spread its unconventionally placed just below the sub heading. Even though its in an unconventional location it still is the correct size which is normally the site of the small print of eve smaller. Further more the names in the byline are bold to symbolises importance and to gain recognition. The byline is not in block capitals like the heading and the subheading but does follow the same font style as the sub heading. Furthermore the text is also in white along with all the text on this spread.
The small print follows the same conventions throughout the magazine. This creates a sense of familiarity and constancy with the audience. The small print is in a size 9 font and follows the same font style as the byline ad subheading. Furthermore the text is all white and and all the text stays the same which makes the spread look very professional.
