By Deanna Hammond-Blackburn and Emma Hall
The article uses a dropped capital to mark the start of an
introductory paragraph, in a very feminine, curled, calligraphy font that
represents the girly, artistic nature of the singer's music. This font is
repeated in a title above the main headline 'Britain's best pop star', which is
almost a subliminal advert for Florence's music, and makes the article feel
worthy of reading as it is about a great artist. A similar serif font is used
in bold for the questions in the article, to stand out from the answers, and to
give the article consistency. The font used in the main body of text is a
simple, small serif font. ‘Florence’, the article title, is in the largest font
and is very clear and bold; it catches the eye immediately and also tells the
reader straight away what/who the article is about. The title is also
underlined, which emphasises the importance and links to the strap line.
There is a lead underneath the headline, introducing the
article, in the same font as the questions, and is centred, along with the rest
of the page, which makes the page look balanced and look quite sophisticated.
Embedded in the lead is a by line, separated slightly by being in bold.
Following on from the subtlety of the underlined title, the picture credits are
framed above and below by two thin lines, and the text is once again neatly
centred. The symmetry is broken slightly by the drop capital, but is balanced
on the right by the page number and further picture credits, which form a corner
border. The whole right page is very balanced, with the gutters between columns
being neat and making the text clear and legible. However, this does mean the
right page is very self-contained, as nothing overlaps with the other page. The
modern white background is shared though, as is the black and white colour
scheme. The left page has only a photograph and a pulled quote on it, which
accentuates the focus on ‘Florence’.
The photograph is a long-to-mid shot of Florence, which fills
most of the page, with a little white space to either side of her, although the
top of her head is cropped off. The image shows Florence as being quite
glamorous even when casual, as her shirt is baggy and simple, with her hair
tousled, but she is wearing gold jewellery, and her top has the Chanel logo on
it. This makes her seem elegant and well-dressed without much effort. The black
and white theme also relates to the old-fashioned film era, where women were
typically very elegant and sophisticated. This also links to the magazine’s
target audience of fairly wealthy, 20+ readers.
Her pose is quite shy and unassuming, as her head is bowed and
her arms held out gingerly, but the fact she is straight on in direct mode of
address and her expression suggests that she has an inner confidence. In this
way, she defies the stereotypes of women being photographed for their beauty
and figure, as although her face is pretty, it is hidden behind her vibrant,
unconventionally red hair. Similarly, although she has the thin body some women
envy, it is covered by a loose shirt. In a pop magazine, a female singer would
be dressed in a tailored costume to highlight her figure, but here the singer
is being focused on for her music, not her looks.
The photograph also includes signs like the interlocked C sign
on Florence’s t-shirt. According to Barthes theory of Semiotics, this is an
iconic ‘signifier’ for the company Chanel. Wealth is also symbolically
signified to some people, depending on whether the reader has encountered the
Chanel Company before. Her tattoo is also a sign symbolically signifying peace
and love, as it includes images of a bird and heart. These signs work
individually to show aspects of Florence’s unique identity.
The register of this DPS is consultative, as it is a formal
conversation between Florence and Rebecca Nicholson in the form of an
interview. The tenor is also quite formal mostly, as Florence is talking to the
media, so what she says and how she says it is very important. This shows
through in particular when she talks about intelligent topics like politics or
‘bipolar disease’. The latter is a sign that people can interpret differently
depending on their background, as younger, less intelligent readers may not
understand the term, whilst others may have had close contact with the disease
and sensitive to the terms usage. In the context of the interview, I
interpreted the term’s usage as part of a joke. The interview does slip into a
casual register at times, when the topic of conversation turns to music as part
of everyday life, and signs like ‘X Factor’ and ‘Wikipedia’ are used, which are
Western terms. The informal language works as an indexical sign with Florence’s
casual clothes to signify a modern, everyday woman. The casual register is also apparent in
sentences like “Yesss…yes, I would (giggles)” , which make it clear that the
original medium of the interview was speech. The interview uses a consultant
register prominently in her interview questions, as it is important for her to
be formal and polite, especially since her and the interviewee are relative
strangers. The language used in the introduction is slightly more casual, as
the reporter is talking to regular readers.
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