Prior to interning for Modern Luxury, I had very little knowledge of home design or real estate. My only experience remotely relating to interior design was figuring out how to fit bedroom necessities into my college dorm’s tight measurements. As such, when I was assigned my first design story, I had some research to do. The first order of business was to learn the lingo: what are people talking about when discussing matters of design and how are they doing so? Then, how do I balance these technical terms with conversational ones that are accessible to larger audiences but still point to the correct elements? Another thing that I learned was that the homes and buildings featured in Modern Luxury are hardly typical. How then, can I emphasize their grandeur while remaining focused on crucial design elements?

Using lessons from PWR, I sought to analyze the situation of this writing, especially the audience of the communication. In this case, the genre seems to demand that focus be placed on what makes the design subject exceptional. Because the audience is one that is used to upscale realty, the story needs to convey what makes every property uniquely luxurious. I found that the best approach was to be as descriptive as possible, using adjectives to emphasize design elements as well as their significance as particularly glamourous, artful, or exclusive. For example, in the stories below, I describe a building’s views as “spectacular,” tabletop decor as “eye-catching,” and home style as “striking.” I also found it important to focus on what makes any given property or designer unique, emphasizing what makes this story’s feature subject significant and worth reading. In these cases, I was tasked with identifying the purpose of the story. To do so, the audience and context within the rhetorical situation had to be considered to draw out exactly which points might be most interesting to a reader perusing that section of the magazine and interested in luxury design, and framing the story around such.

Furthermore, I had to navigate which stories I needed to include prices for. I decided to include the given price range in only one real estate story below because that story was formatted closer to an apartment listing than the others. So, while the other stories feature design items and real estate for purchase, their prices felt less significant, acknowledging the magazine’s luxury audience for whom the design appeal is first order, with pricing as a second order inquiry. Here, the price is not detrimental to the purpose of the story, considering Modern Luxury’s audience and context.

Though design is a new beat for me, I unexpectedly like a lot and hope to continue to pursue it. I enjoy the attention to detail, especially with focus on artistic and aesthetic elements. It is an interesting challenge to survey a space (from behind a screen), draw out the highlights, and put them into words.