Peer assessment of flat plan

Peer feedback


The feed back that was given to me for my flat pack was both positive and negative. My peers said I was consistent through the use of colours on both the front page, contents and double page spread. The images were attractive as they were in different backgrounds however they did not suggest what genre the magazine was, therefore the mise-en-scene for the costume and the model I use needs to display the indie genre that my magazine will be focusing on. Once more I could use different camera angles to vary the images more. I could use low angle camera shots to make my model look more dominant and powerful to the readers as they will be almost look up at them which will provoke a feeling of how superior the artist is. The different depth or field was also different  in that there were close ups, wide shots and medium shots. The layout was consistent through out the magazine with the same fonts and graphics. However the colours were very limited and therefore there needs to be more variety of colours across all the magazine.


Improvements I'm going to make:

• Make the images consistent in the focus of genre I am using throughout my magazine.
• Use more than one colour
• Use different camera shots angles
• make sure the model and mise-en-scene I use is focused on the genre of indie.

Flat Plans

These are my flat plans Through out these I am going to have the same house style, which will be the fonts and colours I use. I am going to use red as the most dominant colour.

The front page covers mast head will be red and big and bold which all magazine do, I have chosen red because I think its very eye catching and magazines such as Q and NME magazine use this colour and I feel it it very effective in attracting the reader. The main sell line is also red as it is the main article within the magazine that the reader will be most interested in. There are also several other sell lines these are in black which will stand out against the white background and the model on the magazine. These sell lines have larger fonts on the main sell point but are smaller where the details are included about the sell line, I am going to make sure that all the sell lines are of the same font to give continuity on the front page. I have also used a circle to put one of my sell lines in to make it stand out against the rest so that the sell lines showing the reader that this is a important sell line and attracting them. I have produced a sky line to add an extra sell line to draw the reader in even further, this shows how packed of musical greatness the magazine is. The image is going to be a close up of a solo indie artist and I want them to be in colours that will match with the mast head.

The contents again has the same fonts as the front cover. The mast head is present again at the top with the contents. I am going to pack it with lots of images of different artists at different depths and angles to make the images more interesting. The main colour again will be red and black. I have put the page numbers of the features in red boxes again bring continuity in the magazine. The pages titles will be in a larger font and the details about the page will be in a smaller font which again is typical in magazine contents. I have also included a band index which NME uses in there magazine this font will be the same as the contents font but will be much smaller but still clear. The final thing I added to the contents was the subscription box, I have place a smaller magazine front cover in the box and made the title subscription in bold, large font to attract the reader, once more the rest of the font is also very clear and bigger than the titles along the right hand side, in doing this it would hopefully want to make the reader subscribe and interest the reader.

My double page spread also has the same house style with the red. My title is large and bold, I have also included the artists name at the top of the page so that the reader instantly knows who the double page spread is about, this is in a smaller clear font. The article will be set out into three separate columns which is typical of articles. Furthermore I have made the first letter of the article larger than the rest, I have found that this is typical in magazine articles and its quite unknown for them not to start this way. The final thing I have added to the first page of my double page spread is something that is needed and that's the page number which is in a smaller font but still bold so that it is clear and I've included the magazine name again and the date and year of the magazine. I have done this because I have noticed that a number of magazines do this such as Q magazine.

The second page of the double page spread will be made up of several images. I am going to make them different focuses of the face or the models body. I am also going to find a model with red hair because I think its a very indie look. I have done these different images instead of one image because I think its different and makes the double page spread more interesting. I have also noticed that magazines such as Q and NME do this and I find it very effective in making the page interesting and bring the reader in.

Research into a potential target audience - primary

I conducted primary audience research in order to:

Find out what appeals to my target audience

to discover any flaws or potential improvements that could be made to my magazine genre

to identify any gaps in the market and place a refreshing new twist on the genre

These are the chosen products taken from NME magazine which I am going to conduct my research on:
1. Do you like the font if so what do you like about it?
2. Is the main image attractive?
3. Is the costume that they're wearing appealing?
4. Is the contents page well organised and clear to read?
5. Is the writing easy to read?
6. Is the article interesting?
7. What attracts you attention on the pages?
8. Is it clear that the pages are from the same magazine?
9. What three things do you like about the magazine?
10. What three things would you improve?

After showing my audience these products I got them to do a questionnaire with the questions above.
I asked four people from the age range of 16-18
I found out that: 

• They wanted to see more female artists
• They wanted to see bright and bold colours in the fonts
• That they like clear and organised layouts 
• They liked the Band Index on the contents because it was a quick way of finding their favourite band
• They didn't like it how the image went across the spread of the double page spread
• They also liked the photography and the different poses on the models faces

Research into a potential target audience - secondary

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/

Date accessed: 26/1/2011

Audience Profile for Q music magazine

Q's audience is composed of passionate, engaged and open minded music fans driven to continually discover new music - and to use this lust for discovery to influence their friends. The audience is split 75% male to 25% female and is affluent (with 68% ABC1).

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Kerrang/

Date accessed: 26/1/2011

Audience Profile for Kerrang music magazine

Young, individually minded and passionate consumers, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty

 http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Mojo/

Date accessed: 26/1/2011

Audience Profile for Mojo music magazine

Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominantly male (77%) and affluent (63% ABC1). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality

 These reader profiles are short but describe the average audience of the magazine, two of them are also backed up with statistics to help get a better view of who is buying the magazine either through gender or how affluent they are. However I do feel they are a little vague with no real sense of genre or age range of consumer, I think it would be more beneficial to include these within the profile.

My music magazine audience profile

My magazine will attract a young passionate and devoted audience who enjoy indie styled music, promoting its genre between their friends.  For the reason that the audience is between 15 to late 20s the cost of the magazine is a sufficient amount of £2.50 which can be purchased easily, letting these avid people enjoy their magazine every fortnight.

I have chosen this genre as I believe that there is a increasingly amount of young people who enjoy indie. The age range between 15 and late twenties is something I can associate with rather than an older audience as I'm within this age range. I feel I will know more what they would want from a music magazine from this age range rather than a younger focused magazine or an older audiences magazine. The fact that the magazine will be of a indie genre should also be helpful in my design and layout of the magazine as I like indie music myself and therefore can meet the views and needs of the readers.

Research into institutions that distribute similar products

http://www.mediauk.com/owners/88/bauer-media

date accessed it 25/1/2012

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

date accessed it 25/1/2012

These are a few magazines Bauer Media own and some other media interests such as radio stations:

FHM (magazines)

Garden News (magazines)

Grazia (magazines)

Heat (magazines)

Kerrang! (magazines)

Kerrang! Radio (radio) West Midlands

KISS (radio) UK

MOJO (magazines)

More (magazines)

Q (magazines)

Q Radio (radio) UK

Take a Break (magazines)

TFM Radio (radio) Teesside, County Durham, North Yorkshire

That's Life (magazines)

Trout & Salmon (magazines)

Zoo (magazines)

Bauer media have a range of different magazines and other media interests such as TMF radio. Their music magazines MOJO, Kerrang and Q all attract a different audience. Kerrang has a more niche market with rock bands, MOJO is a music magazine that tends to attract an older audience through the use of bands and other artists that would have been the popular genres of their time. Q music magazine tends to feature more mainstream artists and again attracting a different audience, because of these different genres of music that each magazines attracts, Bauer media have a wider capacity of readers through their different magazine audiences and maximise their profits because they are attracting a wider amount of people through different contents from different magazines.If Bauer media where to invest into my magazine they would have to know how they could profit out of it. My magazine will be targeted at a young modern audience and will include a genre of mostly indie artists, I feel this would be beneficial for Bauer media as they do not own an indie magazine, the closest to indie is their magazine Kerrang which deals mostly with rock. Therefore I think their is a gap in their media company which can fit my music magazine.

Ideas and feedback

Research into similar products

Brief

PRINT

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images per candidate.