Evaluation: Question 5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Target Audience

For my magazine to attract and address my target audience of teenagers and young adults I have used several methods. The first is the use of people that are the target audience's age, this means that they can relate to them, it's a lot easier to support an artist and read about artists that are around your age, know what you go through and grow up with you rather than reading about rock stars who had fame years ago telling stories about what life was like when they were around.

It's about modern artists and modern music tastes which helps increase the appeal of the magazine to young people and teenagers. I'm aiming the magazine purely at teenagers and young people for this reason, there is a gap in the market for this genre of music and this type of music, and there are a lot of people this age that would be interested to read about this kind of music. With modern day phenomena like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter being the most popular websites for young people on the internet and Indie and Alternative genre music being increasingly popular on these formats, modern day bands that have utilised these formats would include the Arctic Monkeys and Bombay Bicycle Club as well as many other less well known bands, who use Facebook and similar sites to advertise their upcoming gigs and news, I feel that my magazine reflects and fits into this scene quite well with both the style of the magazine and the content, all of which address and attract the teenage and young person market.

To also attract and address the audience I made sure I included the key codes and conventions of any magazine to make sure that the magazine looked professional and the best it could possibly be. This included things like a clear Masthead and Coverlines that would appeal to the target audience - teenagers and young people, this meant including artists that covered the genre, such as Little Comets, a real band with a small fan base who's album (made up in this case) was featured on the cover, I also included my made up Indie artist -Tom Kane, who both sounds like an indie artist and dresses like one too. The image on the front cover, contents page and double page spread are very important to suit the genre, Tom, a good friend of mine and also a media student would describe his dress sense as fairly individual and independent, the key characteristics of an artist in the indie genre. Althogether this created a convincing magazine, one of which where all of the individual parts of the magazine came together and suited the genre perfectly.

Evaluation: Question 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

The link for my 'Prezi' document is below:

http://prezi.com/-vljbz7ipdq8/who-would-be-the-audience-for-your-media-product/

Evaluation: Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups? from benmaccers

Contents Page: The Complete Redesign

As well as the Double Page Spread I also thought that the contents page wasn't up to scratch, so I decided to redesign that as well, below are the old and new versions (old=left, new=right).


















I decided I didn't like the contents page of my magazine, it was too dark, and as I thought about it, how many magazines have a black interior and exterior background colour? none that are successful, I thought it was too dark and needed a bit of light. I felt that some of the tacky things needed to go, like the subscribe widget/section, and treat it more like a contents page, with everything that is of interest to the reader on the right hand side, not splitting apart the regulars and features, because it could give off the feeling that in my old design - the top half of the contents of my magazine is what you came here to read, the bottom half of the contents is all the rubbish that comes with it as a filler, which isn't true, so I decieded to keep them all together instead of splitting them apart, which may be seen as a problem as far as showing what I know about magazine design, but I also know what looks better, and in this case I went with what looks better and more presentable.

I got my inspiration for my contents page from an older edition of FHM magazine, I felt that the coloured box with the front cover and the feature artist was a main feature I wanted to include in my magazine, and the coloured accent of the page number I wanted to be a coloured page number and page description title, with the actual description of the page in black. In my magazine I decieded to make a background by getting a standard image of crumpled, brown stained - white paper and making very opaque over a layer of white that would fit the page, that way it isn't just white and black but a bit of a variation - something different. I decided to go for the headline I did by taking an example from the FHM header lines, which are in groups of 4 or 5. There were a few things I thought suited the FHM contents, but on experimenting with my magazine I felt they didn't work, for example the row of images in the middle of the page, I felt I didn't have space for them, and the dotted lines that the individual pieces of writing on the contents page just didn't work with the font and the way I lay my magazine.

I'm now happy with my contents page after completely re-designing it, I'm happy with my front cover the way it first came out, with just a few things altered to make it perfect in my mind, and happy with my double page spread after completely redesigning it as well, overall I think they all fit together quite well, the fonts and the colours making them the linking factor, I feel after changing my contents page, and changing the background colour especially I have made it a lot better, the layout is a lot more clear, and easy to pick information from, it's a vast improvement from the old contents page, it just took time to get there.

Contents Page Editing

(old on the left, the updated version on the right)
With my front cover I turned my attention to the contents page, I wasn't happy with the bottom left corner, I felt the social network logos and various other things to do with the contents page didn't really fit, instead I added in an image I took originally for my photography work but never got round to using it and turned it into the 'Miles Of The Month' regulars section. I also changed the advert in the bottom right corner for subscription to the magazine, I felt that it didn't fit in with the rest of the column so I reduced the font size of a lot of things and squeezed everything in.

Overall I think it is a big improvement on the previous version and I think this is the version I will use as my final contents page for the music magazine, I think the colour co-ordination of orange for regulars and red for features meant I could contrast different sections of the magazine, I also think that the contents compliments the front cover with the colours, fonts and everything else, I made sure that everything matched to keep the 'house style' the same.

My Personal Pages

If you are looking at my blog I would love it if you looked at both my personal website, where I have all my photos:

http://benmaccers.wix.com/photographer

and my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben-maccers

both of these are very important for my photography work, and media work, so it would be great if you had a look

:)

Magazine Draft Pieces

Below are the different parts of my music magazine project, at the moment they're in their draft stage and will be developed as I change things and cut things out of it, but these are the basic layouts for the magazine, because I'm only planning on changing a few minor details.

 I am quite pleased with how my front cover of my magazine has turned out. This is the final version as the tweaks to the magazine front cover were made as I went along, I am happy with this completely, and I don't feel anything needs changing. I am very pleased on finding the Masthead font - 'Theano Didot' which is very similar to the font I wanted - 'Albion Didot' which the BMX magazine Albion BMX uses. Another thing I am quite pleased with is the footer at the bottom, I had that space free towards the end of creating it and I looked at other magazines to see what completes them, so I felt this was the thing that was missing, the orange vertical highlights fit in well with the rest of the magazine and also gives it a more professional look.

Overall I am very pleased with how the Front Cover turned out and is something I will be using as my final piece.

The contents page is something I feel where bits need changing, for example there is a huge space in the bottom left of the page which I think the social networks doesn't really fit, so I think I might need to extend the Tom Kane Feature paragraph or put another feature article in there to make sure the space is effectively filled, maybe even taking the Little Comets interview, which is the one of the main coverlines on the front cover and put it into the gap. Another thing I think I could change is the date, and the gap between the Contents Heading and the rest of the text, maybe add a volume number and other things. Overall it's a good start but could do with some more things.

My double page spread, which I feel is nearly complete is something I am fairly pleased with, more so than the contents page, but a lot less so than the front cover. I think the title for the page is set out well along with the text and the 'TOM KANE' in the top left hand corner of the page, I think I need to put another page footer on the bottom right page, because after all it is a DOUBLE page spread, and not just on one single page. I think after some fiddling around with the double page spread it will work out and match the standard of the front cover.If I did the double page spread again I think I would change the colour of the background, and make it lighter, because the grey isn't really a nice colour and doesn't really compliment anything else like the text of the subject of the image, I mentioned this in the analysis of the photography I took for this project.

Music Magazine Research Task Two: Q Magazine Case Study

For my second research task I am going to research a front cover, contents page and double page spread from Q magazine, again this will feature a few pieces which feature the Arctic Monkeys to see the difference between the two magazines. Like the post below (NME magazine) I hope to find out the various codes and conventions and how both magazines use them and how each magazine presents the same artist/band.

Front Cover

This cover of Q magazine features quite a well designed cover, using quite a professional look, with the front cover photo taken quite clearly in a studio, whereas the NME front cover was taken outside, which gives the NME cover a more casual look, where as this cover is going for a more star studded effect, fitting in with the 'awards' theme.

the whole cover seems to be very tidy, which gives the cover a professional feel to it, this is a completely different stance on the same band from NME and Q, this could be down to the subject, whether the fact that being the awards edition they have given it a different feel compared to a regular feature of the Arctic Monkeys.

Contents Page

This contents page of Q shows another method of setting it out. Instead of the one page contents like in NME, where it is mostly words, with one image, the Q contents is over two pages, with some writing still, but the images guide the reader to the main features rather than having to scroll through various different lists of page numbers the information is presented to you with pictures. I find that this contents page more matches the NME cover, this is because this contents page is a lot less formal than the NME cover from a layout point of view. The conventions that Q magazine use are present here with the fonts and colours used, there is a lot of information here that fills the page but doesn't feel cluttered, all of the information present is easily accessable and nothing is hidden because of overcrowding in the page, overall I think if I was to do something like this for my magazine I would have achieved what I set out to do and what I expect of my work.

As far as the target audience for Q magazine is concerned I think that this is something that is easily appealing, as there isn't much reading to be done, and all the images relate to something that teenagers and young people would read. 

Double Page Spread

This double page spread of Lady Gaga is fairly typical of most Q magazine articles, I think that this article, like many others by Q is quite glamorous, whereas NME are a lot more casual, suiting the indie teenager that the magazine is aimed at, whereas Q is aimed at people who listen to popular music, and the glamour of the magazine is probably to make the reader feel like they are reading a quality product, and this matters when you are aiming the magazine at a vast majority of the population, whereas teenagers don't need glamour, they need something they can pick up, read for 5-10 minutes then put it down and come back to it later, which is where I suppose NME and Q differ.

In this double page spread there are several things that lead me to believe that this is a more glamorous article than most, one is the black and white photo of Lady Gaga with the more vintage hair style, and the necklace come dress front, the tasteful nudity in the photo could suggest vintage glamor as well. as far as the text goes the font is quite small, using the initials like in the NME magazine, this time it is in a more traditionally English font, giving it that extra effect of glamor and high class. The main feature of the whole double page spread and the only colour on the whole double page is the red L in the background of the text on the right hand side, this adds to the effect of the article, and also makes it more visually appealing, contrasting the black and white that would otherwise make the article quite boring. In the top left corner it has Lady Gaga's name like the NME article, this gives all the articles in the magazine some form of unity, and can be easily found when flicking through the magazine, because after all, Lady Gaga is a massive celebrity and will be a major selling point of the magazine. Overall I think that this glamorous effect that I get from this double page spread is another technique for creating bits of a magazine, it may be a good effect for me to use in my magazine as the simplicity of it is quite effective.

Music Magazine Research Task One: NME Magazine Case Study

For my first research task I am going to analyse NME Magazine's front cover, double page spread and contents page, the next post (the post above) will feature Q magazines . All of these posts will gain my understanding of what a magazine will do to draw readers in, how well it is presented and how the cover relates to the double page spread, or section of the magazine that it it trying to sell.

Front Cover

The front cover features the Arctic Monkeys, which is a theme I have tried to keep with both magazines because looking at two different magazines and the same artist can give me an understanding of how the two different magazines produce articles, contents pages and a cover to suit the artist/group.

In this front cover there are several techniques, there are the obvious conventions of the bar code, date, the masthead etc. But there are some things used in the cover that may make this cover stand out. The first thing that comes to mind is looking at the band and the way each of them are dressed, for example Alex Turner in particular, the lead singer (middle left) has been given quite a vintage look with the aviator sunglasses and the hair style, as well as all of them being given or them opting for the vintage short back and sides look with their hair swept back. The font used, the main coverline, the bands name, matches the look in the photo, it isn't to garish and isn't an outragous font, with obscure colours, it matches the rest of the page with a similar font to the rest of the coverlines and tag lines on the page.

The box at the top of the cover also with the style of the box and the fonts used within them are almost like a banner from a 1960's American bar, advertising the next band, which in a way the coverline is trying to do ''Blur Exclusive... another crack at America''. this fits in well with the theme of the whole page, the way that it all fits in would suggest that Arctic Monkeys are being represented in the magazine like they are going back to the roots of popular music, as if the magazine itself was going for a vintage cover look.

Contents Page

The contents page of NME is fairly simple, and fairly uniform every month, all of the smaller titles have the same black box with white writing inside, like a black highlight on the white page. the title itself has the same effect, with page numbers in red, coverlines in black with a slightly bigger and more bold font than the description of each article, the text isn't to big and doesn't jump out at you, giving every part of the magazine a fair chance over the rest. The image in the centre of the page related the cover to a part of the magazine, in this case page 45, I hope to achieve something like this with my magazine as it will make my magazine flow.

apart from the obvious conventions that NME have used there isn't a lot that is out of the norm. The only other things to note is the fact that they have a box at the bottom of the page in the centre that describes how to subscribe to NME magazine, of which I feel that this box is probably in the magazine frequently a lot as well, this is a good bit of self advertisement and keeps it on the mind of the reader whilst they read the magazine.

Double Page Spread

This double page spread in NME magazine, of the Arctic Monkeys is a fairly simple design, with the image on the left, stylised, artistic writing, which could have also been an image, with the text below having an Initial (larger capital letter to start the various paragraphs). 'The Joshua Code' relates back to the fact that at the time of this NME article Arctic Monkeys had either just recorded or were about to record in Joshua Tree, California, which was where Josh Homme was born, the lead singer of Queens Of The Stonage, and a producer for many of Arctic Monkeys songs, and the album Humbug.

In the top right hand corner of the page it has the band name, it is highly likely that this is a covention throughout the magazine, and is something I am tempted to use depending on what I do for my magazine and how I set it out. I feel that this is a nicely layed out intro page to an article, with the colours not being too 'in your face', the page isn't to cluttered but gives you all the information you need with simplicity in mind.