Looking at an array of mass market women’s magazine florescent pink is one of the dominant colours. A bold sans serif typeface is used for the title. The layering of text and photo’s to produce a vibrant collage. Solid blocks of colour to highlight the text.
These are some of the ‘visual signifiers’ on a mass market women’s magazine covers that together capture, engage, and appeal to the reader. The readers of the magazine recognise and identify with these ‘visual signifiers’. Are there equivalent ‘visual signifiers’ online?
The internet usage amoungst women trails men according to the national stastics internet usage report of 2006. With 54% of women using the internet everyday, and the age group 22-44 using it the most. More recent statistics show the increase in social media websites is creating a gender gap in internet usage, favoring women. Alot has been made of a Pew Internet and American Life Report of girls online usage, crediting young women with being enthusiastic content creators. This may not enable us to draw conclusions about todays mass market womens user, but these girls will be the online women users in the future. Emily Chan has a great analysis of this report.
What are the ‘visual signifiers’ that appeal to the online women’s mass market? Visually what are the most common colours, fonts, and backgrounds. How does this contrast with print magazines?
Enjoyment, warmth, bright, cheerful and pink. Colourful but not florescent, no hard edges, lots of rounded corners and gradients. Clean layouts without overlapping elements clearly differentiated through whitespace.
There is also a middle way, when websites echo an established magazine. The ‘visual signifiers’ associated with the print offering begin to appear on the website.
There is a palette of ‘visual signifiers’ for the women’s mass market magazines, online there is a different palette. By discovering the online palette of ‘visual signifiers’ for women’s mass market websites you can quickly appeal to your audience. It would be great to research this further.
Tags: Design