9. Discuss the process of designing pages for Vibe - what have I learned about magazine semiotics? What is my design communicating to the reader?
There are two particular sections of relevance within the magazine when attempting to answer this question. I will touch briefly on the front cover, chosen by majority of the class, and will then go on to explain and analyse the design of my individual page; and what that layout is communicating to any potential reader. The front cover design for our issue of Vibe magazine was chosen from several available; all of which had been designed by students within the class. The chosen design was a majority vote, and I felt there was a couple of clear reasons as to why its design appealed just to the students.
In hindsight it is easy to easy why magazine semiotics are so crucial to the production of a magazine; they play a pivotal role in attracting and appealing to the publications target audience. Colour plays a massive part in this, with which different tones and hues carry their own individual meaning. The choice of red is stark, alert, and attention grabbing, but at the same time, 'colour cannot work independently of other semiotic resources such as image and text' (Jones, 2007). Coupled with the magazine title "Vibe", which has descriptive physicality about it, in addition to the the term "smash" on the front cover, add up to create very obvious imagery. Collectively this correlation may not be apparent, but 'visual images have great power, and experienced customers learn to read and decode them immediately, even those consumers who don't have the analytical vocabulary to explain why' (McKay, 2006). As for my magazine page itself, only in hindsight have come to realise how I could have improved my design significantly. My article is text-laden, very content heavy, and not eye-catching. Magazine articles, in reality, are much more relaxed as it were; 'pages that are too businesslike (too much text, too many ads) are likely to turn off readers' (Rothstein, 2007). In addition to this,
JONES, 2007. Colour in learning resources for science students at university: pedagogical and design motivations. [online] [viewed 5 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.asfla.org.au/semioticmargins/papers.htm
MCKAY, 2006. The Magazines Handbook. 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge
ROTHSTEIN, 2007. Designing magazines: Inside periodical design, redesign, and branding. New York: Allworth Press
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