Unit 18 (Miss Carney)
Following our introductory work into the print media industry and the printing process in particular, we have started to focus on the physical aspects of design in magazines, such as typography, as this will massively benefit us when it comes to putting the skills we have learnt into practice with regards to the actual design and construction of our magazine pages. We have spent several lessons outlining the differences between 'serif' fonts and 'sans serif' fonts, and the connotations they have. Following this, we identified a selection of fonts in following lessons and discussed the connotations they possess and how they would be perceived when placed within different genres of magazines.
For example, we concluded that a serif font such as Times New Roman would give connotations of style, class and possibly age, so might be associated with magazines targeted at older people or based around more serious topics, such as health or science-based publications. On the other hand, we decided that sans serif fonts like Verdana connoted youth, fun and relaxation, so may be incorporated into celebrity gossip magazines or children's magazines. This work was particularly helpful in helping us consider the importance of being careful when selecting appropriate fonts for our magazines, especially for its front cover, which is of vital significance in terms of marketing and promotion.
