Masthead- Update

Firstly, I named my magazine 'Cornwall Escape' as I thought this would promote the impression of an exciting read and an opportunity to 'escape' from the real world; linking to Blumer and Katz 1973 theory. This masthead connotes the foreseen purpose of the county; to escape from the normality of life, and connotes that reading the magazine will meet the needs for escapism. I considered this as successful, based on the Dutchy being a popular holiday destination, making tourists inclined to buy into the idealism stereotype of the country. This idiom is something often created by other Cornish magazines, for example Cornwall Life.

When reflecting on this concept and naming, I realised that my youthful target audience would not be as attracted to this concept. I wanted to create a more exciting and upbeat name would be more beneficial when targeting this market. In order to create this perception I decided to rename my product 'Cornwall Scene'. I felt that using the work 'scene' would draw the attention to the creative and vibrant aspects of Cornwall. The word 'scene' represents a lively persona. Young people want to be part of populated activities around that area which inclines them to buy to product in order to be part of it. This fits with Higson’s representation theory concerning the creation of regional representations based on stereotypes as well as Hebdige's "youth as fun" statement (1998). 

In terms of design feature I stuck to the make-up of me original masthead. Using typical conventions of the regional genre to promote the industry my product is from. I chose to place it centrally, at the top of the page to make sure it stood out; especially in stores and shops. Like the more traditional Cornish regional magazines the font I chose was Serif, however it diverts the common conventions as the style is chunky and rounded; conveying contemporary fresh modern connotations to attract the younger target market. On the other hand, compared to lifestyle and surf magazine fonts it is more serious, giving a more up market connotation. It implies a state of reliability, which follows some of the expectations, set my regional magazines.Similarly, I used a drop shadow technique as it made my masthead stand out and create a textured appearance on the page.

I used white to fill some of my masthead, giving the page simplicity as well as more natural touch; marrying the foreshadowed perception of Cornwall being a pure natural environment. I recognised this as being the most popular colour of regional mastheads and thought it would be a necessary convention to follow. By having part of the masthead in white it connotes the sense of purity and honesty, allowing the audience to trust my product and therefore be more willing to purchase in the future. I chose to use a lime green for the rest of my masthead ie the word 'Scene'. The regional genre don't often introduce many bright colours that aren't directly linked to nature, however I decided it would be more appropriate for my target audience. By using the lime green a relation between the image and the masthead was created, increasing the production value of my front cover design. . This simple use of two colours for the masthead followed conventions creatively as most mastheads I researched either consisted of one colour and a drop shadow. 

Also I found this helped balance the front cover, as introducing another sharp colour could have made it too full on; something seen more in Cornwall Living.