Like every other genre of magazine, dog care magazines have their own set of codes and conventions which makes them different from others.
Before we go into the depth of what codes and conventions I will be using for my covers, let me tell you a bit to make you understand the codes and conventions specifically used in dog care magazines.
Technical Codes
Most of the dog magazines I have seen include a full shot or a medium shot of the dog as the cover photo, ie either the dog model is shown in full or just from the head to the neck.
However other shots are also used such as a two shot where the owner or a human being is shown along with the dog in order to show intimacy and the indication of a pet-owner relationship. Furthermore not only this, but close up shots are occasionally used as well where the focus is primarily on the expressions or the eyes of the dog. As we see, the angles mostly made use of are eye level angles.
Symbolic Codes
Usually dog magazines dont include a specific background behind the model unless and until a particular thing is being talked about on the main cover line and the background is necessary. The only background used alot of times is either a plain colored background with no theme behind it, or a natural green field setting which could be a house lawn, a garden, a park or anything similar. If a plain colored background is used, it is made sure that it goes along with the color scheme of the entire magazine and its color contrast.
It is quite obvious to the fact that dress codes would only be talked about if its a magazine about human subjects, but no...dress codes are definitely one aspect of animal magazines too. Talking about dog magazines, a few dog magazines represent dogs as pets on the front cover where one of the element they use to represent this fact is that of making them wear clothes. For instance, small female pups owned by girls or women may be shown wearing girly clothes and accessories for them. Or many a times dogs are made to wear clothes to represent a certain theme about the magazine.
This brings us to the point of props. Props are an essential part of not only animal magazines but usually every magazine. Here in dog magazines props like bones, dog food, dog accessories, dog clothing and similar things can be shown in association with the dog. Many a times these props are used because the cover story might be something relevant to them but other times, they are used to give a good image for the cover photo.
Written Codes
The mastheads of dog or animal magazines follow the common convention of being placed on top of the cover. The font is usually of a casual style and very less chances that a pointy font is chosen. Moreover, I saw during my research that many magazines have their models cover part of their mastheads which represents the fact that the readers do not choose a magazine always by the name of it but other aspects for example how appealing it is or how interesting the cover stories seem.
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