Peer assessment of flat plans and idea's

Peer Feedback

• Re-think house style because of so many clashing colours, may turn into a put off. Only include two colours that clash to create a unique selling point to draw in my target audience.
• Work on layout of double page spread because it looks boring on my flat plans. It needs to look interesting to match my target audience which ties in with the mark scheme because it says that the magazine needs to appeal to the target audience.
• Re-draft front cover because the image is too far to the left and all the writing is on the right therefore it looks less professional than if i was to move the image to the middle. I also need to evaluate the font size of each sell line to make the importance of each one obvious. 

Improvements I'm going to make

• Originally i used clashing colours such as orange/blue, red/green and yellow/purple. Due to the feedback i was given about them i have decided to use colours that don't clash but do appear striking to the reader such as black/red or blue/white.
• On my double page layout I have decided to move one of the images into the main article column and put the other two images on an angle to create a fresh and exciting appeal to the readers.
• By strategically placing the image in the middle and surrounding it in sell lines (including the main one), the level of professionalism will improve which relates to the mark scheme because it states the magazine needs to look like it was created to a professional level.

Flat Plans

Front Cover:
On the front cover i decided to name the magazine "Yeah!" because it indicates the simplicity the magazine has to offer and attracts the audience through the use of "!" because it makes the overall name stand out more. I also used a clash of colour's to create an unusual appeal that matches the music genre. I made the sell lines look more interesting by putting them on a tilt, this makes it catchy to the eye because of the mixture of bold vibrant colours and the unusual placing of sell lines, however through doing this I believe the sense of professionalism is lost, I think i can fix this by re-thinking the house style. For the main image I decided to use two models and leave a space for a third model, this is because I find three models to be the most appealing because it fills the page nicely, not making it too over crowded or leaving it empty and in leaving an obvious space for a third model I believe it draws the audience in because it makes them wonder as to where that model/band member is.

Contents Page:
For the contents page i decided to keep it simple so readers can navigate it easy enough, with three images in the middle and contents lists down either side I believe that this page is a near on professional styled page. I based this page off one of NME's contents pages because i believed it looked appealing due to the simplicity. I decided to use an A-Z of bands because it narrows down searches if you want to find things out about a certain band and not just the music genre overall.

Double Page Spread:
For my double page spread i found it to be one of my weak points, but i thought that maintaining a basic layout was essential so i decided to use the left hand side for images and the right hand side for the main story, however in doing this it has made the page look dull therefore revising the layout is essential for creating one accurate to a professional standard and to interest the readers of my magazine

Primary Audience Research

I conducted some primary audience research in order to:

• Find out what appeals to my target audience
• To discover any flaws or potential improvements that could be made to my magazine genre
• To identify any gaps in the market and place a refreshing new twist on the genre

 

These are the products I did, with a selective sample from my target audience, I found that:

These are the questions I did:

1. What caught your eye first when you first looked at the front cover?
2. Did you like the colours used? If so why? If not, why not?
3. Did the find the main image on the front cover appealing? If so why?
4. Why music genre appeals to you most?
5. What are your 3 favourite things about this magazine?
6. What 3 things would you do to improve this magazine?
7. Did you find the contents page effective?
8. Was the double page spread appealing enough to make you want to read on? If so why?
9. Did you find the advertisements appealing? If so why?
10. Overall, out of 10, how much would you give this magazine?

These are my responses:

In this video he noticed the red font first and noticed that all things that are important are also highlighted in red. This has given me good feedback because it has given me an indication that if there are any important points in my magazine, perhaps highlighting them would be a good idea, found the red very appealing because it makes the magazine look passionate because that's one of the connotations of red along with insanity and blood. Listens to main stream chart music.

From this response I also found that the red was used effectively to highlight key areas. Main image appealing because it consists of very abstract props such as a pocket watch, walking stick and top hat which can be seen as unusual for a modern rock band to use. A mixture of music appeals to her, generally pop and chart music but also a bit of Indie/Niche music too.

Also found the red used to be appealing, dangerous and bold. Noticed the red first before anything else and thinks the red connotates the danger and excitement of the band Kasabian on the front cover which is exactly what the magazine intended because they described the new album as "dangerous". Double page spread needs more writing on it because it doesn't have enough to cover a story so in my magazine, plenty of content is essential. The contents page was described to be "easy to navigate" which is good feedback because I can take influence from it and use similar traits in my contents page.

Impact Of Target Audience

The target audience has influenced my decision of designing, layouts and content. One reason is that to begin with my ideas were originally less mature as main stream magazines such as NME, Kerrang or MOJO which i have researched into with great detail and have found that the age group is higher than i expected meaning that the magazine will have to have a mature appeal to it. Another factor that has been influenced is the content of my magazine because from the NME reader profile i have found the products that teenagers generally buy; Music related technology, soft drinks, junk food, cars and music festivals. I have taken this into account because it generates ideas for what content i can use one the two page spreads and/or advertisements.

Kerrang has influenced my ideas for my magazine because the target audience they have attempted to appeal to is similar to the target audience that I am aiming for. I noticed that the house style was kept less striking which is good because it presents a sense of proffessionalism. The reason i am taking their ideas into account is because they have also conducted research on audiences and what appeals to them most.

NME have influenced my decisions about designing because it has a mature appeal to it due to its high target audience age, this is good because it gives me an idea of what style to use and how mature or "out there" the appearance of my magazine can be, NME also researched what appeals to their general target audience and what does not.

Mojo has influenced my design ideas because i like the font used throughout the magazine, its easy to read yet striking to the ye because of the sharp edges each individual letter portrays and also gives the reader a sense of proffessionalism.

Secondary Target Audience

NME Reader ProfileI found this NME reader profile from 2010, i found this to be aiming at a similar target audience to what i had in mind, with the exception that mine will be an indie and drum&bass mix. From this reader profile i have found that it is predominantly aimed at male teenagers aged between 16 - 21 but there are some elements of female interest in the background. From what products are included on this profile, there's an indication that teenagers of this social class generally buy junk foods and soft drinks, games console's and alcohol. There is also images of phones, laptops and hair products which indicate that this specific audience care a lot about appearance and technology, generally feeling the need to keep up to date with the latest trends. Below the mood board there is statistics showing what the target audience usually spend their money on. Most of the time they buy music related products and equipment meaning including a section about the latest equipment and technology that is based on music would be appealing for my target audience.     

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I also found Kerrang's reader profile which proves to be similar to NME's apart from the fact that the median age is 19 meaning the magazine is aimed at an older target audience, meaning that the age range is much wider than what i am aiming for, it is 15-24 and mine is going to be 16-21. Although this is not the age i am aiming at, i can still pick up influence from it because it is an indie based magazine and that is what i am aiming for. The magazine is predominetly purchased by males (60% Male < 40% Female) meaning i will also aim my magazine at male's so it pleases more of my audience. Kerrang say their readers are "sharp, intelligent and rejoice in their individuality" perhaps implying that there is no absoloute stereotype for this magazine but more that it is aimed at anyone with a love for music.

Kerrang Reader Profile

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Research into institutions that distribute similar products

NME is owned by IPC Media: http://www.ipcmedia.com/

IPC Media also owns Nuts, 4x4 and Anglers Mail - IPC media owns a variety of magazines, not only music ones to broaden the target audience because everyone has different life interests or hobbies.

Kerrang is owned by Bauer Media: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

Bauer Media also owns Mojo, Q and Zoo - Bauer Media mainly focuses on owning music magazines, simply so the company can research into different music genre's which also broadens the target audience because of different social "stereotypes".

 

Companies own a variety of different magazine titles because despite it costing twice as much to effectively run two magazines, the target audience is widened due to the ability to expand on genre's since there is two or more magazines to branch them across. Companies also make a lot of money because of owning multiple magazines because there is plenty of space for advertisements therefore more revenue is generated.

Ideas and feedback

Ideas
For my coursework i have decided to create a music magazine aimed at teenagers between the ages of 16 to 20, so generally college and university students. I decided to do this because as a student myself i thought that constructing an appealing magazine for people around this age group would be easier if i based it on what i found appealing in a magazine. The genre i am aiming at will generally be Indie and Drum and bass so bands similar to ones such as Arctic Monkeys, Foals and Pendulum will be included in the front cover, contents page and double paged spreads.

Print Brief

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead.
 
Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images.

Print Prelim Task

Front Page

On the front cover I was influenced by the example front covers i found because they used a distinguising colour scheme of red and black or red, black and white. I considered this but wanted to be original so i decided to use black as a base colour and green as the primary colour, I thought this was effective because green is a bright and vibrent colour which grabs the attention of the target audience (first year college students). I also took the idea from the NME front cover which uses shapes to distinguish the sell lines i used in the magazine. The font I used was basic because it makes easy to read from long distances and is welcoming to all people/students that are interested.

Contents Page

 In the making of the contents page i took influence from both contents paged i conducted research on. I did this by using a main image as the focal point of the page and important topics are listed so people know which page to mainly go to. I laid the page out the way i did so it looked abstract and interesting so readers are likely to continue reading the magazine because it looks interesting. I used as green as the main colour (background) because its catchy and people are more likely to be interested in it.

This is the contents page to my prelim magazine, i picked the layout i have because it is influenced by the NME contents page i used in the previous blog. It looks similar because the page numbers are listed down the right hand side but i decided to do a stairs border because it looks abstract and interesting, the image i will use will be one of an outside scenario such as students doing homework in the park.

I chose to have my front cover like this because it has a striking appeal to it, i used both covers as an inspiration to design my cover. i put the main sell line in front of the picture so the reader can see what the main topic of the magazine is. i have also labeled what colour's i will be using so it is easy when it comes to designing it.

Photographic Composition

Covers + Contents Pages Of Inspiration

Below are examples of magazine covers and contents pages that i am taking inspiration from for my prelim.

 This is a contents page to NME and i like it because it uses a house style which involves yellow and black to highlight key articles in the magazine, the colour scheme does not match the front cover but this suggests that the page is about a different band to the band shown on the front. The size of the image is in correlation with the importance of the topic on the page, for example: the biggest images is on the left which indicates that it is the main story on the page and the details of where to find the story are found at the top right corner. I like all these features because they are simple and easy to understand.

On this front cover the main mast is the title of the magazine "Kerrang!" and the main sell line for this magazine is the band "Metallica" and you can tell this because it has their name in big bold red text and an image of them behind it. Posters and exclusive stories are also sell lines on this front cover. The house style for this magazine consist of 3 colours: Black, red and white with straight bold text. I like the layout of this page because the colours are used appropriately to match the theme of a band and the magazine which works well.

On the front cover the main mast is the title of the magazine, "NME" and the main selling line is "Beady Eye" and you can tell this because the name of the band is in big white bold writing with a catch line above it with a medium close up of the band themselves. This edition of the magazine is a Christmas one and you can see this because extra sell line's are in Christmas decoration shapes and the main mast has a snow pattern on the top of it, which is the main theme for Christmas. I chose this cover because it was useful inspiration for a seasonal addition of a magazine.

This content page uses 3 main colours to match the house style and one extra colour to advertise a separate subscription item, the main colours are black, white and red. This contents page also uses banners to split features up into separate section's. Another thing which is good about this contents page is the A-Z band index, its easy to read and in a useful place because it doesn't take up a lot of space but just enough to be noticed.

Brief;Print

Print Prelim

Preliminary exercise: Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a mast head. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP

Main Task

The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. A minimum of 4 images must be used. All images and graphics must be produced by the candidate.

Print Prelim deadline is the 26th September (flat plans + products + evaluation) Failure to submit prelim results in a 20 mark deduction.