Target Audience Research

This is the questionnaire in which I handed out to my class. I printed 15 questionnaires to get target audience research for my magazine front cover, contents and double-page spread. After I handed it out, I am going to show the results in the form of graphs, and then start creating my front cover, contents page and double-page spread while taking these into account. 

  

These are the results that I got after collecting in my questionnaire, from my target audience. From this, I will have an idea how my front cover, contents page and double-page spread will look like.

By receiving this result, I found out that 60% of people would like to have the image on the front cover take up the majority of the page. 

60% of people would like my magazine to have cover lines that go over the main image. This makes the magazine look more professional, as it is what the majority of magazines do nowadays.

More people thought that the masthead should go along the top, and in the centre of the magazine, than the top left, top right and along the side. This is also a common feature on magazines nowadays.

By asking the audience this question, I would find out whether they would like the name "Bass" for a music magazine. The majority of people thought that this was a good name, so I decided this was what my magazine was going to be called.

By looking at this, I see that I should only put 1 image on the contents page, as this is what the majority of people would like best.

By asking this question, I wanted to find out whether I should put the writing on the contents page in columns or not. The majority of people didn't think that they wanted columns on the contents page, so therefore I would not add columns to my contents page.

The majority of people would like the same style of font that is used on the front cover, to be used on the contents page. This would also make it more professional, and would create a house-style theme.

The majority of people would like to see 3 columns of writing on the double-page spread, meaning that there would be 3 columns of the interview. 



By reading this, it is obvious that the majority of people would like the see the same font that is on the front cover and contents page to be on the double-page spread.

This graph shows that nearly half of the people I asked thought that the orange, black, and blue colour is their favourite. This is the colour I will use for my magazine.

This shows that most of the people that I asked would like to see the colour scheme carry on through the front cover, contents page and double-page spread. This is a common characteristic of a magazine.

Music Magazine Double-Page Article Research

These are the music magazine articles that I had found for my research, and are the ones that I am going to analyse.

The thing that stands out the most on this double-page spread is the "Queen?" title, as it relates to the picture on the right. The fact that they have used a serif type font, it suggests that this magazine is quite exclusive. The blue of the question mark has came from the blue of her glasses, which is very effective, and is what most magazines do in their articles, or for any of their images. The main image is fairly unusual in the way that it is not in direct mode of address. Most magazines that feature images use a direct mode of address, making the person in the image look directly at the audience. In the middle of the text there is a quote, which again, is a fairly common characteristic in an article of a magazine.

This magazine article is unusual, in the way that the title is all different sizes. colour scheme is fairly dark, and doesn't have much colour in it at all, except the little bit under the title, which comes from the red of her top. She is in direct mode of address, which means that she is looking straight at the audience, which draws the audience in to buy the magazine, and read it. The writing is divided up in to four columns, which is also a common characteristic of a magazine. The writing goes over the centre of the page, which hides some of the writing, which could possibly make the audience misread the title. The font is also in a serif font, which suggests that the audience is fairly young compared to a magazine that uses a sans-serif type font.

This magazine double-page spread seems quite busy, like there is too much going on, which I don't want to do on my magazine double-page spread. the colour scheme is also quite busy, there are a lot of colours in this article, which suggests that the target audience is for a younger audience than the other articles I am analysing. The images also suggest this, by having fairly young kids in the top right, shows that the audience is fairly young. Also, because they are using a sans-serif type font, it shows that this article isn't necessarily directed at an older audience, and that it isn't as exclusive as the previous magazine that had a serif type font.

This image, as soon as you look at it, suggests that it is also from an exclusive magazine. This is because of the "got the love", and the fact that the D of the opening sentence is bigger than the rest of the text, and is also in a serif type font. There isn't much of a colour scheme on this article, apart from the red and white that she is sitting on, which may have came from the redness of her hair. As soon as you look at it, you get the impression that it is quite exclusive, due to the fonts, colours and font sizes.

Music Magazine Contents Page Research

After I had analysed the music magazine front covers that I had found, I then had the task to find, and analyse some existing music magazine contents pages. These are the ones that I found.

This is the contents page for the popular magazine "NME". For the colour scheme, they have continued this from the front page, and from the measthead, which creates a house style contents page. They have left no spare room on this, which is a positive because it shows that they have used the space effectively, and I hope to do this for my contents page, when I come round to designing it. The colour scheme is easy to see, and they are contrasting colours, which allows the text to stand out more easily, and be in the audience's face. They have used two images of the band "Oasis", and this links with the passage of text that is underneath it. Again, I hope to do this in my contents page. They have used headings above each of the stories that are included in the magazine, this makes it easier to find the story that the audience may be interested in. The arrows that are next to the stories are good because they allow the audience to see that they are of a greater importance than the rest of the stories on the page. They have used an advertisement across the bottom of a deal that they are currently doing, which promotes the magazine. A unique feature that has been used in this contents page is the band index. This allows the audience to see what bands are being displayed in this magazine, which speeds up the time to look for a band. I have not seen this in any other magazine, so if I create something that I wanted to be unique, I may consider using this feature.

For this contents page, the colour scheme is very dull, which allows the main image to subtly stand out. This means that the main image jumps out to the audience. The way he is looking straight at the camera is quite domineering, which is quite a masculin trait, and the way that he is looking directly down the camera in a direct mode of address makes him seem powerful and makes the audience seem inferior to him. The way that the cover lines go around the image, and over the top, is a good mix because it shows good use of the image as the main feature and a sub-feature. The use of the white text on the red background stands out, which makes it clear to the audience what they are looking at. For this contents page, it seems as though they have left quite a lot of room that is not taken up, which is unusual in a magazine. The "V" in the darker colour of red that is behind the image, is a subtle reminder to the reader that the magazine cover is from vibe, which is a common feature on all vibe contents pages.

In this contents page, you can tell that this is from the popular magzine "Vibe", due to the subtle V in the background behind the image. As well as the previous contents page, there seems to be quite a lot of room left compared to the other magazine covers that I am analysing. With the image, similar to the previous one, he is looking firectly down the camera, in a direct mode of address. This makes the audience feel inferior towards him, and it also makes him look like he is looking directly at the audience. The colour scheme that is used for the contents page comes directly from the image, which represents a feature of contunuity being used throughout this page, amongst the image, background and colour of font. There is only one other colour in this contents page, the red in the hand, that is positioned over his heart. This is quite ironic because it is positioned directly over his heart, and the fact that it is red symbolises love, which stereotypically would not be associated with a man.

For this magazine contents, the main image, as well as all of the previous contents, are very effective. All four of the band are looking at the camera, which again, makes us feel that they are looking directly at the camera. The colour scheme for this magazine, comes mainly from the masthead of this magazine, which is quite simply, "Q" with a red background, which is where the red on this contents page comes from. With this magazine, there is not much space left at all, it has all been used up effectively, which is common on most magazines, however it makes it look like there is a lot of writing on the contents page where there is actually not, which may put the reader off, and not read all of the magazine. The cover lines are places along the left hand side of the contents page, which is different to most of the other contents pages. When I am designing my contents page, I will have to keep this in mind, whether I would want to put the cover lines on the left or on the right.

Music Magazine Cover Research

After I had fully completed the Preliminary Task, I then had to start on the main task. The first thing I had to do was analyse some existing magazine covers, similar to the genre that I wanted to do for my from cover. I then picked these covers, and started analysing them.

 

This magazine is from a very well-known American magazine named "Vibe". The masthead of the magazine is very significant, in many different ways. They have used a sans-serif type font, which suggests to us that this magazine is aimed at a younger audience. The colour of the masthead is also fairly important. The way that the masthead fades from black to red is not a usual characteristic of a magazine, so it is very unusual. However, it links the black of his top, and his tattoos, with the other colour scheme of the magazine, red. With all of the colours on the magazine being contrasting colours, this makes the magazine easy to read, and is also a common characteristic of any magazine.

The main image, in the centre of the magazine is also very significant. The way that he is looking directly at the camera makes him draw the reader into the magazine, as it makes him look at the reader however the reader is looking at the magazine. The colour scheme for the magazine comes mainly from the image. The black of his top make the cover lines black, and they have also took the grey from his tattoos and put that onto the cover lines. This magazine does not include a barcode, which you do normally see on every magazine, but it does include an issue number, a website and a date. This could mean that the barcode is on the back cover, which is an unusual place to have one on a magazine.

This is an example of an existing magazine from "hip hop connection", which focuses on the hip hop genre of music. This magazine cover does have all the common features of a magazine, such as a barcode, date, and the issue number. The colour scheme of this magazine, similar to the previous magazine, uses red, white and black colours, which again, makes the magazine very easy to read. There are actually no proper coverlines on this magazine. Instead, they have listed other popular artists in this genre of music. This attracts the readers to buy this magazine, as these are all also famous artists from this genre of music.

The masthead at the top of the page, and in the centre, behind the image, doesn't really stand out as soon as you see this magazine cover. The magazine uses a sans-serif type font, which also reflects the genre of the magazine. The thing that stands out the most as soon as you see this magazine cover is the main image in the centre of the magazine. As the person on the front cover is one of the top stars for this genre of music, this encourages the readers to buy this magazine as soon as they see it. Another way to help sell this magazine is by including freebies with the magazine. In this case, the magazine includes a free £20 gift card, which persuades the buyers to buy the magazine even more.

This is another fairly popular music magazine named "XXL". The title of this magazine is a different colour to the rest of the front cover, and half of it is also covered by the main image. This is significant because it makes the title stand out, but also at the same time, it makes the main image stand out too. Above the title, there is a sell line. Sell lines aren't included on all magazines, but if they are, it gives the magazine more attractive. The subject of the main image of this magazine is wearing very dark clothing, and does not have much colour at all. I have noticed this for the majority of the magazine covers that I have analysed, that they do not have much colour in them at all. Even though this is the case, the images on the cover of the magazines do tend to stand out.

This magazine does have all of the common characteristics of a magazine, such as the barcode, the date, and the price, which are all in the bottom right hand corner. With this magazine, as well as the previous magazine cover, it doesn't have cover lines as such, they are just names of other famous artists within this genre of music. This helps to sell, and to make the magazine stand out to the audience. Under Ludacris' name, the person on the cover of this magazine, there is something that could also be classed as a sell line, and also gives the magazine some slang. With Ludacris being from America, it acts as American slang, with the 'yo' a$$', and with the dollar signs being used as the s.

In my opinion, this magazine cover stands out the most compared to the previous magazine covers that I analysed. This is because the main image of Chris Brown actually has colour on it, as he is wearing a red top as apposed to a black top that is worn by the previous people on the magazine covers. Again, this magazine has all of the characteristics of a common magazine cover, the barcode, a website, the price and also the date.