My featured artist/s are a band asscoaited with the rock genre, and play keyboard and guitars, they are called 'The HIT' and they are 4 people who are a band of rock.
- The band plays rock music because the members are mostly associated with guitars, which is a common instrument used for the performance of rock music. Besides the leader, who plays with both a keyboard and sings, the rest of the band uses guitars to perform rock music.
- The members are all 17 years old, and have only been in the business for 2 years. They started as street performers who did the singing and playing for money. They come from a rough background. The members got into professional music when they joined a Britains got Talent contest and came the runners-up. They soon started to get bookings to play famous rock songs in theartres, and the career of the hit started from there...
- Recent musical successes include 'Give your friends a break' and 'You don't know my past' which were both no.1 songs on the charts in the last year.
- The likes for the band include a mutual liking for success as a band, with lots of ratings and fandom. More personally, they all like Italian food, they all like soccer, and they are all into games on game consoles. Being young, they are all still studying when not performing and practicing. The leader, Mr Messai, is the smartest, with all A* grades.
- Dislikes include a lack of success in the music industry and having agents with bad deals for them. Also, the band does not like a lot of media presenting them as bad performers. They find it offensive and as being very unappreciative of their work.
- The band, being a rock group, deicdes to go wild on stage sometimes. Mr messai sometimes screams while on the keyboard. The other members sometimes jumparound while using their guitars. Of coursre, when off stage, the band takes a contrast in style. They wear sunglasses and suits, or sometimes just casual pedestrian clothing. This adds both interest to the groups personal life as well as making them look to be more professioanl with their careers and supply them with positive representation to the public.
- Inspirations include AC/DC, Take that, and JLS. All of which are famous bands, from different generations, and some of which are associated with the rock genre.Obviously,depsite being inspirations, The Hit wanted to stand out and be somewhat different from the other bands...
This profile was created purely for the purposes of explaining the personalities of the band members in 'The HIT' and relating how their careers as a rock band are relevant to their storyline in the magazine. As stated, this group performs rock with guitars and keyboards, just like what the magazine presents in its content.
Monday 30 January 2012
What institution would publish my magazine?
Which institution would publish my magazine and why?
I think that the Bauer media group would be interested in publishing my magazine. This group already publishes big brand magazines such as Q and Kerrang, and its clear that they like a wide variety of music magazines, all different by genre and style. My 'Key point' magazine would feature rock music and the rock genre, and it also aims at particular but popular instruments guitar and keybaord/piano.
Firstly, since this magazine is in many ways unique (style, genre, audience, content) the Bauer media group would view this as an advantage for them as they can expand their audience by having another magazine on the market which aims at new audiences. Yes, Kerrang also aims at the rock genre, but it doesn't aim particularly at any instruments, and it doesn't have the same style of featured content as KP.
Secondly, since the colours and fonts of this magazine are not all that generic, the people may want to buy this magazine for its unique appearance, another technical reason why Bauer would want to publish this magazine.
Thirdly, with competition out there, and with the many unqiue and positive qualities of the magazine which are likely to gain a profit to the Bauer group, why wouldn't they publish such a magazine?
Remember, in media, it is all about representation, and Key Point is a magazine that can be represented positively and can help the Bauer group to earn success from that.
Overall, the Bauer media group, with many costs over production of the other magazine it publishes, are in a financial situation. If to publish Key Point, it is always possible that cost for production could be cut. And/or with the big revenue for the magazine being innovative, original and new, the magazine should be a success to the makret of music mags. This is a very significant reason as to why bauer media group would want to pruchase the product for publishing.
So considering theproduct, its market, it being new, and many media and business circumstances (etc) this magazine being published by the Bauer institution would be beneficial on both ends since the product can make money...
I think that the Bauer media group would be interested in publishing my magazine. This group already publishes big brand magazines such as Q and Kerrang, and its clear that they like a wide variety of music magazines, all different by genre and style. My 'Key point' magazine would feature rock music and the rock genre, and it also aims at particular but popular instruments guitar and keybaord/piano.
Firstly, since this magazine is in many ways unique (style, genre, audience, content) the Bauer media group would view this as an advantage for them as they can expand their audience by having another magazine on the market which aims at new audiences. Yes, Kerrang also aims at the rock genre, but it doesn't aim particularly at any instruments, and it doesn't have the same style of featured content as KP.
Secondly, since the colours and fonts of this magazine are not all that generic, the people may want to buy this magazine for its unique appearance, another technical reason why Bauer would want to publish this magazine.
Thirdly, with competition out there, and with the many unqiue and positive qualities of the magazine which are likely to gain a profit to the Bauer group, why wouldn't they publish such a magazine?
Remember, in media, it is all about representation, and Key Point is a magazine that can be represented positively and can help the Bauer group to earn success from that.
Overall, the Bauer media group, with many costs over production of the other magazine it publishes, are in a financial situation. If to publish Key Point, it is always possible that cost for production could be cut. And/or with the big revenue for the magazine being innovative, original and new, the magazine should be a success to the makret of music mags. This is a very significant reason as to why bauer media group would want to pruchase the product for publishing.
So considering theproduct, its market, it being new, and many media and business circumstances (etc) this magazine being published by the Bauer institution would be beneficial on both ends since the product can make money...
Thursday 26 January 2012
Evaluation of pitch presentation:
26/01/12: The day I presented the pitch. In my pitch, I presented my animoto moodboard, my pitch ideas post, and my 25 word striaght up pitch line. After presenting my pitch, I recieved some critical feedback, the following point made were:
- Criticism of the target audience. My declared audience was from 10 to 50 years of age, which is very broad by the standards of a magazine audience. The response to this was mainly that it will be difficult to show how my magazine targets an audience via variety within only 3/4 pages. The fact that it will be hard to represent how my magazine product is aimed at such a large audience will be difficult to demonstrate within only a few pages that will be created in this project, depsite the fact that increased sales due to alarger audience in general is, up front, a good idea.
- Colour scheme. The scheme had little to no response, but the one time it was referred to, no one disagreed that the original colour scheme was a bad idea. Possibly hinting that the magazine colour scheme was generally a good idea.
- The age range. A sub-topic of the target audience criticism. The age of the audience was considered to be too high in difference, and that if only portions of the magazine appeal to them, they may not want to purchase the entire product just for that. An argument claiming that the magazine was not narrow enough was made, they believed that casualties of the fanbase was enough to cause a limitation in demand and sales of the product. They all agreed that the age range needed reduction.
- The USP. Someone brought up the topic of the USP of the magazine. USP = Unique selling point. I stated that while most big brand magazines such as Vive and Kerrang aim at specific genres, hiphop/rap and rock respectively, the MoM magazine is designed to attract a much differenct audience, all of them. Hence the variety of age and audience amount.
- The general product. Overall, there were positives and negatives. The positives include how the magazine would likely generate more sales, all exceptions such as audience casualties sidelined. Also the colour scheme and title tended to be appealing. However, the main criticism remains that a wide audience was a problem for matters concerning general audience. The audience though that while it could be argued that a large audience equals more sales, this may not be the case as there will be too many audience casualties. For example, people interested in hiphop will not purchase the whole product as they will not be interested in the majority of the content.
What I think about this response?
Overall, I can generally understand the argument about the target audeince being too various. It is understandable to believe that the 10-50 age range, for example, is too broad. It is also fair to agree that I should aim at a specific genre. The name was another criticism. (MoM, Magazine of music) it wasn't creative enough. Therefore, I have decided to adjust the following:
- The genre. The genre has now been altered to rock, so that the audience can be narrowed down. Although guitars and other instruments are featured, the main instrument that this brand of magazine focuses on is the keyboard. This makes the audience specific, making a more passionate, even if smaller, target audience want to purchase the magazine.
- The age range and audience. The age range will now be down to just 15-30,a more reasonable and specific age range which is generally associated with the gnere and the content of the brand. The audience will be more passionate and less casual about the product this way.
- The name. The name is now relevant to its genre and content, it is called 'key point' which has been inspired by the keyboard, as well as media studies aims.(AKA key points are always given out in lessons.) The name is more original, creative and catchy than the MoM title.
As far as the presentation went, I was generally pleased. While it could have gone better, and my representation could have been improved, the presentation was able to display a professional perfomance through progression. The animoto provided a very long, but interesting and insightful exploration into my pitch ideas for my magazine product.
- Criticism of the target audience. My declared audience was from 10 to 50 years of age, which is very broad by the standards of a magazine audience. The response to this was mainly that it will be difficult to show how my magazine targets an audience via variety within only 3/4 pages. The fact that it will be hard to represent how my magazine product is aimed at such a large audience will be difficult to demonstrate within only a few pages that will be created in this project, depsite the fact that increased sales due to alarger audience in general is, up front, a good idea.
- Colour scheme. The scheme had little to no response, but the one time it was referred to, no one disagreed that the original colour scheme was a bad idea. Possibly hinting that the magazine colour scheme was generally a good idea.
- The age range. A sub-topic of the target audience criticism. The age of the audience was considered to be too high in difference, and that if only portions of the magazine appeal to them, they may not want to purchase the entire product just for that. An argument claiming that the magazine was not narrow enough was made, they believed that casualties of the fanbase was enough to cause a limitation in demand and sales of the product. They all agreed that the age range needed reduction.
- The USP. Someone brought up the topic of the USP of the magazine. USP = Unique selling point. I stated that while most big brand magazines such as Vive and Kerrang aim at specific genres, hiphop/rap and rock respectively, the MoM magazine is designed to attract a much differenct audience, all of them. Hence the variety of age and audience amount.
- The general product. Overall, there were positives and negatives. The positives include how the magazine would likely generate more sales, all exceptions such as audience casualties sidelined. Also the colour scheme and title tended to be appealing. However, the main criticism remains that a wide audience was a problem for matters concerning general audience. The audience though that while it could be argued that a large audience equals more sales, this may not be the case as there will be too many audience casualties. For example, people interested in hiphop will not purchase the whole product as they will not be interested in the majority of the content.
What I think about this response?
Overall, I can generally understand the argument about the target audeince being too various. It is understandable to believe that the 10-50 age range, for example, is too broad. It is also fair to agree that I should aim at a specific genre. The name was another criticism. (MoM, Magazine of music) it wasn't creative enough. Therefore, I have decided to adjust the following:
- The genre. The genre has now been altered to rock, so that the audience can be narrowed down. Although guitars and other instruments are featured, the main instrument that this brand of magazine focuses on is the keyboard. This makes the audience specific, making a more passionate, even if smaller, target audience want to purchase the magazine.
- The age range and audience. The age range will now be down to just 15-30,a more reasonable and specific age range which is generally associated with the gnere and the content of the brand. The audience will be more passionate and less casual about the product this way.
- The name. The name is now relevant to its genre and content, it is called 'key point' which has been inspired by the keyboard, as well as media studies aims.(AKA key points are always given out in lessons.) The name is more original, creative and catchy than the MoM title.
As far as the presentation went, I was generally pleased. While it could have gone better, and my representation could have been improved, the presentation was able to display a professional perfomance through progression. The animoto provided a very long, but interesting and insightful exploration into my pitch ideas for my magazine product.
Tuesday 24 January 2012
Pitch:
Main pitch video, complete with animoto, information and feedback:
The Animoto covers all interesing and relevant factors,such as fonts used, colour palette, typography, inspirations and ideas, etc... Of course, some of these may change now that my evaluation is in progress and the feedback implies that I should make modifications...
25 WORD PITCH:
You should take interest as this magazine, with multiple genres, attracts a wide and varied audience and readership. MoM is the future best seller, period.
The Animoto covers all interesing and relevant factors,such as fonts used, colour palette, typography, inspirations and ideas, etc... Of course, some of these may change now that my evaluation is in progress and the feedback implies that I should make modifications...
25 WORD PITCH:
You should take interest as this magazine, with multiple genres, attracts a wide and varied audience and readership. MoM is the future best seller, period.
Monday 23 January 2012
Audience and typical reader profile:
My target audience for this magazine:
My magazine is not aimed at one genre, but pretty much at all of music entirely. This means that a larger and wider variety of content, such as stars and stories, can be added and featured in the magazine. This also means that the audience is going to vary a lot more, due to people having interest of any genre being interested in this magazine. This magazine is not very niche as it wishes to cover more music, so it will have a large audience overall. This will be the case since people interested from all different genres, not just one, will be interested within the magazine content featured. When considering the marketing of the product, this is beneficial as it means that more interest from a large audience will mean more sale purchases for the magazine, thereby resulting in more overall profit for the makers of the magazine product.
Another thing about the target audience is that most of them will probably be casual members, due to many of them only being interested in one or two genres, therbey only being interested in about 20% of the content featured, for example. There will not be a lot of passionate support from the audience, as most of them will only be interested in certain parts. While this is considerably a negative factor produced from having a wider audience range and wider range of magazine content featured, he fact that the audience is still larger than most others and that sales are likely to still be higher more than makes up for that.
Why is the audience varied? What are the benefits?
Put it this way, despite having many casualties, a larger audience will generally mean a large influence, popularity, and most importantly, an increase in sales. Notice how if an audience is bigger, more sales are generated? Common sense, really. Take a look at this graph to see how an increase in demand can push profits up:
Notice how when demand increases, so does profit? That's what I mean, that is the benefit of a larger audience. Simple Economics and common sense show the advantages of a magazine with a wider range audience.
More to the point, this magazine is unique since most other products in its market only target one genre of music, limiting its customer supply. This unique nature of the magazine will also cause demand to go up...
TRP:
As this magazine product is designed to attract a very wide and varied form of target audience, narrowing down the specific qualitites of them is not easy. In fact, considering how different some of the audience may be to each other, its practically impossible. Part of the audience will be interested in classical genre, so say if 15% of the audience was a fan of this genre, and classic is for the older generations, then an estimate would be that 15% of the audience is at least over 40, just for example. The audience will vary from different age groups, social-economic groups, regions, and otherwise. This may all depend on which genres they like and how much of the audience likes each genre. Obviously, if 50% of the audience like rock and only 20% like metal, then rock being featured more would be a wise decision. To fully understand an audience with a wide variety with many significant differences such as this one, marketing research may be required to point out unique qualities of certain audinece percentages. Right now, the only thing to say about the audience is that it will not be full of similar fans and readers, as the interests of different portions of the audience will vary depending on which music genre's interest them. Remember, this magazine is designed to attract a large audience in terms of both size and variety, as it provides more potential for content featured. More storylines can discussed, a greater variety of sell lines and headings, and colour palettes can be used, etc... The audience is supposed to vary of different people, so pointing out anything generally similar and unique about is is not really possible.
My magazine is not aimed at one genre, but pretty much at all of music entirely. This means that a larger and wider variety of content, such as stars and stories, can be added and featured in the magazine. This also means that the audience is going to vary a lot more, due to people having interest of any genre being interested in this magazine. This magazine is not very niche as it wishes to cover more music, so it will have a large audience overall. This will be the case since people interested from all different genres, not just one, will be interested within the magazine content featured. When considering the marketing of the product, this is beneficial as it means that more interest from a large audience will mean more sale purchases for the magazine, thereby resulting in more overall profit for the makers of the magazine product.
Another thing about the target audience is that most of them will probably be casual members, due to many of them only being interested in one or two genres, therbey only being interested in about 20% of the content featured, for example. There will not be a lot of passionate support from the audience, as most of them will only be interested in certain parts. While this is considerably a negative factor produced from having a wider audience range and wider range of magazine content featured, he fact that the audience is still larger than most others and that sales are likely to still be higher more than makes up for that.
Why is the audience varied? What are the benefits?
Put it this way, despite having many casualties, a larger audience will generally mean a large influence, popularity, and most importantly, an increase in sales. Notice how if an audience is bigger, more sales are generated? Common sense, really. Take a look at this graph to see how an increase in demand can push profits up:
Notice how when demand increases, so does profit? That's what I mean, that is the benefit of a larger audience. Simple Economics and common sense show the advantages of a magazine with a wider range audience.
More to the point, this magazine is unique since most other products in its market only target one genre of music, limiting its customer supply. This unique nature of the magazine will also cause demand to go up...
TRP:
As this magazine product is designed to attract a very wide and varied form of target audience, narrowing down the specific qualitites of them is not easy. In fact, considering how different some of the audience may be to each other, its practically impossible. Part of the audience will be interested in classical genre, so say if 15% of the audience was a fan of this genre, and classic is for the older generations, then an estimate would be that 15% of the audience is at least over 40, just for example. The audience will vary from different age groups, social-economic groups, regions, and otherwise. This may all depend on which genres they like and how much of the audience likes each genre. Obviously, if 50% of the audience like rock and only 20% like metal, then rock being featured more would be a wise decision. To fully understand an audience with a wide variety with many significant differences such as this one, marketing research may be required to point out unique qualities of certain audinece percentages. Right now, the only thing to say about the audience is that it will not be full of similar fans and readers, as the interests of different portions of the audience will vary depending on which music genre's interest them. Remember, this magazine is designed to attract a large audience in terms of both size and variety, as it provides more potential for content featured. More storylines can discussed, a greater variety of sell lines and headings, and colour palettes can be used, etc... The audience is supposed to vary of different people, so pointing out anything generally similar and unique about is is not really possible.
Friday 20 January 2012
Pitch ideas:
Title suggestions:
1. MoM. (Abbreviation for magazine of music) This is a catchy name, and is in tact with the aim of the magazine idea, which is not to aim at a specific genre and target at all of the music audience.
2. CoolFuel. This is a magazine which is also generalized at music in general. This title makes the art of music seem like something that requires 'musical fuel.' A metaphor to attract the audience to the title while still giving the title relevant meaning via imagery. Cool is used to promote how good music is and bond with its audience.
3. RAMP. (Rap, Also Metal 'n' Pop) Another catchy title which stands out to the audience while still containing relevance to multiple music genres. This is another abbreviated title.
Fonts:
1. Arial. This font is standard, classic, and works on any computer, meaning it can be used for creating any magazine online. It is commonly used and known to people, and it's text generated is very neat and readable. I could use this for the interview article inside the double page spread.
2. Bold Trebucket. This is also a font that stands out to readers, and with a bold adjustment to the font, this could easily be used for the title of the magazine as well as stand-out sell lines and headings/sub-heads. This would be useful to use for big text inclusions.
3. Times new roman. Once a default font for Microsoft software, now a typical, neat and tidy text generator with writing that is easy to read. Despite being small, TNW still is readable by the readers, due to its neatness. This could also be used for the aritcles and intervews on the double page spread, as well as any toehr small text inclusions for that matter. An example could be the small overhead section on the cover page if one is used.
4. A sosphisticated Courier new font. This font is large, yet still neat and readable. This could be used for all uses of medium sized text, including contents, larger articles, and somesub-heads if necessary.
Colour pallettes:
1. Black, blue, white and yellow. Like Kerrang and Vibe which have similar pallette schemes, this will contain mostly blue and yellow for the text and other content which is designed to stand out and attract the readers above the black and white content and BG.
2. Red, white, black and yellow. A lot more like NME, but with the same purposes.
3. White, black, green and orange. A less usual colour scheme so the magazine design is a little less generic. This would help to make the magazine stand out if it were to be sold among all other magazines. The content featured would be the same, though.
4. Black, white and yellow. Similar to idea 1, though only more simple to use.
5. Black, white and blue. Another simple yet appealing scheme of colours.
6. Black, blue, white and green. This is what I am most inspired to use. It is not a typical scheme, so it is not making the magazine design generic in any way, this is a unique colour scheme. This will also help with the title, which is blue, as seen on the 25 word pitch image and on the animoto moodboard.
Ideas for cover layout:
1. A generic design. This is where content is stuck to the rule of thirds and commonly used conventions. A classic layout would be a mid-shot main image, a title at the top all across the page, a heading of the main AKA sell line being placed above, below or over the main image, and text and other features surrounding it.
2. An unusual but more original design. The title is at the bottom, or bottom corner. The sell line and small text is in the middle, and the main image is placed at the top. This will make the image stand out more so visual content will be more noticeable to the readers.
3. The title is placed on the side and vertically, as an unusual placement. The sell line, heading, subheads and content simialr all appear around the edge of the page. Finally, the main image, not overlapped by any text unlike the other designs, is featured in a box in the middle of a page, being the true epitome of a mid-shot. This will make the image stand out as it will not be overlapped by text, and the title stand out as people will notice its unusual placement and inclusion...
Ideas for content layout:
1. The contents page could have the actual contents section placed at the right top of the page, with a mian image in the centre and two smaller pics below it. The left of the page could feature sub-heads and small details in text.
2. The contents could be less generic and could be scattered all across the page, with only page number identifying their positions. This would be unusual and more interesting to the viewing readers. Images portraying content and featured stoires could also be scattered across the page too.
3. The contents could be featured around the edge of the page, with images and other text placed in the middle. Another less generic design concept.
4. The exact opposite of '3' in that the contents is featured in the middle, and the images and other text is featured around it on the edge of the page.
Ideas for double page spread article:
1. Considering that this is the page where the actual storyline of the magazine is analysed and explained, the content featured needs to be very inspirational, relevant, appealing, and possibly a seller to the audience through interest. Since this magazine is designed to be a multi-genre magazine, relating to most/all types of msuic and not just one, the article can relate to anything that is original, and anything that relates to the art of music.
2. Again, since this is a multi-genre magazine, ideas can vary more. Another idea for the spread page is an interview featuring a musical celebrity. This, if was a real magazine, would then generate a lot of audience and reader interest to wards the magazine product and this would help success. In a way, this interview relating tp music events, would be a sell line, only instead of a line or quote, it would be more like a 'sell story.'
3. The spread could feature a report based on an incident that happened associated with musical celebrities. An example could be a car crash that had a musical band crash their van into a car with women and children. This, if was real, would cause a lot of 'buzz' and reaction. This would be helpful to gain interest for the magazine. The same applies here that it would be a sell story.
Who will be on my front cover:
1. Since this is an original and non-real magazine, I would not be able to use any real celebrities. This means that I will have to make up my own stars for this magazine. So on the cover, a student, preferrably one who has studied/is studying music, should be on the front cover, pressumably with an instrument. They should pose in a certain way to make the cover main image look more interesting and appealing to the readers. Any student could be featured, as long as they have a good representation input to the magazine.
2. Any teacher with an instrument could also be used, as they could be adult celebrities. A lot of the same still applies, such as good representation, pressumably has studie music, or even teaches it. Etc...
3. As far as style and costume goes, they can be relative to any genre. For example, if the person featured is descirbed as a rapper, a good costume for them would be a cap, some bling, and a shirt and shorts that fits an appropriate attire for them. The style should be based on, one, their pose, how do they represent themselves, and 2, their clothing, how do they look, and what genre of music are they supposed to belong to?
Why are they on the cover:
This person would be one the cover for multiple reasons, here are some:
1. They would be on the cover as they would add appealing visual content to the magazine. This would add reader interest causing sales to increase for it.
2. They would visually represent both a genre of music, and more importantly, a main storyline that is featured within the magazine issue. For instance, if Metallica was featured as a band on the cover, they would represent a storlyine involving them featured in the magazine. Furthermore, the headings and sub-heads featured on covers usually relate to the internal content featured. Obviously, the largest headings, excluding the title, would relate to the main, most important content storyline featured. The main mage usually relates to and promotes that main storyline, and that's why they would be featured. E.g. when Michael Jackson died, many magazines featured him as the main cover image, due to his death being the main story featured in the magazine issue.
3. Besides being relevant to the storyline, they would also be relevant to representing the genre that they belong to. If Eminem was featured on the cover, then he would be representing the rap genre, meaning his style and costume (etc...) that represent his image (literally, since he is on the cover main image) would also represent the genre that he belongs to. This is an example of how genre's and their inclusion within the magazines can be promoted via cover main image representation.
1. MoM. (Abbreviation for magazine of music) This is a catchy name, and is in tact with the aim of the magazine idea, which is not to aim at a specific genre and target at all of the music audience.
2. CoolFuel. This is a magazine which is also generalized at music in general. This title makes the art of music seem like something that requires 'musical fuel.' A metaphor to attract the audience to the title while still giving the title relevant meaning via imagery. Cool is used to promote how good music is and bond with its audience.
3. RAMP. (Rap, Also Metal 'n' Pop) Another catchy title which stands out to the audience while still containing relevance to multiple music genres. This is another abbreviated title.
Fonts:
1. Arial. This font is standard, classic, and works on any computer, meaning it can be used for creating any magazine online. It is commonly used and known to people, and it's text generated is very neat and readable. I could use this for the interview article inside the double page spread.
2. Bold Trebucket. This is also a font that stands out to readers, and with a bold adjustment to the font, this could easily be used for the title of the magazine as well as stand-out sell lines and headings/sub-heads. This would be useful to use for big text inclusions.
3. Times new roman. Once a default font for Microsoft software, now a typical, neat and tidy text generator with writing that is easy to read. Despite being small, TNW still is readable by the readers, due to its neatness. This could also be used for the aritcles and intervews on the double page spread, as well as any toehr small text inclusions for that matter. An example could be the small overhead section on the cover page if one is used.
4. A sosphisticated Courier new font. This font is large, yet still neat and readable. This could be used for all uses of medium sized text, including contents, larger articles, and somesub-heads if necessary.
Colour pallettes:
1. Black, blue, white and yellow. Like Kerrang and Vibe which have similar pallette schemes, this will contain mostly blue and yellow for the text and other content which is designed to stand out and attract the readers above the black and white content and BG.
2. Red, white, black and yellow. A lot more like NME, but with the same purposes.
3. White, black, green and orange. A less usual colour scheme so the magazine design is a little less generic. This would help to make the magazine stand out if it were to be sold among all other magazines. The content featured would be the same, though.
4. Black, white and yellow. Similar to idea 1, though only more simple to use.
5. Black, white and blue. Another simple yet appealing scheme of colours.
6. Black, blue, white and green. This is what I am most inspired to use. It is not a typical scheme, so it is not making the magazine design generic in any way, this is a unique colour scheme. This will also help with the title, which is blue, as seen on the 25 word pitch image and on the animoto moodboard.
Ideas for cover layout:
1. A generic design. This is where content is stuck to the rule of thirds and commonly used conventions. A classic layout would be a mid-shot main image, a title at the top all across the page, a heading of the main AKA sell line being placed above, below or over the main image, and text and other features surrounding it.
2. An unusual but more original design. The title is at the bottom, or bottom corner. The sell line and small text is in the middle, and the main image is placed at the top. This will make the image stand out more so visual content will be more noticeable to the readers.
3. The title is placed on the side and vertically, as an unusual placement. The sell line, heading, subheads and content simialr all appear around the edge of the page. Finally, the main image, not overlapped by any text unlike the other designs, is featured in a box in the middle of a page, being the true epitome of a mid-shot. This will make the image stand out as it will not be overlapped by text, and the title stand out as people will notice its unusual placement and inclusion...
Ideas for content layout:
1. The contents page could have the actual contents section placed at the right top of the page, with a mian image in the centre and two smaller pics below it. The left of the page could feature sub-heads and small details in text.
2. The contents could be less generic and could be scattered all across the page, with only page number identifying their positions. This would be unusual and more interesting to the viewing readers. Images portraying content and featured stoires could also be scattered across the page too.
3. The contents could be featured around the edge of the page, with images and other text placed in the middle. Another less generic design concept.
4. The exact opposite of '3' in that the contents is featured in the middle, and the images and other text is featured around it on the edge of the page.
Ideas for double page spread article:
1. Considering that this is the page where the actual storyline of the magazine is analysed and explained, the content featured needs to be very inspirational, relevant, appealing, and possibly a seller to the audience through interest. Since this magazine is designed to be a multi-genre magazine, relating to most/all types of msuic and not just one, the article can relate to anything that is original, and anything that relates to the art of music.
2. Again, since this is a multi-genre magazine, ideas can vary more. Another idea for the spread page is an interview featuring a musical celebrity. This, if was a real magazine, would then generate a lot of audience and reader interest to wards the magazine product and this would help success. In a way, this interview relating tp music events, would be a sell line, only instead of a line or quote, it would be more like a 'sell story.'
3. The spread could feature a report based on an incident that happened associated with musical celebrities. An example could be a car crash that had a musical band crash their van into a car with women and children. This, if was real, would cause a lot of 'buzz' and reaction. This would be helpful to gain interest for the magazine. The same applies here that it would be a sell story.
Who will be on my front cover:
1. Since this is an original and non-real magazine, I would not be able to use any real celebrities. This means that I will have to make up my own stars for this magazine. So on the cover, a student, preferrably one who has studied/is studying music, should be on the front cover, pressumably with an instrument. They should pose in a certain way to make the cover main image look more interesting and appealing to the readers. Any student could be featured, as long as they have a good representation input to the magazine.
2. Any teacher with an instrument could also be used, as they could be adult celebrities. A lot of the same still applies, such as good representation, pressumably has studie music, or even teaches it. Etc...
3. As far as style and costume goes, they can be relative to any genre. For example, if the person featured is descirbed as a rapper, a good costume for them would be a cap, some bling, and a shirt and shorts that fits an appropriate attire for them. The style should be based on, one, their pose, how do they represent themselves, and 2, their clothing, how do they look, and what genre of music are they supposed to belong to?
Why are they on the cover:
This person would be one the cover for multiple reasons, here are some:
1. They would be on the cover as they would add appealing visual content to the magazine. This would add reader interest causing sales to increase for it.
2. They would visually represent both a genre of music, and more importantly, a main storyline that is featured within the magazine issue. For instance, if Metallica was featured as a band on the cover, they would represent a storlyine involving them featured in the magazine. Furthermore, the headings and sub-heads featured on covers usually relate to the internal content featured. Obviously, the largest headings, excluding the title, would relate to the main, most important content storyline featured. The main mage usually relates to and promotes that main storyline, and that's why they would be featured. E.g. when Michael Jackson died, many magazines featured him as the main cover image, due to his death being the main story featured in the magazine issue.
3. Besides being relevant to the storyline, they would also be relevant to representing the genre that they belong to. If Eminem was featured on the cover, then he would be representing the rap genre, meaning his style and costume (etc...) that represent his image (literally, since he is on the cover main image) would also represent the genre that he belongs to. This is an example of how genre's and their inclusion within the magazines can be promoted via cover main image representation.
Tuesday 17 January 2012
Target audience analysis: Vibe.
One of the magazines I analysed was Vibe, at least by contents. Lets take a look at what the target audience for this magazine brand is like in terms of gender ratio, demographic, and otherwise...
Here are some interesting statistics about the audience of Vibe magazine:
- Out of the audience, 50.5% of them are males, meaning the other 49.5% are women. The ratio between the 2 genders is almost exactly equal, meaning that Vibe is aimed towards both genders, not either one specifically. This means that the audience for Vibe would be larger than for something such as NME, which is mostly aimed at males. A larger audience means increase in success for a brand like Vibe.
- 18 to 34 year olds are the ones who are mostly concerned with this brand of magazine, with 71.2% of the audience for Vibe magazine being of this age range. This means that the content featured within the magazine should be aimed at younger adults, with content, features, references, etc, all being relative to the 1980's and early 90's, which is what the audience would be fond of.
- Education is not necessarily a strong point, as only 50.7% of Vibe's audience have ever even went to college. Only 19% is currently studying in college as well. Therefore, the content featured should not really be aimed at educated individuals, there should pressumably be features of slang and should not include any text of high readability standards so the uneducated audience can't read it, and context inserted within image meanings are not to be too complex. Basically, the magazine should almost resemble a kids magazine, but with references are traits of an older demographic.
However, despite lack of education, the audience of Vibe still is emplyeed mostly, about 73.9% of the audience is currently employeed. This means that although the magazine must not contain too much inteliigent and sosphisicated content, it should still relate to the world of work, and not forget about how imporant jobs are to audience when added things in the magazine.
- 71.3% of the audience is made of African-Americans. This means that the magazine should be relative to their interests and culture more than anything else. For example, Vibe features images and interviews (etc...) with African American hip hop stars, this will raise more interest than someone of a different culture starring in the magazine content.
These are some example of how target audience is important. Demographic, social, and regional classification are some of but many examples of how important it is to understand and target at your audience. In Vibe's case, they are young African American males who are not typically educated and are into the genre of hip hop. When my magazine is made, it must be aimed at my target audience if its to be a success...
Here are some interesting statistics about the audience of Vibe magazine:
- Out of the audience, 50.5% of them are males, meaning the other 49.5% are women. The ratio between the 2 genders is almost exactly equal, meaning that Vibe is aimed towards both genders, not either one specifically. This means that the audience for Vibe would be larger than for something such as NME, which is mostly aimed at males. A larger audience means increase in success for a brand like Vibe.
- 18 to 34 year olds are the ones who are mostly concerned with this brand of magazine, with 71.2% of the audience for Vibe magazine being of this age range. This means that the content featured within the magazine should be aimed at younger adults, with content, features, references, etc, all being relative to the 1980's and early 90's, which is what the audience would be fond of.
- Education is not necessarily a strong point, as only 50.7% of Vibe's audience have ever even went to college. Only 19% is currently studying in college as well. Therefore, the content featured should not really be aimed at educated individuals, there should pressumably be features of slang and should not include any text of high readability standards so the uneducated audience can't read it, and context inserted within image meanings are not to be too complex. Basically, the magazine should almost resemble a kids magazine, but with references are traits of an older demographic.
However, despite lack of education, the audience of Vibe still is emplyeed mostly, about 73.9% of the audience is currently employeed. This means that although the magazine must not contain too much inteliigent and sosphisicated content, it should still relate to the world of work, and not forget about how imporant jobs are to audience when added things in the magazine.
- 71.3% of the audience is made of African-Americans. This means that the magazine should be relative to their interests and culture more than anything else. For example, Vibe features images and interviews (etc...) with African American hip hop stars, this will raise more interest than someone of a different culture starring in the magazine content.
These are some example of how target audience is important. Demographic, social, and regional classification are some of but many examples of how important it is to understand and target at your audience. In Vibe's case, they are young African American males who are not typically educated and are into the genre of hip hop. When my magazine is made, it must be aimed at my target audience if its to be a success...
Monday 16 January 2012
Tuesday 10 January 2012
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