Audience Feedback

Audience feedback

Q1) How old are you?

I have done a graph to show how old the people are who took the questionnaire, I gave this to people aged between 16 to 25 as this is the age group I am targeting at. I have out 10 questionnaires and all the people who answered this were in my targeted age group range.

Q2) What is you gender?

I have analysed what gender the people was who took this questionnaire as they may have different opinions. I wanted more girls to do this questionnaire as ‘indie’ magazines are usually targeted at the male audience so I would like to know what the females think about my magazine and with my originality and by using unusual conventions of an indie magazine if it appeals to them more.

Q3) Does this magazine appeal to you and why.

This was done as an open question to let people express their own opinion on my magazine. This is the feedback I received:

-          Yes, the choice of font is good

-          Yes, the articles look interesting and so do the artists

-          Yes, very attractive (male)

-          Yes, its very eye catching

-          Yes, fun images and good layout

-          Yes, it looks interesting and eye catching

-          Yes Interesting images and layout

-          Yes, the cover lines and images

-          Yes.

-          Yes, its attractive

These are the results I had from my questionnaire, I have found out that my target audience thing that my magazine is attractive and both male and female agreed. This concludes me to think that it is attracting both male and female audiences, and this is what I was trying to achieve

Q4) What do you think need to be improved with this magazine?

This was also an open question so that the audience could freely express there opinion. This is the feed back I received:

-          N/A

-          N/A

-          N/A

-          N/A

-          The text on the double page spread is not easily readable, the quote.

-          More cover lines

-          The image on the front cover (male)

-          The puff doesn’t match the magazine

-          For the front cover to be more like the double page spread and the contents.

-          The continuity

These are my results. I found that 40% of people thought that there was nothing that they would improve with my magazine, concluding in they like the magazine and I have attracted my audience. Others have given very good critical advice on how to improve my magazine by adding more cover lines and changing the puff. They also mentioned the continuity throughout my magazine what I have tried to through my front cover and my double page spread by using the same colour red. I also tried to link it all together through my cover lines and I used the same artist for the contents page and the double page spread. The male pointed out that he would change the font cover image I though about this and I think this could be because it is a female band and he would probably prefer male dominance through out the magazine as this is conventional. I broke out the conventions to try to attract a bigger audience.

Q5) What do you like about my magazine?

This question is similar to question 3 although I am asking for a specific example of what they find appealing this is also an open question.

-          The continuity

-          The double page and the contents, there busy and stand out

-          The continuity and the double page spread

-          The fonts (male)

-          The layout of everything

-          Good continuity

-          The colour scheme and the way it is set out

-          The images and lay out

-          The double page spread and the writing styles for the titles

-          The pictures and font

I have found out that most people like the continuity of my magazine and the double page spread also seems popular. This has reassured me that my continuity has attracted my audience as it is contradicted in Q4. They also like the colour schemes and the layout of the magazine. I think this is because it is original and looks professional as it is well organised.

Q6) What genre do you think my magazine is?

This is the results from the question. The 50% of people knew that the genre was indie although 30% though it was pop and the other 20% thought it was rock. This shows me I could have done better to make sure that my genre was clear to everyone and that there is no confusion. I could have don’t this by featuring male artist and used indie bands on my cover lines. I think they may have though it was pop as I used all females and had a photo with the artist on a graffiti background what isn’t really associated with the ‘indie’ genre. I think some people may have through it was a rick magazine as one of the front cover artists had an electric guitar and this can be associated with rock bands.

Q7) How much would you be willing to pay for my magazine?

This is the result of question 7. It was a 50/50 split between paying £2.00 and £2.50. This shows that they do thing my magazine is good as the NME is currently charging £2.10 (http://www.nme.co.uk/) for their magazine as it is pretty clear that people would pay more than that for my magazine. My price is 2.40 so it is in-between the two price ranges that people chose. I think the price of mine is reasonable but I may have to charge less at first to complete with the NME

Conclusion

Over all I have found out that my target audience do like my magazine and find it attractive although there is some improvement that could be made. I could make it fit in with my genre a lot more and I could lower the price. I think the majority of my target audience like my magazine and would buy it at this price at a push. I think I have done what I have intended to do and it shows this in my results.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Q1: How old are you?

Circle appropriate

12-15 / 16-25 / 26-35 / 35-50 / 51+

Q2:  What is your gender?

Circle appropriate

Male / Female

Q3: Does this magazine appeal to you and why?

Q4: What do you think needs to be improved with my magazine?

Q5: What do you like about my magazine?

Q6: What genre do you think my magazine is?

Circle appropriate

Indie / Pop / Rock / Dance / RnB

Q7: How much would you be willing to pay for my magazine?

Circle appropriate

Wouldn’t buy it /£1.50 / £2.00 / 2.50 / £3.00+

Evaluation

In my media foundation portfolio I had to design my own Music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. To make this look realistic I had to use the typical conventions of every magazine. I analysed NME, Q and Kerrang in my research to find out what conventions I needed to include.

A Mast head is essential to a magazine. I chose Strum for my magazine as the genre is ‘indie’ and I think it adapted well with the genre. I also think the word strum is very short and snappy and is very memorable. This is easier for the consumers to remember and easier to notice. This is also a musical term so it fit very well with the genera of my magazine. Sturm is an onomatopoeia as the word sound like what the noise is. Sturm mean to play a note on a guitar what fits well as indie bands are associated with guitars. My mast head is different as it is in small boxes to give my magazine originality it also is very bold so it stands out.

 My magazine is going to have its rivals so it needs to look the best and catch peoples eyes and give people a good first impression. By using just black and white with a coloured background it makes the masthead look very powerful and bold with just the two contrasting colours. I placed my mast head specifically, horizontally to the top left of the page, as when it is going to be placed on the shelf, other magazines may be overlapping it so I want the eye line to focus onto the Masthead and it to be visible to everyone.

Cover lines are also conventional. They give a preview to what is inside the magazine and what will be expected of the magazine. It gives a better view to the reader of what the genre is like and gives an idea of what type of magazine this is and what artists will be featured. They are Predominantly placed down the left hand side of the front cover. This is so that the magazine is well organised and looks professional. The cover lines I have chosen are some of the biggest events in the magazine and probably what people most want to read about.

 I put the best artists on the front and it gives a good overview of what the content of the magazine will be like. A compulsory convention is the main image. My main images Is bold and uses a variety of colours although it isn’t to busy. If it was too busy this could make it look very unprofessional. The indie style is usually seen as quite messy in the way they dress and their hair styles although i would want my magazine to be organised and easy to read as it will make it look sophisticated. I have portrayed the messy image within my photography. It gives a better understanding of my genre and also attracts my target audience. By putting girls on the front this attracts both sexes. Male as they my find the girls attractive and it is different to the typical ‘indie’ magazine. And girls my want to read it as it is unconventional to have girls on the front of and ‘indie’ magazine. A the conventional target audience for an indie magazine would be male between the ages of 16 and 25 and very into indie music. I have been unconventional with my target audience as mine as aiming at a very broader selecting as it is aiming at females too. The picture is taken from a slight low angle giving them the illusion of dominance and authority. The picture was a medium long shot with two models in the picture. This was so you could see the expression on there faces and you are able to see the clothing they are wearing to set the genera of the photograph.

I have included the date price and bar code not for visual appearance but it is necessary to buy the magazine. A conventional aspect of a music magazine is to have a continuing colour theme, throughout the Front cover and the contents page. This is known as house style. I have used the colour red as it is very bold and stands out. The connotation of red can mean many things, for example love, anger, blood, hot and fiery. By using this colour it can relate to people in different ways as everyone may have there own interpretation of what the meaning of the magazine is.

My contents page is very conventional. It has the obvious heading of contents to state the obvious of what it is. I have used the same font style that I have used for both my double page spread and my front cover, it is very continual and keeps to the theme. This is house style as it is continuous throughout the magazine.

I have numbered the pages for navigation through out the magazine which is a convention of a contents page. My background is a main image that fits very well. I have made it slightly transparent so it is easier to read the text. It is conventional to use images to show what it is like throughout the magazine. The facial expressions on the artists are funny and it looks as though they are enjoying themselves and doing what they want. It shows there personality and gives the reader a better understanding on what they are like.

My double page is focused on a new artist Holl-ee. It is an interview on her views of fame. Most music magazines now use interviews to promote new people as it gets them recognised and with the correct attitude people will like them. I have used a very bold image to give a really good impression of the artist. The facial expression of the artist on the double page spread looks happy and fun. It shows she has freedom and it just like any other person. It shows that fame hasn’t changed her and she has come from the same background as most people reading this magazine. Her facial expression related to the interview as it is happy and she talks about in the interview about how happy she is and how she can’t believe it has happened to her. It is an unusual image but fits really well.

My product represents quite a large social group. My representation was of people being free with their music and being who they want to be. To be diverse I had female models in my magazine which is unusual for an indie magazine. I is usually male dominant. This shows that it doesn’t matter what gender you are you can be who you want to be. People stereo-type this genre of music to be associated with the male sex. There are many female artist interested in indie music and I wanted to show this throughout my magazine. I still kept my magazine attractive for the male audience. I had a red theme running throughout which is seen as a unisex colour and people can interpret the colour in many different ways through connotations such as love, anger and blood. This colour can mean many things what expresses opposite emotions. My artists on the front have a guitar and a microphone to show there interests in music. They are dresses in ripped tights and shirts and tights. This gives the idea of them being ‘rebels’ as their tights are ripped and also have a 'girly' side to them with there skirts. By having checked shirts on this gives the feeling that they are quite tom-boyish and also well into there fashion. It still fits in with the male social group as my magazine still focuses on male bands and having female in it may give the magazine more male attention. My contents page and double page spread has the same artist on. I think these pictures are very original and different. She is in a dress to show her femininity and also with big boots on. She is stood in a shot with graffiti, on a bench, in the park. This gives the impression she is really down to earth and it represents how ‘real people’ are. In the interview she talks about her music and how fame has changed her life for the better and how she cant believe it has happened to her and how she loves doing her own thing. This shows people that she is genuine and represents freedom to do her own music. This could also represent people who have ambitions and want to do things in life.

My magazine is based on the idea of the NME magazine. It is from the same genre and will have similar stories as we will be looking at the same artists. NME is one of my rivals in the music industry and is signed to IPC. I wouldn’t be signed for IPC as they already have a magazine like mine within this institution and they wouldn’t want to be competing with themselves. I would be signed to Bauer media as they don’t have a magazine like mine. Q and Kerrang are both signed to NME. These have a few similarities to my magazine but are very different. Q targets the older audience and Kerrang is a different genre. This means that there is a gap in the market for my magazine within the Bauer media magazine industry. If Bauer was my industry, Bauer media and IPC media would be competing as they are very similar.

The audience for my magazine is obviously people who are interested in ‘indie’ music and who enjoy new releases. This is shown throughout my magazine as the double page spread is about a new releases and the artists on the front have recently been released. The contents page shows how many new releases they are. My magazine is targeting both genres male and female what is unusual for an ‘indie’ band. I have used female artists throughout my magazine which will attract male and female audiences. The females should be attracted to my magazine as it is diverse to any other indie magazine what is out there as they are usually always male dominant. The males may be attracted to the magazine as it is unusual to see females and may find it interesting. My magazine still has articles on males and I would say it was split 50/50 between the sexes. I have used a unisex colour throughout my magazine to keep my magazine neutral. I wanted to focus more on my female article as I found it would be unconventional. The age group I am targeting at is 16-25 as the bands are around this age and I think they will be able to relate to the artists a lot more and they will understand what is going on in there period of life and understand the songs a lot more. Also this age group is likely to have a disposable income and be able to by this on a continuous basis. My magazine is very fashion orientated and it has a specific fashion. Messy hair, and checked shirts are all in fashion and the purpose it to make a big statement. This is why I believe it will be targeted at the younger audience as they are more into today’s fashion. I am doing this as it will get a bigger readership to make bigger profits.

I have attracted my audience by using enticers. This is where I have pulled the audience in by persuading them with on offer. On my front cover I have wrote ‘Win Glastonbury Tickets’ this is an example of a pun. On my contents page I have put an offer on free subscription. These are all enticers to get people to buy the magazine. I have also advertised new releases so that this will attract the audience. Unlike the conventional ‘indie’ magazine mine targets both genders. So by putting both sexes within my magazine this will attract both genders. The colours I have used are unisex so this helps to attract both genders. The pictures and font I have used look quite young and fun. This will attract the correct age audience I wanted to target at. 

My construction of this product I have learnt a wide range of different skills. This is the first time I have used photo shop so it was difficult at first although I have picked it up. I used Photoshop as it is a good design page. I used this as you can edit anything and it is a good way to set the page out. It makes it a lot easier by using the layers in photo shop as if you do something wrong it doesn’t ruin your whole design, it is also easy to work on one part at a time. I used the magic wand tool selection a lot to edit some of the text as I made them on a font generator and they copied with a white background so I used this along with the background eraser tool to cut out the white bits. When i was doing the fine detail on the writing I used the quick selection tool as if you selected to much it was much easier to deselect the wrong part. The rectangular marquee tool helps you select things easier and it’s a way of dragging things off one Photoshop page to another page. I used the blur tool as it was a good effect to make the model in the photo stand out. I found this program hard at first but it was easier to import images and to move things around.

From the preliminary task I have learned a lot more about the different programs like Photoshop, at first I though it was quite difficult to use and confusing this is because I wasn’t used to this program as i had never used this before. The preliminary task was a great way for me to be able to practise my techniques and develop and understanding of this. I then found this a  lot easier and I was able to use Photoshop for all my magazine work. It also learnt me a lot about time keeping as before I did the preliminary task i didn’t know how long it would take and I didn’t realise how much work time and effort needed to be put in to produce a good piece of work. I learnt about analysing magazines and the connotations of different things I have also learnt about the conventions of the magazine. I learnt all this in the preliminary task which I then reinforced into my full product.

Final Product

Choosing a quote on my double page spread

I wanted a quote of what my singer would say, something that describes the way she feels about fame and what it means to her. I wanted her character to be shown in this statement to give her a personality. Most interviews in a music magazine have a large quotes to show what the subject of the conversation and what the person is like. It also gives you an opinion of the person straight off and you will be able to assume from that quote if you will like it or not. I wanted something quite down to earth so that people will be able to relate to her so i decided to plan some different quotes to see what i liked the best.

'Its amazing i couldn't dream of better'
I thought that this quote got to the point and expressed her feeling although it doesn't really show who she is or what she is like.

'It doesn't feel real' 'I'm so lucky'
I liked this as it was like two quotes although it not different to what anyone else would say. i think it is a very broad quote and isn't very personal to her.
'Its something people dream of, i didn't expect something like this to ever happen to me"
I liked this quote although i though it was giving out the wrong message about her. Reading this quote i would have thought it would have been someone singing a Ballard. It seems very soft and not the image i was really going for.
"I don't know why they love me they must be as crazy as me!"
I liked this quote as it isn't to long and it gets to the point. This quote also gives her a personality and shows her humor by saying they must be as crazy as me' it shows she can have a laugh and she is fun to be around. This gives out the right image for her.

Diffrent backgrouds on double page spread

 I decided to try out some different background to see what they would look like and to give different effects and each photo portrays a different message.

I dont really think this one would work very well as the picture had to be streached to fit in the double page spread and i think it makes me model look unrealistic and you can tell that the photo has been edited.

First drafts of double page spread

 These are my first two drafts of my double page spread. At first you couldn't see the writing so i out it on a white background although i think it stands out to much and the picture needs to be the main focus. I decided I would make to box transparent so you would be able to see the back ground and the writing.

Final contents

First draft of Contents

This is my first draft of my contents page what i think needs a few adjustments as it isn't up to the standard needed. I think i should include an editors note to make it look more professional and put bigger pictures in. I think it looks quite boring and needs more to it to make it look exiting and attractive.

Sketeches of contents

I have done some sketches of my contents page what i would like to include and what  I think may look good. I have chosen various designs so it will give me ideas of what to do for my final design.

Plan of contents

Contents and Double page spread photos

Final Front cover

Layout of front cover - Music Magazines

 I have done a few ideas of the layout of my magazine and how i want it to look. I tested things in different places to see where i like it best. I also looked at what was conventional and compulsory for example a Cover lines are conventional and a bar code is compulsory for it to sell.

sketches of front cover

I have done some sketches of a front cover and what ideas i have for my front cover. i have done different designs of the mast head and have different pictures on the front cover. i have tried to make them different so i will be able to get some ideas and merge them together to come up with my own original front cover.

Draft of front cover

This was my first draft of my front cover, i decided that i didn't like the way the mast head looked as it clashed to much with the heading as the looked totally different and it didn't look very good. I then changed the heading so it matched with the theme of the front cover.

Cover lines - music magazine

I wanted my cover lines to have attitude as i wanted it to appeal to a younger audience. I though that have a good sense of humour in my magazine would help it to interact with the audience a lot more as they would be able to relate to it a lot more. As it was around Christmas i though i would do a Christmas theme as it shows that my magazine keeps up with the worlds goings ons.

Christmas strap lines:
Ho? Ho? Snow?
Count down to Christmas
'Merry fooking christmas' - Liam Gallagher
'Hap-pea christmas' - Fergie

I chose the 'Count down to christmas' as i though it was quite basic and an essential over Christmas, this would involve the essential music to have over Christmas, the do's and donts. i also chose 'Merry fooking christmas' - Liam Gallagher, as i thought this was more of the band genera i was aiming for rather than the black eyed peas. It has attitude and also quite humorous. He is a legend in music and a big artist to star in the magazine over Christmas.

I also then did a strap line relating to the band on the front cover explaining what article they are in on the front cover. 'Exclusive interview with this years up and coming band...'

I then though of having a small kicker as it would grab the reader attention a lot more especially if it was an offer or a competition.

- Free Download
- Win Glastonbury tickets
- Win a sign Tiffany's C.D

I decided to go with the Glastonbury tickets as they sell out very quick and as it was Christmas there needed to be a good prize. this would make it more likely that people would buy the magazine.

Front cover photos

 These are pictures i took when planning my front cover, i decided i wanted them to look comical and quite fun as it is an informal magazine and an 'indi' genera. This is why they have dark eyeshadow on ripped tights so it will fit the genre better.