ABSTRACT
This chapter will develop the analyses of Chapter 4 by examining the ways in which the audience, or market, of graphic design work affects and is affected by the content and the form of that work. The notions of class and cultural groups that were introduced in Chapter 4 will be revisited and dealt with in more detail, as markets or audiences. However, these ‘markets’ will not be explained in terms of their relative spending power or the choices they make in consumption; this chapter is not interested in aiding a capitalist economy by carrying out market research for it (see Modleski 1986: xii). Markets or audiences here will be understood as different cultural groups, with different sets of values and beliefs. The ideas of previous chapters will be used to explain the relation between the content and form of various examples of graphic design and audience and market. Case studies for this chapter include magazine and website design, advertising, illustration, comics, greetings cards and packaging. The selections made in typography, illustration and layout are all subject to variation, according to which segment(s) of a market the magazine or product, for example, is to communicate with. Similarly, packaging needs to take account of the social status and identity of the market in order to communicate with that market. Advertising is probably the most obvious example of how graphic design interacts with audiences and markets, but some of the less well-covered ways, such as magazine and website design and packaging, in which race/ethnicity, age and gender impinge on graphics will be covered in this chapter.
