Audience Feedback

To find out some constructive criticism about my music magazine, I designed a questionaire asking people of different ages and gender what they thought of magazine and if it could have been improved or not by asking different questions for instance:
-what gender were they?
-how old?
-did they think the colour scheme flows and shows a brand identity?
-does the main image look proffesional?
-did they like the overall presentation of the magazine? (if no then why?)
-what draws them to the magazine?
-what genre did they think it is?
-what do you think could be improved?

I got an overall positive feedback for my questionaire and most people commented on how they liked the colour scheme which showed a clear brand identity but said a few things that could have been improved, like the images and the quality of the written interview. I took all these comments and started making improvements on things that people said I could do better on, I made my front cover image much more attractive so that it would stand out and fit in with the style & genre of my magazine that I was aiming to achieve. I also took more time on my written interview and completely changed my original masthead to a more simple but effective font type that was more classic. Overall these changes made my magazine better and so was good to see what people thought and definatley helped me improve small things that needed to be done.

My Evaluation

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

       Before starting our music magazines we did a preliminary task to help us practise and create a school magazine for students either in sixth from or just starting school. This was to help us improve certain skills needed to make a good conventional music magazine.  I choose to do a school magazine called ‘starting school’ for our practise task, now looking back on it I think it looks very basic and needed a lot more detail than I actually included in it but helped me advance the skills that I learnt and therefore applied them to my music magazine. I think I have learnt how to pay attention to detail to make certain things stand out like the masthead, exclusives and lures for example. By doing small things like including the issue number, date and making things bigger then it helps look like a conventional magazine which is important to tie in with a specific genre.

  
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
 

    The preliminary task made me test with different programs and documents such as paint and Photoshop to get rid of backgrounds that were not needed or fitted in with the theme of the magazine.  Comparing my school magazine in September to my music magazine that I have just finished, I can straight away see the difference.  The music magazine looks more of a professional standard with nothing going on in the background and you can see certain things looking clearer like the masthead and the exclusive features, I also think the main image draws your attention to it due to the strong positioning of the band which fits perfectly in the centre of the front cover. In addition, you can see a brand identity that represents that certain genre in relation to my school magazine that has many colours but doesn’t have a certain style that might make someone recognise with that magazine so that’s why I made sure there was a clear house style.   

                                                                                
                                                     
By using a camera for my own photography I developed more skills and changed some effects on the camera to define more things like the lighting for example.
                                                    
I discovered photobucket on the internet which allowed me to access several effects and test with edits that it provided. I used this when I was editing my front cover image to which I filled the background with a black colour to disguise the background and fit it in with the 'Indie'/'rock' genre I was aiming to target.



 This was my practise magazine before i started my music mag.                                        

Here, you can see the difference between my preliminary task (school magazine) and my final outcome for my music magazine. It looks a lot more advanced and you can see how I have improved by using new programs and paying attention to small details that give it that overall proffesional magazine look. I think research that I did on other 'Indie' genre music magazines like 'NME' helped me develop a more in depth understanding of what is needed.

 How did you attract/address your audience?

    For my final result I wanted to make sure it had that appeal to my target audience which I aimed at teenagers to young adults that were into the rock/indie genre of music. I thought that the main image should be something that is strong and catches people’s eye and therefore draw them into reading more about it, I think the main image also shows a ‘rebellious’ side to the band as they look kind of crazy and almost like they don’t care and are just having a good time.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
   
    Similarly by researching into a lot of different genres of music magazines I noticed how important it was to have a recognisable masthead that is catchy. I wanted it to be something simple and memorable so I choose to call it ‘Be Indie’ which I think is easy to remember and establishes the genre straight away. The colour I thought looked quite effective was making the masthead white which contrasts with the blunt black backround and so therefore stands out more.  Usually to establish a brand identity, I made sure I had three main colours that would be recognised. As you can see my main three colours were red, yellow and white which I think fits quite well together. The masthead itself is white and stands out against a black background. Although the masthead doesn’t have a lot of detail, I like the fact that it is classic and simple and therefore that’s what will make it more attractive and recognisable. Usually if there is a new band featured on the cover of a magazine then it is saying they must be good and so will entice the audiences to read more about that band. I thought ‘The mash ups’ would be a good band name to feature on the front cover of the magazine and so I made it big and stamped it across on top of them which I think looked good overall as it stands out and it is one of the first things you look at.

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

      My magazine represents the ‘Indie’ boys and girls who have a certain style that can be established by what music they listen to and what they wear.  I specifically chose the Indie genre because it is a popular sound that is widely known throughout the country to which many teenagers/young adults enjoy listening to. The masthead gives the genre away automatically for example it is called, “Be Indie” and from then on everything else follows to fit in with the house style. Similarly, the medium long shot of the main image shows an ‘Indie’ looking band with their certain hair styles (swept fringe) and clothes which all tie in with the style I was going for to represent that certain ‘look’, by doing this it should entice the audience into looking up to the role models and therefore they will copy their style.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

      Moreover, by researching into different institutions that distribute magazines, I looked at which company would best suit to support for my magazine. I chose IPC media as it manages magazines like 'NME' which fits in with the same genre as the magazine i have chosen to do. It targets the same audience as mine so might be something new and fresh that the same age ranges would be able to look and identify with. Also the fact that it is a well known company and it’s brands inform and connect with the categories they range show that they with have familiar costumers that will be interested in a new music genre magazine.

I ended up with a simple and classic type of text font which I think as a whole is looks good and fits in perfectly with the rest of the front cover. I wasn’t sure if it would be too simple and thought of doing something more detailed but it didn’t fit well together with the house style so I decided to keep it simple. 

   When designing my double page spread I wanted to stick with the house style of my magazine but show the band off to intrigue the readers. I used a fair amount of images to really show that band off. I chose to call them ‘The Mash Ups’ as I thought it was relevant to the social group I wanted it to fit in with. I would suggest that the connotation of this band name has something to do with ‘trouble’ and it sounds busy with a lot going on, or maybe it has something to do with a rebellious side they have and that what their music represents.

 By using programmes such as 'paint' and 'photoshop' I was able to adapt the lighting and edit the titles so that it created more of a proffesional vibe. It helped me advance my skills that would be useful later.

 

    After we finished finalising our magazines I designed a questionnaire to get feedback on what people from different ages and genders had to say about it whether it was constructive or not. I found that it appealed more too males aged around 14-18 years  as they agreed that it was a good overall magazine that looked professional, it also fitted the style they which was ‘Indie’ that the magazine represented. A few people answered the question ‘what do you like about my magazine?’ and said ‘I like the main image and overall front cover as it fits well all together.’ Although most people I asked had a positive view on my magazine there was also some constructive comments when I asked if there could be anything I could do to improve. Some people said that, ‘the main image could be less blurry’ and ‘the contents could have more information’. The data concluded that around 80% of the people that filled out my questionnaire all liked my final outcome and the other 20% said there could have been small improvements to make it better. I used this to help me improve the qualities that needed attention so that it could be a faultless and professional magazine.

   I think my media product challenges, develops and uses forms and conventions of real media products because I have tried to portray an ‘Indie’ genre magazine that creates a sense of professionalism to the reader and would fit in with other magazines that are on the market like ‘kerrang’ and ‘NME’.

My front cover- final

Final Outcome for my Music Magazine.

This is my final outcome for my music magazine. You can see here how it has differed from my drafts before by the way I have used the font types and nearly a differnt but similar layout. I have worked with the images, features and masthead so they can stand out to the reader, and therefore can be recognisable. I wanted to make sure I had 2 or 3 main colours so I could establish a certain 'theme' and 'style' so it resulted in recognisable 'brand identity' which would look proffesional and fit with other music magazines that are seen in the shops and are on the market now.
Overall I am pleased with the outcome of my magazine.