Case study part 1: Colour in Magazines

Colour in Magazines 

4 colours are used in this magazine: Blue, Beige, Grey and White. All of these colours fit nicely together in order to give this magazine a feeling of classiness. The colours grey and beige are used on Amy Adams dress code; these are nude colours which are trendy and fashionable. Beige is a very classy and mature-like colour, giving off a sense of wealth, success and class. Nude is the colour for spring/summer even though this magazine was published in November, around autumn/winter time, The Blue background gives the reader a glimpse of summer when the sky is blue in contrast to the nude colours on her clothes. However, the blue can also establish the ending of summer/autumn and into the winter. Even in the winter, Amy Adams appears to be dazzling, glowing, glorious and gorgeous. In the May issue of Elle magazine, the editor, Lorraine Candy, used the word 'nude' over nine times, the use of repetition emphasises the craze of this neutral colour during summer.

The colours on this magazine are very organised showing that it follows a strict colour scheme. The colours all work together, some allowing others to stand out more. For example, the simple, plain blue background allows Amy Adams to stand out. 

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The colours and their connotations:

• Blue: Depth, stability, trust, loyalty, wisdom,  confidence, intelligence, truth, faith, and heaven. 
• Beige: Neutral, calm, relaxing, dependable, flexible and conservative, 
• Grey: Cool, neutral, balanced and emotionless.
• White: Light, goodness, innocence, purity, safety and cleanliness.

All of these colours combined gives the magazine a feel of luxury, wealth, success and classiness. In fashion, the colour 'nude' has a common description of a shade that is slightly darker to the colour of champagne, lighter than sand with a hint of blush/peach. These 4 main colours attract readers who care about success, wealth and luxury which is appealing to adults in particular - specifically ages 18 and over. Considering that the target audience is mainly composed of adults, the colours attract wealth and success searching readers. These colours provide the magazine with a sense of luxury and royalty. Blue is the only intense colour used, it has a lot of depth in contrast to the neutral and bright colours that Amy Adams is wearing; which allows her to appear eye-catching.

The same 4 colours are used throughout the entire magazine in very similar shades. This provides the magazine with a sense of organisation, stability and structure.
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Planning:
For my production I will heavily consider colour scheme and the connotations in which my chosen colour has. For example, if my magazine was based on a pop genre and was targeted to females, I would use pink or purple shades (as these are colours often associated with females). I will then take into account the connotations that these colours have for instance, pink has the connotation of romance, sweetness, cuteness and playfulness etc. This suggests that the person I use for my main image perhaps has all these qualities which would be appealing to them.
John Fiske argues that genre is used as a convenience for producers and audiences: I'm ensuring that all my design choices are related to pop genre conventions. This is a convenience for my audience because they will easily be able to identify what genre my magazine is, this benefits me as a producer because my audience will buy the magazine