College magazine audience research

This was the questionnaire that I gave out to people. The questions are phrased to make sure that the answers would be the answers I needed and that would help me gather research on my audience. I learned that the majority of people were between 16-18, living in a house with 4 people, liked to socialised, lived in the ts7 area, were interested in reading magazines such as Chat, were taking a range of courses are college and aimed to go to a range of University’s (most of which are in the top 20) and preferred a formal magazine. The information I found shows me that my magazine should include help with university choices and be presented in a formal manner. The questionnaiure included demographics (gender/age) in order for me to understand my audience more. Already known knowledge that my target audience are typically 15.25 and ABC1 class, I can already assume that my target audience are strivers and experiencers. For strivers shopping is a social activity and an opportunity to display to other people their ability to buy. Questionnaires are positive as they can show trends quickly and simply if close questions and are able to combine open and closed questions for a range of results. The problems are that they are time consuming and the completion rate can be low.

VALs

Vals stand for values, attitudes and lifestyles. Psychographic profiling is where you find more about the type of person you are. It is an American system used in advertising/marketing and is used to find out their target audience. There are many different types of VALs, for example the result that I got was achiever.

Vals are a way of categorising audiences to understand more about them as people. I took the VALs quiz and I was informed that firstly I am an experiencer and secondly I am an achiever.
Experiencers are motivated by self-expression. Young, enthusiastic, and impulsive consumers, Experiencers quickly become enthusiastic about new possibilities but are equally quick to cool. They seek variety and excitement, savoring the new, the offbeat, and the risky. Their energy finds an outlet in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation, and social activities.
Motivated by the desire for achievement, Achievers have goal-oriented lifestyles and a deep commitment to career and family. Their social lives reflect this focus and are structured around family, their place of worship, and work. Achievers live conventional lives, are politically conservative, and respect authority and the status quo. They value consensus, predictability, and stability over risk, intimacy, and self-discovery.

 

This is evidence of initial audience research. I decided to do a survey as people are less likely to lie about things when it isn't face to face. A survey is generally quicker than an interview and other ways of finding out information but it isn't the best. I used the survey as it was a quick way to find out a generalisation of views. The information I got back stated (generally) that:

•  people are 17/18
• Buy music magazines regularly
• Would prefer to see indie and new music in a magazine
• Would be insterested in buying a magazine
• They would be interested in buying a magazine because they are inerested in music, want to keep up to date with music and want to discover new bands.
• There was an overall majority for the magazine to be casual.

Conclusion

The initial audience research shows that younger people tend to prefer magazines that are casual, which means I should use a direct mode of address when designing my magazine which would make it less formal. The colours I use for the house style could also be less conservative and more bright which creates a fun and vibrant effect which would help make the magazine more formal.

The audience I am aiming at are around 17/18, which is when people are typically most into their music and feel most passionately about it. Because the audience are at this age the language I will use will be less sophisticated and more casual, which makes it more appealing to the younger generation as they would prefer not to read a lot of words that have low frequency lexis.

They buy magazines regularly which means that I will have to either think outside of the box and make a magazine that will stand out more than the others with different typical conventions or create a magazine that follows typical conventions and is just a better quality.

Most people said they would be interested in buying a magazine because they are interested in music, want to keep up to date with music and want to discover new bands. Following this information I would have to make a magazine where there is information about recent happenings within music that they like, and have a section on new bands or include new bands in the information somewhere.

 

This image is market research I have done to find out about magazines about music that are already in sale.

Introducing the main task and initial ideas.

The task is to produce a professional front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine, where all images and text must be my own and I have to include a minimum of six expertly taken and appropriately edited images.

The type of music magazine I will produce is an indie/alternative/blues kind, with music influcences such as Oasis and the Beatles included. The content will be formal with a direct mode of address in order for the reader to connect with the magazine in a casual way but still keep a formal element.

The content in my magazine will be about big bands such as The Smiths and Oasis aswell as a made up band that I will take pictures of and edit them to make them look professional. The content about the bands will be about not well known facts and underplayed music by them which will provide an insight that another magazine wouldn't.

I will be aiming at a young demographic (approximately the ages of 15-25) as this age is where people usually take a massive interest in music and feel the most passionately about it. This age group is the age where people also usually buy music magazines, as older people tend to be less interested about magazines as most are aimed at a younger generation.

Contents page.

This is my final contents page.

Contents page research

This is contents page research I have done.

Semiotics Analysis powerpoint

Changes I made during the creation of my magazine.

During the planning and making of images for my magazine I chose to use this picture (above) but I felt like it added too much of a casual tone to the magazine and the people who done my questionnaire answered that they wanted a formal magazine so I decided to chose the image below as it looks more professional and more likely to be seen on a professional college magazine cover.

 

 

 

I also decided to change the image from a pink faded background to a transparent background as it made the magazine look less professional with the colour background.

 

Mini Self Assessment of Front Cover Design

Mini Self Assessment of Front Cover Design

 

 

 

Does this look like a professional magazine cover?

It looks like a professional magazine cover as there is a constant colour theme of purple, white and black which is consistent with the colour themes of the college. It has a barcode and a price tag which makes it look more real adding to the professional look of the magazine. The articles I have featured on the cover are articles you would find in a stereotypical magazine, and the models used are students. The articles and using a model from the college makes the magazine look more professional as colleges usually use their own students to promote and the articles make it look like a real magazine cover.

 

How have you used the information from your student questionnaire findings to make sure that choices made will appeal to your target audience?

I have used the information I gained from my student questionnaire findings to decide what I should include on the front cover. Most students wanted formal help about their future from a college magazine rather than a laidback magazine about real life stories, so I included articles that revolve around help to do with University and how to do well at the college stage in order to go further in the future.

 

How easy or difficult did you find In Design to use?

At first I found InDesign harder to use than Photoshop, as I already knew where most of the tools were in Photoshop but in In Design I didn’t know. It was easy to pick up as the layout was simple and it was easy to find out where objects were. The most challenging/annoying thing I found about InDesign was it was hard to select an image that was under another image if the green box was over it.

 

How easy or difficult did you find using Photoshop to enhance and cut out your main image?

I found using Photoshop to enhance and cut out my main image very easy as I already knew how to cut out and change the levels etc. in Photoshop. The only real problem I had was during the “refine edge” step as I wasn’t clicking “new document” to delete the background.

 

This image shows how I have followed magazine cover conventions.

This is my final design for my magazine cover. I decided to use a different main picture to make it look more professional.

Magazine Cover planning on Prezi

This is my magazine cover planning that I made on Prezi.

Step by step guide of altering my photos

The first photo shows me using the rubber tool with the opacity lowered so I could cover up the image of Liam's new ear to make it look more natural. The second photo shows me using the selection tool to highlight my image.

The first photo shows what happens after I clicked refine image. I chose the option "new document" to get my selected image on a new document. The second picture shows the image on the new document shows me selecting a new fill layer in order to get a gradient background.

The first image shows the image with the new gradient background and me using the patch tool to cover up Liam's earphone. The second image shows me editing the levels of the photo to make the lighting etc how I want it.

Final versions of the photos

These are the final images I made. To the top and bottom photo I changed the levels, curves and contrast in order to change the lighting of the photo. I also used the quick selection tool to delete the background and clicked "refine edge" to transfer it to a new document. I then used new fill layer in order to get these backgrounds. To the bottom photo I done more editing than I done to the top, as I had to remove Liam's earphone. To do this I used the patch tool, spot remover tool, the burn tool, colour replacement tool and the dodge tool. I also had to import a picture of another ear and place it over Liam's actual ear as I couldn't make it look natural, and I used the rubber tool but set the opacity to 25% to make the ear fit in more with Liam's, and changed the levels etc to make it look more natural.

Original photos

These were the original images I used to practice Photoshop techniques on. To get the lighting I wanted on these images I used studio lighting and a reflector which I moved to gain adequate lighting.

Student magazine contact sheet evidence

These images demostrate the fact that I have taken some photos and considered ilghting and mise-en-scene whilst doing so. We used studio lighting and a reflecter to get the lighting we wanted. To get better lighting you have to move the reflector to change the light on the face.

Student magazine front cover images

This image is of a student magazine that uses a mid-shot of a model for its front cover. The lighting of the photo is fully lit and the model is completely lit and you can see all of him, but the background is blurred slightly as to attract attention to the model. His facial expression is serious along with his pose (arms crossed), but his clothing and hair are casual which connotates that student life will also be serious yet has time for fun. The colours used are simple, a mix of black and white with red writing which pulls out the colours of the cars behind and yellow writing to establish headers of the smaller writing. A puff is used in the right corner which advertises an opportunity to win a "zune".

 

 

CONCLUSION These images show my analysis of front covers of magazines. I explain thigns such as the purpose of a front cover, mastheads, elements involved with creating mastheads, taglines and straplines, what a cover image should involve and what cover images connotate, anchorage, secondary images, direct mode of address, puffs, pugs, typeface and colour scheme. Magazines always have a masthead which usually follows a colour scheme which is evident throughout the rest of the magazines. Straplines are usually seen somewhere near the masthead which helps sell the magazine and give a brief overview on what it includes, a cover image should involve a model or an image that can be clearly seen. They usually connotate something for example a cover girl for vogue would connotate fashion, beauty and wealth whereas a covergirl for good housekeeping would generally connotate cleanliness and normallness. Anchorage is usually seen in magazines, anchorage gives meaning to text such as images that are anchored by text explaining what the image depicts.Secondary images are usually seen in some celebrity life magazines or real life magazines and attract attention to another story without taking too much emphasis on the cover photo. Direct mode of address is usually used in magazines that aim to be casual such as Chat or Take a Break, whereas an indirect mode of address is used in more formal magazines such as monocle but this doesn't have to be the case. Puffs and pugs are seen a lot in magazine and it attracts attention to things such as free items or showing that the magazine has a new feature. Typeface is whether it is sans serif or serif, most magazines tend to have a serif typeface.