This rhetorical essay analyzes both the structure and purpose of American literary magazine “Tin House” and its impact on the reader as well as the overall success of the magazine.
Audience, purpose, context, and genre
Tin House was first published in the spring of 1999 (tinhouse.com). It is said to be a cross between both journal and magazine style writing (tinhouse.com). It was created to offer a variety of reading including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and interviews (tinhouse.com).
Tin House is intent on not only publishing established authors but the “undiscovered” writers as well (tinhouse.com). Publisher of Tin House Win McCormack said “I wanted to create a literary magazine for the many passionate readers who are not necessarily literary academics or publishing professionals.” (tinhouse.com). Particularly, this is what separates them from other magazines and journals. The implementation of different genres is what makes Tin House unique.
Color, font, media, information architecture, and use experience
When considering the interface of the magazine, both the modes and affordances of the magazine play a huge role in the creation of all Tin House issues. In particular, the aspect of color draws and maintains the reader’s attention.
Each magazine has a cover with a portrait that most closely relates to the theme of the issue. This is apparent in books published by Tin House as well.
In addition, information architecture is a prominent affordance for Tin House. The Tin House website is structured in order to give viewers a better understanding of exactly what they do.
The website is artsy with drawings and portraits on the homepage. It is very easy to navigate and includes 10 sections of interest on their menu.
This menu includes books, workshop, podcast, tour dates, magazine, tin house online, shop, resources, search, and internship followed by their social media tags.
These tags are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram which are open links for viewers to click. With this broad range of selections, the website is easy to navigate and understand.
The font displayed on the website also contributes to the user experience of readers. The font of the logo is neatly displayed, making it very readable and visible for all audiences.
It is bigger than all other writing on the web page making it known that this is the title of the magazine therefore the reader does not get lost.
In addition, the logo is all the same font in black with the “I” in Tin House having the color red in it as well. The colors of the website seem to be both black and red with the majority of the website being written in black. The logo also has a mini house above the words Tin House.
As stated, colors are portrayed heavily on the website through their publications.
The homepage includes their latest and upcoming publications displayed by a picture that is more than likely the cover of the books or magazines. In addition, the summer workshop they are offering is also advertised along with a podcast titled “Between the Covers” Tin House also published.
Displayed on the homepage is a letter to all viewers and readers stating that Tin House Online will no longer be publishing original work any longer.
Tin House recently switched from print magazine to digital only. As the new year approaches, they have decided to focus on their divisions named Tin House Books and Tin House Workshop (tinhouse.com).
In the letter, Tin House’s new Workshop Residential Program is announced along with the statement that 2020 will bring a record number of issues for Tin House!
Works Cited
“Home | Tin House”. Tin House, https://tinhouse.com/. Accessed 13 Feb 2020.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hlwR08EaQIDO5g7JEivjawxHyGJEmmD1/view?usp=sharing