PRODUCTION - Links between products

Contemporary media has a digitally convergent nature because of recent technological developments and therefore, when creating my products, I wanted to create a clear consistent brand identity/ house style and create meaning across the cross-media products. Across my products I use different ky aspects of media language to create a clear brand identity of a modern, fun-loving and entertaining style which reflects he industrial context of Hearst Magazines UK who have and always will entertain and provide escapism for audiences on their terms. Ways in which I have achieved this through the production stage of my process include:
- Masthead - 'InsideArts' - this masthead is appropriate for and reflective of the entertainment genre of my magazine, clearly establishing to my target audience that it is about the arts industry. Similarly, the word 'inside' enhances the gossip/exclusive element that the audience receives from consuming my magazine. At the same time, the 'Arts' helps to communicate to the target audience the genre of my magazine. This links to how Hearst UK aims to 'host a national conversation' about a variety of issues and genres, and from my research I discovered that there was a gap in the industry for an entertainment magazine that is aimed at this target audience.
- In terms of font, I used fonts from the Futura family across my website and both editions of my magazine. This supports the house style that I have created as it creates a visual continuity across my products. This font is also clear and easy to read, which makes my magazine accessible to my mass target audience. Furthermore, the 'Damaged Guts' font that I used for the 'Arts' part of the masthead reflects the entertainment genre of my magazine and would support the brand identity of my magazine as it recurs across all of my platforms.
- I used a consistent layout across my products that make my products easily recogniseable and the clear layout reflects my mass target audience as it makes my content available to everyone. Similarly, the fun, vibrant layout reflects the fun-loving nature of my target audience.
- Colour scheme - across each of my front covers and their respective contents page, there is a clear colour scheme, which, on both covers, acts as a further indication of the intertextual reference provided by the main cover story. Similarly, the consistent use of bright, saturated colours is used to engage and attract my target audience by appealing to their fun-loving nature and interest in entertainment.