Font choices

In this post I will explore possible fonts which I may choose to use and how they are used within the media industry. I will look at some on the conventions set by professional publications and help these to aid my choice.


The first font I would like to look at is Helvetica. This fonts looks like this:

This font is a sans serif font which will stereotypically appeal to a younger audience which is my primary target audience. This font is also very popular with print media because of its simplicity and the way it looks when printed. This suggests that I should use this font because I would be following the codes and conventions set by professional magazines.

I feel that this font would be good to use on my magazine as it should appeal to my target audience because it doesn't have the flicks which serif fonts tend to have. This will make my magazine appear less formal and more fun, which as Hebdige suggests would appeal to a young target audience with his theory "youth as fun.'

This font looks a lot more formal than the one above. This is mainly due to the fact that this a serif font which features the flicks which can be seen at the edge of each of the letters. Due the fact that this looks a lot more formal, it will not stereotypically attract a young target audience. This means that I shouldn't use it in my products because it may alienate my target audience from my magazine and cause them not to read it.

This font is better than the one above because it is more bold and 'blocky' which will stereotypically appeal to young audience. This kind of font is often used on print media which is trying to appeal to young people because it can be seen as fun, and as Hebdige said 'youth as fun", suggesting that anything which can be connoted as fun will appeal to young people. However, this font can be seen as slightly formal because of its serif style which is often used as a formal style of text which will not usual appeal to young audiences. However, because of the overall style of this text it may not matter and it may be usable on my magazine.