Tone of Voice- Vice

Within our recent seminar we were asked to bring along a magazine that we religiously read, as I am not a huge reader of magazines (needs to change), I cautiously picked one from the pile at the front of the seminar group that I was unfamiliar with. I think that picking a magazine that I did not know would be more of a challenge and I would be able to use my first impression of it to analyse its content deeply. I picked up the magazine Vice.

We were then asked to choose an article at random and analyse it's tone of voice to establish the magazines content and audience. I looked at the article 'A Semi-transient Expert on Hobos' written by Liz Armstrong, an interview with film maker and photographer Bill Daniel who documents the graffiti that hobos write on freight trains. I established that it was full of colloquial language and came across as chatty, conversational, humorous and laid back even before the interview had begun. It was a reflective interview (not a narrative) and the interviewer was very different than most. A lot of taboo language was used "I fucked up his plans" this to me signifies that the audience of the magazine is older and more mature.

Bill Daniel

From the article and flicking through the magazine I came to the conclusion that it is a photography, art, common interest, political and lifestyle magazine for 18+ audience with immature minds as you must need to be laid back to understand the language and tone of voice which was being used for some serious articles and interviews. This activity helped me to realise to use the same technique for analysing brands, make connections? What attitude do they have? What are they trying to represent?

Visual Analysis- Tom Ford

Within our seminar groups we have each been assigned a brand or designer for us to now continuously work on for the remainder of the first module, mine is Tom Ford. A skill for a fashion communicator is the ability to analyse an image. When you first look at an image you immediately begin to decode its and establish it's concepts, a semiotic analysis takes a step back so that you may work out what it signifies and how it has meaning. I chose a recent image campaign by Tom Ford to semiotically analyse.

1. Take a quick look at the image (no analysis)
I respond well to this image, it makes me want to look more closely at whats going on, 60's style, robotic, futuristic, simple image, plain, all about the garments and name, nothing to distract from them, signifies stylish chic modern women's wear

2. What kind of visual is it?
New advertisement, on trend, magazine spread? billboard?

3. Systematically and thoroughly list all the elements of the image (Denotation)
A young slim woman with a pretty face (pulling a shocked expression) and mid length brown hair sat manly but dressed feminine, sat awkwardly in a geometric shape on a white chair against a white background. The girl is dressed futuristically in a mid length sleeveless sequinned silver dress with a net mesh top, paired with over the knee gold gladiator style stilettos, he legs and placed as if holding her up awkwardly. Tom Ford is capitalised at the bottom left hand side of the page in a contrasting black colour, its stands out fully against the white background

4.Connotations?
hair, 60's style bouffant, beehive, fringe, sultry look,
dress, body con, sexy, tight, glamorous
shoes, roman, gladiator, gods, Greece, over the knee, stiletto 
(UP MARKET)