DRAFT EVALUATION QUESTION 5

How did you attract and address your audience?

As all models featured within my magazine were intentionally kept within the target audience age range of 16-24, this makes those featured inside Original relevant to my target audience, allowing it to attract and address the intended audience.
In terms of design, I decided on employing a basic and simplistic page design due to the relaxed nature of the indie genre music magazine and to appeal to target audience effectively and seem less overwhelming at the first glance, preventing the audience being put off buying a copy.

The Image/ appearance of my featured artist conforms to the typical indie male artist in industry and would attract fans of the genre to develop an interest.  As Jack Wold is captured on most of the images as looking directly into the camera, this seems more personal and creates an unreal bond with the audience.  As a result of the engaging images, some would feel the need to read on as the product as a whole appears attractive and eye catching.

The female featured on contents page conforms to Marjorie Ferguson’s male gaze theory which is appropriate to the target audience age range as boys within this would be known to have lots of interest in females; despite not having an inappropriate body parts on display in the images featured, the elegance and vintage style of the woman would appear attractive and eye catching on the page.

When displayed on shelves in store, the masthead and image would be the conventions initially noticed by the audience/passers-by and would have a level of importance on attracting the audience. The masthead adopts a simplistic, stylish format through the boldness of the text being black and contrasting with the white background of the cover page. The front cover page is made to appear more professional and attractive as I ensured I remained within the red, white and black colour scheme to tie in with colours incorporated into design of the male’s bright floral shirt. The masthead would be noticeable through its central alignment at the top of the page in bold.
The font used (Tennessee SF in size 88 ) is bold, edgy, and clearly readable which enables strengthened branding and avoids misinterpretation among the audience. As the front cover does not give too much away about the contents of Original magazine, this would interest the audience and encourage them to want to read on as they would want to find out more about the reasoning for use of conventions on cover page. Readers can develop brand recognition the masthead remaining exactly the same in style on every issue published and the magazine itself as stylish, vintage and edgy.
Due to the bold and chunkiness of the font used for the masthead on the front cover of my media product, the print media is made to stand out on store shelves against other magazines and make a statement- attracting the audience’s attention and potentially leading to a seal as a result. Examples of pre-existing magazines mentioned previously (Clash, Dazed and Confused, etc.) have target audiences which overlap with my chosen range; Clash is targeted at 18-35 year olds, I feel this is very broad and while this broad ness does have its advantages (more potential revenue), I do not feel it is a necessary audience for Original as fashion and events are strong and continuous themes linked with the indie genre of music which are more suited to a younger audience. As well as this, audiences aged outside of the target market for Original may have difficulty understanding the creativity and stylishness behind the layout of pages I produced as I have taken a more modern twist on the typical conventions taken in magazines. Therefore in order to understand the ideas behind the design and find it appealing I feel that my younger, smaller age range for the target audience was appropriate and effective for methods of appealing.

I used a series of conventions which the audience would be used to seeing/ attracted to in industry to gain the attention of the intended market. After conducting research on successful pre-existing magazines inside the indie genre of music, I adapted some of the used conventions and made them unique to my media product through altering cover and contents page layouts, font styles, image filters, etc. to gain a professional appearing final product. As the style of the examples I looked at are successful and popular products among indie lovers, I felt this was an appropriate direction to take as there was evidence of audience attraction.

Deciding on an effectively appealing colour scheme was an important aspect of attracting the audience as they are likely to base assumptions and base decisions around the appearance of the product as a whole and therefore impacting their views on what to expect from the quality of the content inside; possibly comparing my magazine to others beside it on the store shelf. Due to this, I ensured I adopted an attractive and contrasting colour scheme (black, white and red) to achieve consistency and the appearance of a professional design on the front cover, contents and double page spread.

Another way I addressed the target audience is through the language used. After researching pre-existing contents pages from Clash and Fader, I gained ideas on how to effectively engage with the reader. This led to my decision to use combinations of formal and informal tones, which the ideal reader would understand and be able to make sense of as a literate and educated member of the public. When constructing the interview to be featured on the double page spread, I considered my target age range, social brackets and themes which intended to be carried throughout my magazine. I opted to use a more informal/ low language register as this suited the style of the interview, and I wanted to present an ‘easy’ read for the audience which they would find appealing as it does not require too much thought. However I also ensured the readers did not feel their intelligence was being insulted as this may deter the audience from wanting to purchase a copy of the magazine through using a basic yet understandable and flowing body of information featured on the double page spread. Due to the informal nature of the interview I felt the informal tone was necessary to engage the audience. I was aware that music magazines used different forms of socialite to communicate effectively with the audience and I feel I achieved this to a good standard within Original. Ensuring syntax and grammar were correct was important as failure to have correct spelling and punctuation in appropriate places inside a published issue would be likely to deter the reader continuing reading the magazine and also giving the brand a bad reputation if many notice mistakes. This would be very unprofessional and it is crucial for the branding of the magazine that mistakes are not made.

In order to attract the audience and ensure my media product was effective and realistic of an industry standard, the styling of models within Original is fitting in with the indie genre throughout the entire product to clearly represent the genre loved by the readers. The smart, bright floral shirt as well as the minimalistic black T-shirt and Skinny jeans worn by male indie artist Jack Wolf, and vintage style paisley printed shirt worn by the female artist referred to as Lucy Needs on the contents page reflects the styling of my indie target audience; indie musicians often adopt a very eccentric, vintage style, or the opposite end of the scale and wear basic, minimalistic fashions.  This is something I wanted to present in my media product to address the genre clearly and use it to attract the audience, making the product seem more relevant and inspirational to them as individuals. I planned outfits and styling of the models featured prior to photographing them to ensure I would achieve a range of effective images suitable to the genre of the magazine and to enable me to successfully present this to the audience through selecting fashion meeting the indie criteria and what would work well on each page. Personalities of the models are clearly presented in my magazine as the innovative styling and expressions captured on my images used present an insight into the model’s characteristics etc. I wanted to maintain consistency, yet have variance to display my skills through my product and create drama, therefore I captured the majority of my images in an artificially lit studio with a white screen behind the model being photographed to make the image seem more attractive and professional in the eyes of the audience through having a blank, neat mise en scene to ensure all focus Is kept on the model. However to allow my product to present a level of variance I included an image of the male cover artist outside by a worn down, weathered door exposing concentrate and creating an urban appearance as a result. This helped me to ensure I kept the attention and interest of the reader on every page through my use of unique and slightly unconventional design seeming attractive to the target audience who have a love for individuality and innovation.

I applied different filters to each of the images featured inside my media product to make them appear more aesthetically pleasing and maintain a consistent look of stylishness. To create flawless, statement images within my magazine I airbrushed each image to remove irritating spots noticeable on the original images, altered the contrast and brightness levels of each image to present a glossy, vintage image and appeal to the audience.

The female model, Lucy Needs, is featured using combined shots to seem more interesting and futuristic- suited to the themes intended to be represented in her article further on in the magazine. This unusual type of image used would interest and appeal to the audience as it ties nicely with the indie genre and contributes towards the vintage look on the page.

I chose to apply a black and white filter to both images featured on the double page spread as tis appears glossy, vintage and stylish- making the page more attractive and grabbing the attention of the reader as a result.