Study Task 05 - Figure/Ground

Design Principles Lecturer Powerpoint

Vice Magazine 

Little bit of information 

Vice is a print magazine and website focused on arts, culture, news topics and sometimes politics. 'Vice' magazine has been redefining style and pushing back the frontiers of taste for 15 years with images of nudity, death, drugs, war and more. Its creators say they're in the great tradition of satire telling their readers what the mainstream media won't dare do. 

The target audience that this magazine is aimed at is younger youths such as teenagers at the age of sixteen to people in there early twenties, the reason I say this is because it's graphic context in some of the magazines. 

Analysis of Vice magazine

Masthead

The masthead of the magazine is not located in the central position, typically for many magazines the masthead is located usually centrally and at the top of the cover, this gives it a larger status and is mostly convenient for the reader, in order to select the magazine, they want when browsing. This however has not been used, the masthead is located to the left of the page in the top corner, it is also considerably smaller than other magazines such as Complex and Dazed. This trend is common with VICE magazines, and its abstract size and positionioning helps make it stand out in its own way, for this particular issue it is arguably that the mastheads position helps the reader get a clear picture of the main image, and makes it stand out further.

Colour

The colour’s of both the masthead and the main image compliment each other well, they are all quite strong and vibrant and by using these bold colour’s the actual cover is very eye catching and intriguing. Due to the abrasive and brave image, I think that this magazine cover work successfully because if they had incorporated another strong vibrant colour it would have been to hard to look at for the reader. What I’ve also noticed which is interesting is the lack of the image quality of the picture I find that the quality of the image almost look’s like a polaroid.

Central Image

The central image completely dominates the front cover, I think that the picture itself is very bold and a statement and quite unusual. What’s interesting is that other than the masthead there is no other lettering on the magazine front cover, so because of this we have to interoperate are ideas of what the front cover of the image, and look for the factors such as; pungent red lips, young pale skin, and something in her mouth which I’m presuming is some kind of drug. What makes the photo so bold and loud is its natural conditions as the photo looks like it has been took on a night out rather than an arranged photo-shoot. Overall it’s an effective and eye-catching cover.

Audience

The audience seems to be aimed at a younger character. This is viewed immediately by the masthead because of how modern it is and the main image, due the fact on the image the skin on the women/man is spotty which can indicate younger teenagers in there prime, also due to the substance on the tong we could suspect this as being a drug and by the looks of the image it looks like it was taking on a night out , this could also be proved by the bold red lipstick, which all relate to young teenagers on a night out with there friends in this generation.

1. Text
   
   
   The text throughout the magazine and the table of contents alike is also very simple and minimalistic and keeps to a consistent theme. Though the text is just a standard font, VICE use this to a great effect, by making the articles featured often very interesting or even sometimes taboo in context, the contrast between a very normal font and very abnormal content works well. Large businesses such as Apple use a similar style of font and layout. From VICE doing this, the text is easy on the eye and actually very pleasing to read, the articles in VICE tend to most often be lengthy which means the text has to bearable and enjoyable visually. Beneath the subtitle for each article is a similar amount of information designed to hook the reader in, sometimes they use a slightly smaller text and a slightly different font to show it’s significant’s.  The use of the three columns drawing your eyes down the page whilst reading help bring the readers eye to the eye catching image below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Image & colour
   
   
   The image is placed central aligned with the text which makes the layout of the page look diverse and interesting. Due to the simplicity of the image it makes the magazine seem professional, the corners of the image and how they are sharp make the page look slick and uniformed.  Immediately from looking at the image it’s indicated that the article is going to be sad or depressing, we can see by the position of the women’s head facing down and the sad expression on her face, the colour usage also makes the photo depressing as there dull and lifeless the colour’s used in it such as; black, browns, and dark blues, however the use of the white border and how thick it is brightens up the page to make it brighter.