How did you attract/address your audience?
I think that the cover is the most crucial part of my magazine in drawing in and generating audience attraction, I created a cover with a simplistic but stylish appearance, by including only limited information I was able to draw audiences attention to both the masthead and my star cover image. The artist on the front cover represents a young popular indie/alternative singer, wearing a camo green bomber jacket with medium length styled hair, a generic indie/alternative singer appearance that mimicks current popular singers of the same genre, therefore attracting audiences to read the magazine. My mast head is centred at the top of the page in a large bold font that is unique as it has the appearance of a water blur running through the centre, this contributes to the overall stylish effect that as I learnt from my audience research, is popular amongst my target audience. I chose to have my artist keep a friendly but focused look as he looks directly at the camera that would develop a likeableness to him whilst also adding an air of mysteriousness to his nature. Whilst the idea for my masthead design was developed from existing texts such as 'Mojo' who also position their mastheads centrally, My design emulated the music magazine 'Paper' who also use a white background whilst containing the artist photo in a box with the text giving the artists name with a line of text beneath it lay over the image.
The contents page is the final deciding factor in whether consumers will purchase the magazine or not, it is where all potential readers will view the content of the magazine and make an assumption upon it's quality. I wanted my cover page to both attract readers whilst addressing them simply and being set out in a manner that made it both informative and simple to read, I therefore chose to align both columns of text to be the same width and in a size that can be read from afar, I kept the segment for my main article on my double page spread separate to allow me to use a larger font size to draw the readers attention towards it, also I included a separate coloured box to advertise the competition running in that issue as this would be one of my initial main selling points as it directly appealed to individuals that fall into my target age bracket of ages 15-25. I took inspiration for my cover from magazines such as 'NME' who stick to a basic colour scheme and arrange the information in columns with a separate box to showcase the main story the magazine is running.
On my double page spread I chose to not follow conventional styles of having a singular big photo of the artist but instead I included a number of smaller photos surrounded by text from the article, I chose this style as the content within my article was an insight into the life and childhood of the artist, I therefore found it suitable to use photos that appeared more natural and less styled to allow readers to connect with my artist. The language focuses on keeping the readers attention through being informative and interesting written without using too many extravagant words that may interrupt the audiences flow of reading. There are two quotes from the article embedded in the text that are in a larger font size and blue in colour, these are interesting quotes that causes a desire in the readers to explore the context behind the quote as it will be one of the first things the reader sees when first viewing the pages. I drew inspiration for this from magazines such as 'DIY' where the pictures are not as large as is conventionally seen and quotes are scattered throughout the text, I admired the simplistic but informative approach that I chose for my cover and contents and so decided to continue this in my double page spread.
Showing posts with label Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magazine. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
After conducting my research into my target audience for my indie/alternative music magazine, I concluded that my target audience would be between the ages of 15-25 who are both male and female, I think this is a suitable age group to target for my audience as my magazine is full of the latest news about current and upcoming artists, it will appeal to the young teenage audience as this is generally the age where people will be exploring new kinds of music anyway, and as seen from my research in UK Tribes, my audience are described as to be passionate about trying new things. I believe my magazine offers both musical and entertainment content that would allow readers to feed this desire. As well as the appeal for younger audiences, my magazine also contains content on the more popular and mainstream artists that although the younger end of the age bracket may not have developed an appreciation of, the older readers will have followed from their early teenage years. (Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks etc.) Both younger and older readers will also be able to share a common interest in content involving summer festivals, by also offering the chance for readers to win tickets to music festivals popular amongst 15-25 year olds it will further increase the appeal for males and females in this age range to buy into the magazine. A point I considered when designing my magazine was the issue of underage readers alongside readers of a legal drinking and smoking age, in order to appeal to both I included articles on concert venues where drinking is common but at no point referenced drinking or smoking, this would also be beneficial to real media products as it means no group of people are excluded at any point. As with all magazines mine will contain adverts order to generate extra income to cover costs, I will include adverts from relevant popular fashion labels amongst audiences such as Ralph Lauren and Lacoste, this will help in maintaining interest amongst readers whilst going through adverts.
After conducting my research into my target audience for my indie/alternative music magazine, I concluded that my target audience would be between the ages of 15-25 who are both male and female, I think this is a suitable age group to target for my audience as my magazine is full of the latest news about current and upcoming artists, it will appeal to the young teenage audience as this is generally the age where people will be exploring new kinds of music anyway, and as seen from my research in UK Tribes, my audience are described as to be passionate about trying new things. I believe my magazine offers both musical and entertainment content that would allow readers to feed this desire. As well as the appeal for younger audiences, my magazine also contains content on the more popular and mainstream artists that although the younger end of the age bracket may not have developed an appreciation of, the older readers will have followed from their early teenage years. (Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks etc.) Both younger and older readers will also be able to share a common interest in content involving summer festivals, by also offering the chance for readers to win tickets to music festivals popular amongst 15-25 year olds it will further increase the appeal for males and females in this age range to buy into the magazine. A point I considered when designing my magazine was the issue of underage readers alongside readers of a legal drinking and smoking age, in order to appeal to both I included articles on concert venues where drinking is common but at no point referenced drinking or smoking, this would also be beneficial to real media products as it means no group of people are excluded at any point. As with all magazines mine will contain adverts order to generate extra income to cover costs, I will include adverts from relevant popular fashion labels amongst audiences such as Ralph Lauren and Lacoste, this will help in maintaining interest amongst readers whilst going through adverts.
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
Evaluation Question 3
Publishing companies must first decide on what type of texts they want to publish, for example they can publish books, newspapers or magazines, and then they can also select certain genres or types of these things such as music magazines, tabloid newspapers or fictional books. After this, editors must then select titles they wish to publish that fit with their publishing program and also are expected to succeed to a certain level, a timetable is set up for how often it will be published, deadlines for the writers and when the text is handed off to be published. The publisher will pay for all expenses for publishing the magazine upfront with no guarantee of a profit, meaning the publishers have to strongly consider if what they are looking to publish will make a profit.
After reviewing various publishing companies I have concluded that a publishing company that would likely publish our magazine is 'Bauer Media Group', they are a German based publishing company but operate in the UK for various successful music magazines such as 'Q', they manage a portfolio of over 600 magazines and so would be perfect for providing support and help for the magazine start up which could transcend into advice on the future of the magazine as it grows.
A distributor is someone who supplies goods to a retailer, in the case of magazine publishing they will be the ones who put your magazine in shops all over the country for people to buy. Frontline would be a good distributor for my magazine as they distribute to over 55,000 retailers and have experience in many different types of magazine including mojo music magazine. The majority of the business they do is UK based which is beneficial as UK indie artists do not tend to generate a lot of interest overseas meaning the distributor will operate mostly in areas containing our target audience.
There are multiple ways of raising the money to create the magazine, one of these ways is to ask musicians in the industry to promote the idea and get fans of the genre to donate on a kickstarter fund with a free first edition to all those who donate a certain amount, once the initial money is raised to create the magazine it will be self funded by money made from sales of the magazine. Another way to raise the money would also be to ask musicians within the genre to invest in the idea for a share in the company, similar to the music streaming service 'Tidal' which is owned and was funded by a number of hip-hop artists including J Cole, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonce and Rihanna. This is the idea that I think would be best for my magazine as it allows for the chance to gain promotion through the artists themselves, an example of this is seen with Kanye West promoting 'Tidal' by releasing his 2016 album 'The Life Of Pablo' exclusively on the surface.
Institutionally my magazine is similar to 'NME' and 'Q' so my magazine would be released in a similar fashion. They are published every two or three months with a set amount each time, only around a quarter of all music magazines published go to stores as the majority of prints go direct to subscribers of the magazine, this is also the same for 'NME' and 'Q'. This is because most readers of the magazine each week are repeat ones and therefore a subscription is beneficial.
Due to the decline in magazine sales across the entire industry, but especially so in music magazines over the last 10 years due to the ever fasting increase in popularity for internet based information and entertainment sources, I would not release my magazine in general stores as costs may exceed income generated from sales. Therefore I would sell magazines at music events such as festivals and concerts, but also at stores where magazine purchases are noteably higher above averages such as at airport WH Smith's.
After reviewing various publishing companies I have concluded that a publishing company that would likely publish our magazine is 'Bauer Media Group', they are a German based publishing company but operate in the UK for various successful music magazines such as 'Q', they manage a portfolio of over 600 magazines and so would be perfect for providing support and help for the magazine start up which could transcend into advice on the future of the magazine as it grows.
A distributor is someone who supplies goods to a retailer, in the case of magazine publishing they will be the ones who put your magazine in shops all over the country for people to buy. Frontline would be a good distributor for my magazine as they distribute to over 55,000 retailers and have experience in many different types of magazine including mojo music magazine. The majority of the business they do is UK based which is beneficial as UK indie artists do not tend to generate a lot of interest overseas meaning the distributor will operate mostly in areas containing our target audience.
There are multiple ways of raising the money to create the magazine, one of these ways is to ask musicians in the industry to promote the idea and get fans of the genre to donate on a kickstarter fund with a free first edition to all those who donate a certain amount, once the initial money is raised to create the magazine it will be self funded by money made from sales of the magazine. Another way to raise the money would also be to ask musicians within the genre to invest in the idea for a share in the company, similar to the music streaming service 'Tidal' which is owned and was funded by a number of hip-hop artists including J Cole, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonce and Rihanna. This is the idea that I think would be best for my magazine as it allows for the chance to gain promotion through the artists themselves, an example of this is seen with Kanye West promoting 'Tidal' by releasing his 2016 album 'The Life Of Pablo' exclusively on the surface.
Institutionally my magazine is similar to 'NME' and 'Q' so my magazine would be released in a similar fashion. They are published every two or three months with a set amount each time, only around a quarter of all music magazines published go to stores as the majority of prints go direct to subscribers of the magazine, this is also the same for 'NME' and 'Q'. This is because most readers of the magazine each week are repeat ones and therefore a subscription is beneficial.
Due to the decline in magazine sales across the entire industry, but especially so in music magazines over the last 10 years due to the ever fasting increase in popularity for internet based information and entertainment sources, I would not release my magazine in general stores as costs may exceed income generated from sales. Therefore I would sell magazines at music events such as festivals and concerts, but also at stores where magazine purchases are noteably higher above averages such as at airport WH Smith's.
Sunday, 12 March 2017
Teacher feedback on draft magazine
Main points to fix of teacher feedback:
- Change image on front cover
- Increase size of barcode
- Add another image on contents
- Align text on contents
- Make two columns on contents same width
- Change heading on DPS
- Align texts into columns
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Audience feedback on draft magazine
These are screen grabs of the feedback I received on my draft magazine from other media students with experience in magazine creation as they all completed this coursework project last year, therefore responses from those who also have an interest in indie music will hold a high amount of relevance and credibility.
Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Magazine Draft
Due to problems accessing my work on my laptop, I was not able to complete the double page spread, however I decided that it would be more beneficial to add in the pieces of text showing audiences what would make up the rest of this individual text instead of rushing to complete it as it would allow me to begin collecting feedback from my audience on the lay out and overall appearance of all three pieces of work. By collecting feedback early I am allowing myself adequate time to create my product to the standard I am aiming for with time to spare for final adjustments before the final deadline.
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
Flatplans
These are basic flatplan designs for my draft magazine, their is multiple examples for each as I have not yet decided which I will use. They are basic flatplans that offer guides to where certain key elements of the cover, contents and double page spread will be located on the page to make designing and creating the magazine fast and simple. Detailed aspects such as borders or page numbers are not added as they are not required.
Friday, 20 January 2017
Friday, 13 January 2017
Preliminary magazine
Displayed here is my preliminary magazine in the form of a school information magazine.
Monday, 9 January 2017
Font analysis
2) Coconut Express 01 - This is another font downloaded from dafont.com, I liked it because of its neat styling with a quirky twist on some letters and numbers, I do not believe I will use it as a masthead due to it's thin appearance, however I think it will be good for an article due to it's interesting appearance.
3) Futura - This font I chose as it was similar to number 2, however it is without the quirky twists on certain letters, I feel as though this would be a good replacement for number 2 if it turns out that the quriks look out of place.
4) Lemon/Milk - Another downloaded font from dafont.com, this one I chose as it looked suitable for headers or the quote extract for the double page spread as it is a very bold and thick font which attracts the readers attention.
5) Bebas Neue - The final downloaded font from dafont.com, this I chose as it could have a diverse range of uses due to its thick lettering style, meaning it could be used for anything from mastheads to article text, also due to its slimmer style it uses less horizontal space which could be useful if I have limited space on my magazine.
6) Monaco - Similar to number 5, it is a slightly less bold version of the previous font, meaning if I use number 5 for an article heading or sub-heading then this would be suitable for the text underneath.
7) Phosphate - This font is slightly more unusual, it would only be used for the masthead, it takes a similar style to the 'NME' music magazine masthead which I particularly enjoy and may seek to mimic in my own project.
8 & 9) Rockwell, American Typewriter - These are two similar fonts with small variations that I chose because of their aesthetically appealing look which I think will work well in an article in the double page spread.
10) Copperplate Gothic Bold - This is a font that I have chosen as a potential masthead or sub-heading, however I am not sure if I will use it due to its wide nature which may prove to be too space consuming.
Examples of other texts
All of the texts above are a mixture of published content from current magazines. I have picked these magazines because they are all aesthetically appealing and have elements I am considering using for my magazine. I like the close up profile photos used on the covers because they give a clear indication of who the artist is and also all have complementary colour schemes which I want to include in my magazine. As for the double page spread, I like how despite being across two pages the photo joins them together, the large quote from the article attracts the readers attention and is something I will definitely seek to mimic when designing my own magazine.
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