My Final Two-Page-Spread (part 2)
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Question 5- Addressing the audience
I addressed my audience by making sure I included subjects that my audience would be interested in e.g. art, culture, fashion and music. I included musicians that I thought my audience would listen to so that when the cover is seen on a shelf the audience would be interested because the magazine is featuring someone that they would want to read about e.g. I blame coco and Grace Jones. Although I did include Jessie J who has since become very successful, I originally chose her because she was an unknown upcoming act which is something that I wanted my magazine to be associated with. Personally, I find that if a magazine features an artist that I am really into, it doesn’t matter whether it is a magazine that I frequently read or one that I had never seen before, this opens up the magazine to a new prospective audience of people that might not have heard of the magazine before. Although the magazine is aimed at a niche market, in terms of profit it is always good to be looking towards broadening the reader population.
I had known from the beginning of the project, who was going to be my audience. I ended up including over five items from my original mood board. I think by having a clear idea of my audience it allowed me to structure my photos, fonts, articles etc. a lot easier because after my research I was able to choose things that I know my audience would be interested in.
I chose to include Vivienne Westwood because she is politically subversive and creates unique clothes and styles since she first emerged as one of the first designers to bring punk clothes into mainstream fashion. Orschel Read was included again because it speaks to an audience of individuals and aspirers, he is an up-and-coming designer from London who has become very successful in men’s fashion over the last few years and I have seen his brand grow and hopefully this is the sort of thing that would inspire my readers to do a similar thing. Also Stefan Orschel Read designed a pair of trousers which lady gaga wore for a television appearance (as in the picture), which is a great association for the magazine to have.
By using descriptive and personal language it makes it seem more written for purpose, although I have not used a particularly colloquial style it still comes across in a way that is easy for the audience to relate to, and hopefully conveys the journalist as the sort of person that the reader might want to be friends with. I also used fonts and images that I thought my audience would respond well to, I used hand written fonts to reflect the ideologies of the audience and I used costumes in the photos that I thought would reflect the sort of things that my audience might want to wear. With the contents page I used a live music shot which is another thing that I think would be associated with my target audience as I wrote in my planning material, my audience is far more likely to go out to see a live band play rather than go to a nightclub or disco which are often seen as a more ‘chavvy’ night out something that my audience would not want to be associated with unless it was in an ironic way.
I would say the unique selling point to my magazine is that it is a fashion and music magazine which does not single out one gender as its target audience, although it does lean towards the female audience it certainly not one sided. On the whole indie music magazines are aimed at males and fashion magazines are aimed at females, by creating one that appeals to both sexes I am able to double my potential audience.
I addressed my audience by making sure I included subjects that my audience would be interested in e.g. art, culture, fashion and music. I included musicians that I thought my audience would listen to so that when the cover is seen on a shelf the audience would be interested because the magazine is featuring someone that they would want to read about e.g. I blame coco and Grace Jones. Although I did include Jessie J who has since become very successful, I originally chose her because she was an unknown upcoming act which is something that I wanted my magazine to be associated with. Personally, I find that if a magazine features an artist that I am really into, it doesn’t matter whether it is a magazine that I frequently read or one that I had never seen before, this opens up the magazine to a new prospective audience of people that might not have heard of the magazine before. Although the magazine is aimed at a niche market, in terms of profit it is always good to be looking towards broadening the reader population.
I had known from the beginning of the project, who was going to be my audience. I ended up including over five items from my original mood board. I think by having a clear idea of my audience it allowed me to structure my photos, fonts, articles etc. a lot easier because after my research I was able to choose things that I know my audience would be interested in.
I chose to include Vivienne Westwood because she is politically subversive and creates unique clothes and styles since she first emerged as one of the first designers to bring punk clothes into mainstream fashion. Orschel Read was included again because it speaks to an audience of individuals and aspirers, he is an up-and-coming designer from London who has become very successful in men’s fashion over the last few years and I have seen his brand grow and hopefully this is the sort of thing that would inspire my readers to do a similar thing. Also Stefan Orschel Read designed a pair of trousers which lady gaga wore for a television appearance (as in the picture), which is a great association for the magazine to have.
By using descriptive and personal language it makes it seem more written for purpose, although I have not used a particularly colloquial style it still comes across in a way that is easy for the audience to relate to, and hopefully conveys the journalist as the sort of person that the reader might want to be friends with. I also used fonts and images that I thought my audience would respond well to, I used hand written fonts to reflect the ideologies of the audience and I used costumes in the photos that I thought would reflect the sort of things that my audience might want to wear. With the contents page I used a live music shot which is another thing that I think would be associated with my target audience as I wrote in my planning material, my audience is far more likely to go out to see a live band play rather than go to a nightclub or disco which are often seen as a more ‘chavvy’ night out something that my audience would not want to be associated with unless it was in an ironic way.
I would say the unique selling point to my magazine is that it is a fashion and music magazine which does not single out one gender as its target audience, although it does lean towards the female audience it certainly not one sided. On the whole indie music magazines are aimed at males and fashion magazines are aimed at females, by creating one that appeals to both sexes I am able to double my potential audience.
Typography
More and more magazines are using either inserted hand written text or typography that suggests that it is hand written or freehand. You will observe this is only likely to found in magazines that have some sort of artistic influence either fashion, music or even art itself, you would be unlikely to find this typography on a magazine that focuses on computer gaming or fishing. If something is hand written, it makes it personal, it makes it seem as though someone has made the effort to write something themselves. Again the idea is to create a sense of rebellion, for hundreds of years newspapers have been printed using a printing press, typewriters and computer; what better to challenge the conventions of a modern publication than writing on the pages by hand.
Elle UK magazine although its message and its audience differs slightly from mine took this idea and used it so effectively for their London issue in October 2009, the way they’ve scribbled nonsense notes and doodles around the editorial photography is masterful it makes the work much more directed and although it isn’t a narrow it targets its audience much more specifically. This is what gave me the inspiration to use freehand font on my magazine. However, while I have used it much more subtly I think the affect is still the same.
Question-7
I feel between completing my preliminary task and completing my final cover, my ability to manoeuvre photoshop and use it to greatest effect in order to enhance e or add greater effect to my photos or page layouts has increased vastly. It also allowed me to experiment with different fonts, image styles and formats while preparing to create my final piece.
1) The spot healing tool was something that I hadn’t used in my preliminary because I wasn’t sure of the function; however this became something that I used a lot later in the project. I think at the time of the first task I didn’t appreciate the importance of perfecting your pictures before you complete the page, but now comparing my college magazine cover to my music magazine cover I can see how much more effective it can be with the minor skin touch ups.
2) The air brush tool has been crucial in my work, I found in my research that it was important for magazines of my genre to have flawless photos so it made my photos look so much more professional. I regret not using the photo tool in my first task but I am glad that I was able to learn how to use it in my final piece.
3) Photo layers and filters is another thing that I was able to bring to my work during the creation of the final piece which I had not really been aware of during the first task, at least I had not been aware of the effectiveness of the. For example in my final front cover I used a sepia yellow photo filter which added warmth to the photo and made it look much more fashionable, not so bright and commercial. I think if I had known this I would have been able to add an interesting filter to my college magazine cover to perhaps change the effect of the lighting.
4) Experimenting with fonts is something that I developed a lot between the preliminary task and the final task. For my college magazine I was concerned that it was going to be too cluttered if I used multiple fonts, so I kept to one because I also felt that it gave continuity. However I found with my final pieces, I found if you used the right combination of fonts and continued them then it looks interesting and dynamic rather than complicated. I also found that my college magazine looked quite boring because there was no variation in fonts.
My layout worked well to target individual audiences, I think it achieves the desired effect with each audience, by using a scrawled writing for the student magazine it relates to the people that are going to read it. With the music magazine I have used an elegant calligraphy style because again it reflects the artistic audience. Similarly with the photo I used a natural photo of a student in their natural environment (the college) and for my final piece I used a photo of a singer on stage.
It was important for me to make sure that my hypothetical magazine would be able to compete with other magazines that share a target audience. To do this I looked at similar magazine that used fashion and music as their main content, which meant that I was able to take key ideas from other magazines to improve mine. However when researching for my college magazine I used the target audience as a way of deciding what would be featured in my magazine. I did this through questionnaires however it was more difficult for me to find an area where I would be able to access a large number of people who fitted my target market.
I have spoken to enough people who fit my target audience and have had positive feedback on the layout and colour schemes of my pages. I think I found it easier to address my audience because when planning the task I included myself within it, and therefore created a magazine that I myself would want to read.
In order to make my magazine realistic attention to detail has been essential, I have used other magazines and taken small elements in order to make sure that mine fits in with what is expected of a magazine of this type, for example; Because it is an international magazine next to the barcode US and UK pricing have both been included and I have credited the individual hypothetical employees of the magazine such as photographers, journalists and stylists.
I have always been interested in creative writing so when it came to writing the body text for my two page spread the journalistic style came naturally to me, and because I read magazines of a similar genre to mine I was able to adopt a writing style that would fit and appeal to my target audience.
I feel between completing my preliminary task and completing my final cover, my ability to manoeuvre photoshop and use it to greatest effect in order to enhance e or add greater effect to my photos or page layouts has increased vastly. It also allowed me to experiment with different fonts, image styles and formats while preparing to create my final piece.
1) The spot healing tool was something that I hadn’t used in my preliminary because I wasn’t sure of the function; however this became something that I used a lot later in the project. I think at the time of the first task I didn’t appreciate the importance of perfecting your pictures before you complete the page, but now comparing my college magazine cover to my music magazine cover I can see how much more effective it can be with the minor skin touch ups.
2) The air brush tool has been crucial in my work, I found in my research that it was important for magazines of my genre to have flawless photos so it made my photos look so much more professional. I regret not using the photo tool in my first task but I am glad that I was able to learn how to use it in my final piece.
3) Photo layers and filters is another thing that I was able to bring to my work during the creation of the final piece which I had not really been aware of during the first task, at least I had not been aware of the effectiveness of the. For example in my final front cover I used a sepia yellow photo filter which added warmth to the photo and made it look much more fashionable, not so bright and commercial. I think if I had known this I would have been able to add an interesting filter to my college magazine cover to perhaps change the effect of the lighting.
4) Experimenting with fonts is something that I developed a lot between the preliminary task and the final task. For my college magazine I was concerned that it was going to be too cluttered if I used multiple fonts, so I kept to one because I also felt that it gave continuity. However I found with my final pieces, I found if you used the right combination of fonts and continued them then it looks interesting and dynamic rather than complicated. I also found that my college magazine looked quite boring because there was no variation in fonts.
My layout worked well to target individual audiences, I think it achieves the desired effect with each audience, by using a scrawled writing for the student magazine it relates to the people that are going to read it. With the music magazine I have used an elegant calligraphy style because again it reflects the artistic audience. Similarly with the photo I used a natural photo of a student in their natural environment (the college) and for my final piece I used a photo of a singer on stage.
It was important for me to make sure that my hypothetical magazine would be able to compete with other magazines that share a target audience. To do this I looked at similar magazine that used fashion and music as their main content, which meant that I was able to take key ideas from other magazines to improve mine. However when researching for my college magazine I used the target audience as a way of deciding what would be featured in my magazine. I did this through questionnaires however it was more difficult for me to find an area where I would be able to access a large number of people who fitted my target market.
I have spoken to enough people who fit my target audience and have had positive feedback on the layout and colour schemes of my pages. I think I found it easier to address my audience because when planning the task I included myself within it, and therefore created a magazine that I myself would want to read.
In order to make my magazine realistic attention to detail has been essential, I have used other magazines and taken small elements in order to make sure that mine fits in with what is expected of a magazine of this type, for example; Because it is an international magazine next to the barcode US and UK pricing have both been included and I have credited the individual hypothetical employees of the magazine such as photographers, journalists and stylists.
I have always been interested in creative writing so when it came to writing the body text for my two page spread the journalistic style came naturally to me, and because I read magazines of a similar genre to mine I was able to adopt a writing style that would fit and appeal to my target audience.
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