Details on my target Audience:
AGE: 16 - 25
GENDER: Predominantly male, some female
SOCIAL CLASS: Lower/ Lower Middle Class
SEXUALITY: Predominantly Straight, but none specificable
LOCATION: UK only.
OTHER: fans of a specific two genres (Hardcore/Thrash metal) from the UK.
How I Plan To Appeal To My Audience:
FONTS: I plan to use a simple font such as Helvetica Bold that is simple, stands out and is easy to read. This is because then my audience who prefer more pictures to text can see the text much easeir(they would not read my articles or my magazine if it had difficult to read, fancy text).
LAYOUTS: I plan to use a simple, easy to navigate style of layout for my contents page like NME magazine. If my audience could not understand my magazine's layout if it was complex, they wouldnt buy it.
COLOURS: I plan to use Black, White, Dark Red and Grey. This is because of the genre of music which i have researched in my own time and with my own knowledge i know that most of the shirts and album covers are this colour and as both genres are rather heavy and dark stules of music, these colours would appeal to them via their music.
LANGUAGE: I have chose to use simplistic vocabulary and an informal style of writing, including swear words. This is because my audience is of a lower class and is teenagers and young adults, which means they won't fully understand complex words and are used to talking in an informal style, so if was to write similar to how they speak, it would attract and audience as they can understand what i am writing. Also, the working class is more common to swear than upper class so i have included a few swear words so they can relate to the articles and also for emphasis.
PICTURES: 90% of the pictures i have planned to include are of mid action live shots. This is because the metal and hardcore genres aren't extremely experimental and arty, and they go more for a hard-hitting, heavy emphasis. Because of this, i have not included arty portraits of the bands as it would detract audience attention. They would prefer more live shots of the bands in action so i shot a live gig for my double page article.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Drafts: contents page & double page
I chose the idea of basing my contents on NME magazines thirds layout.
in the left third i wanted a band index with a list of band included in my magazine in the left third, a 'band index', somewhat similar to the one included in NME magazine.
In the center i wanted to have one main article with its details below and at the bottom of the center i could have a subscription details box with a front page screengrab on it. At the top of the center i chose to put the title of the page as 'CONTENTS' for simplicity for the reader, although i did not include my logo as i did not see it as necessary at the present time.
In the right third i chose to include some important sub articles under 4 headings: News, Reviews, Live and PLUS(anything else that is music related but doesn't relate to one specific band) this idea was also ripped out of Kerrang and NME.
Overall i chose this style as my audience is of a working class background in which simplicity and an easy to navigate contents page would appeal to them.
I did not add colour to this draft as i had not conducted my colour research for my audience so i did not know what colours would be implemented for the best effect
This is my rough layout draft for my double page spread.
I attempted to implement the idea of a 60/40 picture to text ratio for easy to read,smaller chunks of text.
on the left third of my two pages i had one main picture covering half of the length of the page and one third of the page. this was to attract attention of the readers by the best, most action filled shot i took at the gig.
The bottom half of the left third contains one column of text, and one row leading off of this column. Also there is two sub pictures next to the column of text so that the readers can look at these pictures when they are noticed in the text or mentioned.
In the center third of the two pages i had two conjoined columns of text which contained the main chuck of text split by the page breaking, which meant that the text flowed into the next box so readers attention was kept on the main text. Also, above the text columns is the title of the page 'Your Demise' i split the two words between the pages but they were conjoined so that they knew who they were reading about.
On the right third of my two pages, half of the right third was to be filled with sub pictures for the main article so that after reading they can look at the pictures related to the article. On the other half of the right third in the upper section was a small album cover and the secondary text(the album review). As this is not the main focus of the double page spreads article i put it in the top right corner so that it doesn't get caught up in the reading of the main article. Below this is two sub pictures related to the album review.
All these ideas originally came to me in the idea that i wanted a simple amount of text and more pictures as my audience is lower class, which means they don't want to just be reading text, also they are young and less sophisticated than 30+ year old adults (16-25 white males is my age and gender range) so more pictures would be more appealing to them.
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Double Page Spread Analysis'
The first page is comprised of one large picture of 'The Chapman Family' (the band included in this article) with the overlapping text of their name [The Chapman Family] in large bold letters. the picture on this page consists of the whole band in an average house. It is a very quirky, interesting image as one of the bands members is completely out of the picture which intrigues the audience into reading if they don't recognise the bands name to wonder what the picture means. The bands name is in a very large, bold and simple font, suggesting an aura of professionalism, classy outlook and some mystery towards them.
the second page of the double page spread is all of the text for the article. to attract the reader to reading this article, many strong words and phrases are used in the large font that consists of the description of the band. phrases such as 'They hate lazy indie' and 'get shot at by local kids' are exciting and intriguing words as powerful as 'shot' and 'hate' which make it sound like an action filled article so it grabs the reader's attention. Another example of attracting the reader is a pull quote which says: 'ive been shot at for the way i look before. it's no big thing for me' which is an exciting and masculine statement which makes the people in article sound appealing to the readers so they are encouraged to reader on.
[i did not use any of these ideas as i believe they only work for a solely based interview double page spread and mine was reviews so this layout did not suit the style.
on the left third of Kerrang's double page spread it is comprised of mainly text. this covers only one third of the page and the rest is pictures which is similar to the design i have with my article because teenagers and young adults have a lower attention span on walls of text and pictures would not grab their attention for long so the picture to text ratio is 70/30.
the centre and right third is comprised of one main picture and five sub pictures. these are brightly lit background which bright colours attract their younger audience to read the article if they find the pictures appealing.
The layout of this magazine links in very well with its genre. Again on this magazine there is a lot of pictures which shows that the readers of the magazine may be more interested with looking at pictures then reading long articles and lots of complex text. Their is little colour used on the actual background and on the text. The only colour is on the pictures and this makes them stand out. This may mean that they are the main part of the double page spread and may mean that the editor wants these to be the most important part of the page. The language which is used is quite informal and not very complex, this could link in with the target audience which would be teenagers and people who are into rock music.
i would not use this layout as it focuses too much on the little amount of text included which is suited for my audience but it is done to an extreme which makes the article a quick boring read.
contents page analysis
I used this contents page as a basis for my magazine as it is well laid out and easy to navigate.
The headnote includes the logo of the magazine and the date which are the first things noticed by the route of the eye. the logo is included in large letters along with a bold 'contents' so you know what page you are on(the contents page).
In the left third of the page, there is a NME exclusive feature known as a 'Band Index'. This band index is in smaller sized font which means it is the last area that the route of the eye will establish, yet a very important feature of this magazine. It lists all of the bands mentioned in this issue and tells you what page they are on. this is so that its very specific 'indie' audience can read about the bands they want as NME covers quite a few genres and they may not appeal to the individual reader. I found this an effective tool as it allows the reader to focus on what they want to read and they can find out what bands are in the magazine quickly before buying it. [I used this feature in my magazine as i used NME as a base to establish round and it is a very useful tool when dealing with very specific audiences like my target audience (16-25 year old predominantly white males interested in UK hardcore and metal bands only).]
In the centre of the page, NME puts their main article. The main article has one large image, a large bold text title and some smaller text describing the article. This is effective as there is only one image on the page and one large article, route of the eye guides to the image and then the article after the logo meaning the main article is read straight away which is effective to drawing in readers as it is usually the most appealing article to readers. Beneath this is a black box containing subscription details and a screenshot of the front cover of the magazine. This is effective as it is noticed after the main article is noticed which could convince them to subscribe to NME. The simplicity of one main article is appealing to a male audience as it allows them to read through and navigate the magazine easier as in the magazine world it is shown that women's magazines are much more complicated in their layouts while music magazines(lower/middle class white males 16-25) like NME have much simpler layouts suggesting an easy navigable layout. [I also copied the idea of centre articles(i chose to have two main articles as they were both important and it looked very barren with just one picture) because as i am aiming at a white mostly male 16-25 working class audience, i decided copying a similar audiences magazines simple and easy to navigate layout.
On the right third of the page, the rest of the popular articles are listed under: News, Reviews, Live. This is effective as you can navigate and get details on popular reviews or live shows and read some summaries of the latest news in indie music. Once again this is an example of making the contents page simple and easy to read. This is the second place where the route of the eye takes the reader , so after reading the main article it leads to all the popular articles so they can quickly, in a few minutes have all the details on everything in the magazine by just reading summaries. In this issue there is an exclusive heading which is about Reading and Leeds, and 'Previews' of it. This is a popular festival with the readers of 'NME' magazine and the 'indie' genre and this would catch the readers eyes. also, there is a less important 'PLUS' section which lists things not directly covering certain event or bands (features include questions to NME, letters about the magazine and a compilation of pictures from readers with famous 'indie' bands or their members. [I used the first idea of listing the categories of News, Reviews and Live as it is an easy way to navigate to the most important articles for my readers as they might want to read only live show reviews etc. how ever i did not use the PLUS category as i didn't have anything non related to bands, i should of included something like this but at the time i did not think of it as appropriate]
the layout of this magazine is a bit more complicated than NME as the route of the eye is a lot less simple.
The title for the contents page of Kerrang isn't very noticeable because it is in a small, yellow font in the top corner. although this is against convention and there is no logo, the way the magazine is presented shows it is of Kerrang origin. I would not base my magazine contents page title/logo off Kerrangs as it is too small for effect or to be noticed.
The left half of this contents page includes the main article and a foreword by the editor. the foreword is just describing events from the previous issue such as download festival (UK metal festival) and the main article's large picture, and two articles below it(sub-articles) although this grabs the attention of readers it is unprofessionally laid out and the reader would not know where to look after the contents page. i would not lay my contents out like this as it is distracting to the reader and they would not be able to navigate this complex layout unless they were long time readers of the magazine.
However, the right half of this contents page is much better laid out. There is a quote from a famous musician that is potentially worthless and not needed for any reason ( i believe it is there for comedic value yet is not valid or easily noticed). The next section to be noticed is the 'THIS WEEK' section which details all the articles not pictured in a short sentence. this is effective as it is quick and easy to read the summaries of the articles. However, the layout of all the articles listed with pictures is ineffective as it seems to have no proper order.
Overall, even with the effective but bland colour layout and consistent fonts, i would not choose a layout like Kerrang!'s due to an unprofessional and ineffective, hard to navigate contents page which would confuse its younger audience as the route of the eye is complete dysfunctional.
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