Genre Research
It’s time to begin research into the different genres that I could choose to focus my brief on. Some of the genres that I found are:
- Food
- Travel
- Gaming
- Science
- Teen
- Fashion
- Sports
- Gardening
- Music
- Medical
- News
- Lifestyle
- Political
To pick a singular focus point, I wanted to shave my options down to 3 different genres to research. I chose to remove any categories that often had people as the cover image (Sports, Fashion, Teen, News, Lifestyle, Political, Music), since I am working by myself and I would like to avoid any extra coordination if possible.
I also removed genres that did not sound as interesting to me (Gaming, Science, Gardening). This left me with Food, Travel, and Medical. These genres seem the most intriguing and the most diverse from each other, however in order to choose one, I would need to do a little more research.
The main things I would like to research on each genre are the cover page, table of contents, general content, and any unique conventions that they may have, so let’s get started!
Food
Cover Page
- Cover image is usually a picture of food, meant to look highly appealing to viewers.
- Mastheads are usually unobstructed, use bright and bold colors, many different fonts, and (to my surprise) are in lowercase letters quite often, they also tend to have two-word titles such as “AllRecipes” and “GoodFood”.
- The usage of coverlines, puffs, and plugs vary heavily within the genre of food magazines; some are bombarded with various texts and tidbits of information, while others have a puff and 2 coverlines and let the cover image do most of the work.
- Other general conventions such as barcodes are usually vertical, while banners are occasional, most often to not block the cover image.
Table of Contents
- Usage of page numbers to tell readers where to find each article.
- Many dishes of food surrounding the text, or 1 dish with many different visible ingredients (This is usually when the sub-genre is shown more clearly).
- Article titles depend on the sub-genre:
- Most, if not all, include at least one article about a personal story “My Dad the Chinese Chef”.
- Some may be recipe based, “Poke 1-2-3”.
- Many have titles that are along the lines of tips, tricks, and convenient ideas.
- Extremely pun/word play based.
Articles
- Article length tends to be on the shorter side
- Images usually include more food, locations, people, or anything else that relates to the story/information behind the article.
- Ingredients and steps are listed along side the paragraph(s).
- Subtitles are fun and exciting, enticing readers to continue reading.
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| A few notes I took while researching the food genre |
Travel
Cover Page
- Scenery based cover image, one of the only magazines that I’ve seen where the attention is supposed to be drawn to everything the photo is offering, and not just 1 specific subject.
- The masthead is often white, yellow, or black, has a thick width and is not usually very fancy, as to not take away from the cover image, typically one or 2 words, and the actual use of the word “travel” is a staple in most, such as “Luxury Travel” and “Cruise & Travel”.
- Another genre where puffs, plugs, and coverlines are lessened in order to keep focus onto the beautiful photo, but when they do appear they often mention to places articles will explore, how to plan a trip, and what do to on vacation.
- Strips and banners are very uncommon, and elements such as boxouts and barcodes show up occasionally.
Table of Contents
- Uses a simple, minimalist design to show contents.
- Black, mostly thin fonts, bolder fonts are used for numbers and “Content” titles.
- Uses numbers to indicate the pages where articles will start.
- The number of pictures vary between magazines but range from around 1-6.
- Article titles range from places to visit to popular foods to eat to what the location has to offer. Examples such as “Travel in Style” and “The Mysteries of Budapest”.
- Emphasizes lists and “secrets” of specific places.
Articles
- Often has large, captivating photos, such as 2 spreads, aids in creating a “whole” for each section.
- Articles tend to be on the longer side in to talk about everything tourists can experience in the vacation area(s), this is also where people are typically shown, perhaps to demonstrate to viewers that they can also be apart of these activities.
- Many travel magazines use drop caps (a large, attention-grabbing letter at the start of a paragraph) or one-word subtitles.
Medical
Cover Page
- While this is a genre that commonly has people as the cover image, some magazines use equipment (like stethoscopes) and illustrations (like DNA strands) to draw the attention of viewers.
- The masthead is large and bold, and tends to use colors such as white, blue, red, and black and tends to have two-word titles like “Medical Directory” and “GlobalHealth”.
- This genre does not indulge in puffs and plugs, but rather they opt for the usage of coverlines (I assume it is to make the magazine seem more professional and less like an advertisement.
Table of Contents
- Uses numbers to indicate the pages where articles will start.
- Number of pictures vary, but many have a blue tint to them.
- Many different articles, since they tend to be very text and information based, professional and serious titles such as “Operational and Financial Review”.
Articles
- Tend to be very extensive with information.
- Use photos to help demonstrate content in articles.
- Focuses on accuracy, reliability, and evidence.
- Often written for students, professionals, and researchers.
Reflection and Decision
After researching 3 magazine genres the information that I have found has greatly helped in deciding what I want to create for my brief . It has shown me the main differences within various genres and has defintely showed me where a lot of the effort of this project will go.
After careful consideration I have decided the genre of my magazine brief be in the "Food" genre! The next step of this project would be to do a more in depth analyzation of food magazines, especially different sub-genres the meaning behind most of the design choices. I am excited to see where this research will lead me and how it will influence the creation of my brief.
See you all on the next post!
References:
https://www.craving.co.nz/blog/what-does-a-food-magazine-include
https://fatimaalismedia.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/food-magazine-codes-and-conventionss/
https://www.gopublish.net/blog/the-elements-of-a-typical-print-magazine
https://scriptclickcreate.weebly.com/magazines.html
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