Film Magazine Case Study: Little White Lies

I was most intrigued by the independent magazine, Little  White Lies because initially it appears to be a film magazine disguised as a comic book. 

According to Google, the definition of a white lie is "A harmless fib or small untruth, often done to spare someone's feelings or for some other diplomatic reason" Although the name of the magazine doesn't sound remotely like it relates to the film genre, when you actually read the content you realise that 'Little White Lies' is quite fitting because essentially it is a magazine made up of writers' opinions as the majority of the content in the magazine are film reviews, notions, and questions about the film industry. 

The magazine's slogan is "Truth & Movies", it is thought provoking because when put together with the title, it becomes an oxymoron. However, the content does reflect the slogan because the magazine hardly has any adverts and the adverts in the magazine are mostly film related. This is a clear subversion of the magazine conventions because most magazines rely on the money given to them by the advertising companies to fund their publications.  

There are virtually no sell lines on the front cover of Little White Lies which is one of the main ways it subverts the conventions of a magazine. To compensate for the lack of sell lines, the magazine puts heavy emphasis on the aesthetic aspect of the front cover, hence the pop-art cartoon sketch of Matt Damon in his latest movie, Elysium). However, there is a heading at the very bottom of the page which is only visible if you tilt the magazine towards the light as the glossy texture contrasts the otherwise matte texture of the whole magazine. The design of the magazine seems dependent on the feature film; in this case, Elysium is a dystopian sci-fi action thriller. Elements of sci-fi are the most prevalent design features of the magazine because the robotic, mechanical illustrations dominate the contents of the magazine. The colour scheme consists of vibrant colours such as neon green, white, black and blue which reflects the sci-fi and dystopian aspect of the film. 

Throughout the magazine, the fonts alternate between serif and sans serif although I established that the pattern is that reviews are written in a serif font. Little White Lies embraces all film genres and even discusses black and white films; this displays the variety of the magazine. The institution that publishes Little White Lies is TCOLondon. They also publish the DIY Culture magazine and and Huck Magazine. Little White Lies major competitor would be So Film magazine because it is also an independent film magazine.  

The target demographic for this magazine seems to be young adults because the written content is quite opinionated yet mature. The graphic design is not for someone who prefers traditional magazine conventions because Little White Lies is quite modern and almost completely subverts conventions aesthetic wise; therefore the design aspect could reflect the likes of the target demographic who like vibrant, vivid, neon colours (colours that may be an eyesore to those who prefer traditional mags).