My target audience presentation

Front page photograph comparison research

Front cover written initial plan/analysis
I begun by ding some background research into front covers and i then gathered up a selection of front cover images in order to build up some ideas for what photographs I wanted for my front cover.
I was very keen on the idea of my model being rather formal in either a suit or at least smart attire on the front cover but then far more casual and up to date in terms of fashion on the double page spread.

I first of all looked at this picture of T.I  (left)and i rather liked this idea because he is smart in his suit shirt yet still rather relaxed with the top button undone and his bow tie undone which i believe allows the image to seem more relaxed whilst keeping with my idea of the formal attire on the front. After seeing this I went and took a picture what I believed to be rather similar to this but with a different facial expression on the models face (right) as I did not want him to smile, i wanted my model to be slightly more reserved. I decided to get my model to wear sunglasses in order to make him seem more mysterious and yet again more formal whilst also slightly more urbanized than T.I is in his picture in order to relate to my target audience more.

 Another image that I looked at was this image of Justin Timberlake who has recently built up quite a reputation in the music industry as being very well dressed in terms of formal attire.In this picture I like the fact that they have linked the colour of his eyes with the background sky blue colour and also this effect has seriously made his eye colour stand out. The smart/casual shirt that he is he is wearing yet again has the effect on the reader that although he is dressed rather smartly he is still relaxed and chilled out which could link to some of his recent easy listening music. I then went an took a picture of a different model with a similar idea of the top buttons undone and with a rather Sterne look on his face. I would use photo shop with this picture in order to enhance his eye colour and also when thinking about the background colour I would possible try and link his eye colour to the background colour, for example if I enhance his brown eyes i could then go for a similar colour for the background possibly a mahogany type of brown.

 My last idea that I had was slightly different to my other initial idea of an artist in smart attire. This idea consisted of a band of three people in casual clothing linking to my trendies category that i have chosen for my target audience.This picture of the band 'Foster the people' (left) is a very similar to the idea that I was looking for as it is vey simply yet has several messages that come across in a very causal style. The clothes that the band members are wearing are all rather different but without being different in terms of the target audience that they are trying to reach out to because all three of them are wearing clothes that a 'trendy' would look towards wearing. The picture that I have chosen is rather similar in terms of the facial expression on the band members faces and also the clothes and background setting because through this picture I am trying to reach out to my target audience via every aspect of the image and front cover.

I then did some more research and discovered that my front cover images needed to possibly be more directed at the indie market seeing as that is my target audience and so I collected these images of Jake Bugg

 

Initial pictures

These are my initial 70 pictures, I will analyse these pictures and then filter them in order to get 3/4 pictures that I like and that fit my genre and ideas. 

Target audience group of people

My target audience  is based on a group that was invented by the website UK tribes. UK tribes is a channel 4 project that was started in 2005 and studied the youth culture of today and set up a large group of tribal groups based upon their research. On this website they posted a detailed description of all of these groups and also put them into 5 subcategories. My group is going to be towards the trendies category. Trendies are fairly mainstream people and this is a description of them which i have quoted from the UK tribes website (www.uktribes.com)

"Trendies are a burgeoning Tribe with no signs of abating – and they are getting younger by the day. The high street has exploded with brands like Urban Outfitters and Topshop offering off-the-peg Hipster-influenced styles, so channelling your inner Cara Delevingne or Harry Styles has never been so easy.

Trendies are motivated by the current trends du jour, looking to street style, celebrities and authoritative media brands for inspiration on music and fashion – in short, the latest in cool. It’s about tapping into what’s hot just before it hits the mainstream and picking it up online or on the high street, with key pieces nabbed from vintage, charity shops, or the ultimate Trendie pilgrimage – shopping on Brick Lane in London.

Fashion is the Trendies first love, but music is next in line – especially picking up the latest mixes online to flaunt on social media or their blog. Online representation is huge for this Tribe – Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Mixcloud are the perfect platforms for showing off and being spotted. The meteoric rise of the style blogger, from 16 year old Tavi to Style Savage’s Steve Salter, has popularised Trendie icons in the media. These are everyday young people that have achieved the ultimate Trendie dream – transforming a love for fashion into lucrative careers, and gaining legions of followers in the process.

Essential dates on the Trendie calendar? Festival season is a chance for Trendies to show off their vintage meets high street inspired looks, from Bestival in the UK to Croatia’s Outlook Festival. High street designer collaborations are still coveted, you’re sure to see Trendies first in line at the next designer for H&M launch."

This video clip is from youtube made by UK tribes and is meant to simply summarise the group "trendies".

I have also screen grabbed the dictionary definition of the word trendy to try and consolidate the understanding of what my target audience are like, also this image shows how this word has increased in usage in the last 10/20 years which shows that the idea of being trendy and up to date has seriously grown in the last 2 decades.

My target audience's style of music is towards the indie pop genre of music which at the moment is very big in the charts and is becoming far more publicised and respected.
An example of indie style of music is a band like the 1975 who brand themselves as a rock band but are very much and indie rock band as they dress rather trendy and are followed by a wide range of people including my chosen category. This is an example of their music.

Target audience questionnaire

Target audience research questionnaire

• What genre of music are you most interested in ?
• Who are your favourite artists?
• What are your three favourite clothing brands ? 
• What is your favourite radio station ?
• What sort of things do you get up to on a weekend ?
• Do you use any social media sites and if so what ones ? 

I then interviewed a group of people who I believed to be members of my target audience to see what they were interested in.

Initial name ideas

Possible magazine names
My music genre is Indie-rock music 

• Sync (as in sync music onto a device, trying to show that indie is a popular genre at the moment and is being synced onto a lot of peoples iPods, also links to the idea of the electric sound that indie is ) 
• Sik beatz (an urban freestyle name to attract a younger audience)
• Take it back (linking to a more classic indie style of music)
• Slowmo 
• Street ( to incorporate the idea of where indie music started in terms of the street busking type performers )
• ESRR (eat sleep rave repeat)
• Smash it ( trying to incorporate the idea of the lifestyle that indie performers live )
• Dynamite ( explosive like indie music can be )
• Volts (or volt) 
• Chart ( because indie music is currently dominating the charts )

After I came to the decision to have this list of ten names as my shortlist I then decided to form a series of data collection sheets which I went round to a series of people in my year group and the year above (the age category which my magazine will be most likely targeting) in order to get a primary source of data to help me with my decision. One example of my data collection is this tally chart that I went around my common room with trying to target people of my target audience and out of the thirty people who replied to this tally these are the results.

These results quite clearly show that Sync was the top voted magazine name throughout this data collection and this was consistent throughout this process with the large majority of the participants choosing Sync as their favourite and most suitable name. Therefore after much consideration I have chosen to use the name Sync as not only did I believe it was moist suitable in my own opinion  but also my data collection research gave me a primary source of back up to suggest that this name would be the most suitable for my magazine style and target audience which are the objectives that I am looking at achieving with my name.

Magazine analysis 2:Kerrang

The cover
The title of this magazine is "Kerrang", the main reason that it is called this is because the name is meant to represent the noise that an electric guitar makes when it is strummed. The idea of the guitar strum sound connotes the idea that the creators of the magazine are trying to reach out to their target audience very clearly and easily from the very start (meaning the title) because their target audience is quite clearly people who are interested in the genre of rock. By linking the title to a guitar (an instrument commonly associated with rock music) they are explaining what the magazine is all about before it has even been looked at or opened.

The title/logo designed in the style of a smashed window with the crack lines running through it and I believe that this is used in order to yet again attach the title and the design to their target audience as rock is commonly know for being rather loud and aggressive which links to the idea of smashing items. The writing for the title is red and the smash lines are white because the background colour is white so these link together. The font of the title is a rather urban slanted styled font which in my opinion signifies rock and also I believe that the style of Kerrang is very similar to what you would expect to see as a name of a band on an album or cd cover and that may be what the creators are going for.
The strap line in this magazine is used to advertise an aspect of this weeks issue, the advertisement is for the 6 posters of various artists that are inside the magazine and has pictures and example of all 6 of them. The strapline also has a stamp on it which is advertising a competition inside, the competition is for the chance to win a Nando's with famous band 'you me at six' and the use of a stamp is clever as it just makes the competition stick out a b it more compared to the rest of the magazine as it is in a different format.
In this issue there is actually not a main image that sticks out over the rest simply because the main cover line of the issue takes up a large majority of the cover and so there is not room for a large image and so instead there are six small images to the sides of the cover line. These six images are of famous artists who are featuring heavily in this issue, these artists include Biffy Clyro, Bullet from my valentine, Billie Joe Armstrong, Papa roach, Mitch lucker and Blink-182. In these images all of the artists are looking towards the camera , the artists like Billie Joe Armstrong, Biffy Clyro and Mitch Lucker have rather serious facial expressions and are taken as part of a photo shoot and not in action whereas the other three artists are in action during their photos for example Bullet from my Valentine's lead singer is singing into a microphone with headphones on in his picture.

There is only one cover line on this magazine because the one that there is simply takes up too much space to fit on any more. The cover line is displaying what the main topic of this weeks issue is, this topic is "101 songs that rocked your year" and it is written in a purple, black and yellow font with a rather different style which is rather casual and looks like it is almost drawn on. By making the cover line font and style different from the rest of the front cover it allows the creator to put extreme emphasis on his topic and also by making it the only cover line there is that makes it come across as even more dominant. It is yet again a rather urbanized cover line which could be seen as a rather rock styled format which I also believe is similar to the title in regards to the fact that it is written in the style of a band name or long cover or title.
The colours of white and red are used throughout this cover, the background colour of the cover is white and this colour is also used for all the blocks on the front cover. Red is used for the titles and most of the writing on the cover apart from on the cover lines and the image notes. The idea of the basic white and red colours could be in order to ensure that nothing else on the front cover over powers the cover line which is the most important thing on this as it is advertising to the reader and the target audience what is this weeks issue and why they should read it.
The language used in this cover varies in style, there is a lot of use of rather big statement words such as "awesome" and "Massive" but the rest of the language is rather formal and descriptive when looking at the image notes as these notes need to be precise and top the point in order to get across the message quickly and easily.
I would not say that this magazine front cover look similar to many other magazine's I have seen because it is rather unique and very specifically aimed at its target audience which is the rock genre. This magazine can offer an exciting, in depth and inside look on the world of the rock industry which I believe a lot of its rivals cannot as they simply do not have the access to the resources that Kerrang does. 

Inside
There is sixty three pages and fourteen of these pages are advertisements. All the adverts in this
magazine are either for the Kerrang itself or connected to Kerrang so unlike other magazines they do not have any adverts to do with other companies and their products. There area few adverts that are trying to sell and advertise concerts and event for bands that are contracted or linked to Kerrang, as well as these there are also many adverts that are trying to get readers to subscribe to Kerrang through free gifts and discounted rates etc. The last type of adverts is adverts the ones that feature at the end of the issue and are advertising products that are directly linked to Kerrang target audience, these include t-shirts with bands names on them, wrist bands and cd's all with the theme of rock inv         olved in them in some form.

There are various different types of features in this magazine,  these include: News waking the demo's, Kerrang top charts, Feedback corner, the main topic which is "101 songs that rocked your year", the claws are out, moment of silence, lives and finally their is a large section for reviews at the end of the magazine. A lot of the features in this issue are aimed at getting inside knowledge on the thought and feelings of several artists in the rock industry, a large majority of the magazine is taken up by the main topic of the issue and the fact that this has been given the most space and pages throughout the magazine gives the idea to the reader that this is the article that should receive the most focus and is the most important.
Throughout this magazine there are fourteen double page spreads, some of them are attached to the same articles for example the main topic of the issue which has already been spoken about has four double page spreads in order to cover absolutely everything to do with tis topic in this case it must cover all 101 songs that they have listed. There are other articles like the reviews and the news that have more than one double page spreads and again this is because they want to put as much information in the issue as possible but require more than two pages because they don't want to cram it and make the magazine easy to read and not too compact.
There are some advertorials in this magazine,  one of these is when they are advertising the Kerrang tour 2014 because it does have some information on there which looks like it could be an article but then there is a lot prices and dates on there as well which causes confusion as to what category it falls into. The magazine does have a house style in some ways but not in others. Throughout almost every page there are a large amount of pictures of varying sizes which could be seen as a house style that every article contains a large amount of pictures, certainly more than most magazines do and this could be used as an idea to make the articles come across as more interesting to the younger readers. In terms of font and colour there is not particularly a house style as every article seems to have a very different font and colour scheme to others and this could be in order to make every article stand out and not get lost and became too boring to read.
I believe the image based house style is a goo idea for their target audience simply because people who are Interested in rock are rather flamboyant and extravagant people who most likely are not big supporters of text heavy articles where they have o seriously think non stop throughout the magazine so they will appreciate a few images that add a slight element of illustration to the magazine and its articles.

Magazine analysis of NME

The cover

 The title of the magazine is NME which is a short abbreviation for 'New Musical Express'. The title originally was New Musical Express in the early years when it was a music newspaper as a suppose to magazine but in 1978 the title was changed to the currant abbreviated title and soon after this in the early 1980's it changed from newsprint and into a music magazine.  The title was abbreviated for several reasons, one key reason is that the old title was simply too long especially for the magazine format which they were planning to move towards when they made the change. The second reason is that the abbreviation comes across more urbanized and has a younger feel to it which links heavily to their urban, young target audience. 






The title logo has white writing with a red box surrounding it. The font is a very basic style but is large and bold and sticks out on the front page which is obviously what is required for a title on a front cover. The red box also separates the title from the rest of the front cover images and writing in order to ensure to the reader what the title is and to make sure that it does not get taken over by all of the other parts of the cover.
There is not so much of a strap line but there are four names of singers that are in the same font colour and style as the title that are joined on to the title, these names are PJ Harvey, Lars Ulrich, Haim and Toy and these are four artists who appear throughout this weeks issue.
Although there are several pictures on the front page the one that sticks out as the main one is the picture of the artist Jake Bugg. I believe that this is the main picture because it is the largest and therefore takes up the most space on the front page, also the title is directly put on top of his body which could be the creator's way of emphasizing this image and artist. He is gazing into the camera and this could be in order to make it seem like he is looking into the eyes of the person who is reading and buying this magazine. I believe that they chose Jake Bugg to be the main stand out image on the front cover because he is one of the leading up and coming artists in this genre and so he would signify what this weeks issue is trying to show and also he would appeal to a lot of fans of this genre and therefore more people would see him stick out on the front cover and automatically buy it . He looks rather relaxed with a very calm and motionless body language and from my knowledge Jake Bugg himself has a rather reserved introvert personality so this body language and picture suits him and the impression people have of him.
There are several other images on the front cover and they are all of varied size but are all of other singers that are appearing in this magazine, these singers include Palma violets, Wolf Alice and Drenge. All of these artists fit into the indie/rock style of the music that this magazine studies. Another very clever link between all of the artists on the front page is the theme of the issue is young people having fun and so all of the artists on this issue are all playing with fire extinguishers in order to make it look as though they are all together and behaving like the stereotypical young people that this magazine is aiming this issue at, by linking them all together it makes the reader feel as though all of the young people in the music industry at the moment are working together and are not competing against each other. 
The cover lines promote the main topic of this issue which is young British singer's and is illustrated by the large bold main cover line. Also there are small cover lines attached to each picture of the artists just simply saying who the image is representing.
All of the writing on this front page consists of very basic yet bold font which is used for every cover line, strap line and the titles. There are only two colours used for the font and they are royal blue and red lining to the theme of Britain which is the issues topic, also all writing on the cover is surrounded by a small box which is either red or blue depending on the font colour of that particular line.  This magazines style is rather different to other magazines simply because the font and style is far more basic yet bold and to the point. It gives off the impression to the reader that it is not trying too hard to stand out and grabs reader's attention simply with bold writing and noticeable colours that sticks out on the shelf. Its target audience is towards a rather young age group of around 16-28 possibly older and it is targeting the Indie/rock genre of music.
I like the idea of the fire extinguishers because it gives off the idea that all of these artists are young and enjoying themselves and also the idea that the front cover folds out is rather different and imaginative and just adds to the readers excitement, it also allows the magazine to target more things for example more artists pictures.

The inside

There is 66 pages and 15 of these pages are adverts. There are several different types of adverts in this magazine,  there health care products for men e.g. male electronic razors, food and rink items e.g. Jack Daniels whiskey and then there are concert adverts promoting upcoming tours and concerts.
List of articles and topics: sounding off column, 20 essential new tracks, festival drugs, the week, Lars Ulrich sound track of my life , radar, reviews corner , NME guide, young Britannia, state of Flux, from the vaults and lastly this week in 1991.
I would put these in to several different categories, one would be information and weekly catching up, artists stories, investigations, past music looking back at music from different generations and finally the main story which is young Britannia which has the most coverage.
There are 17 double page spreads and they consists of reviews, music updates, festival drugs, the weekly catch up and the young Britania topic has three double page spreads yet again confirming that it has been given the most coverage because it is most important main part of this week's issue.
There are several advertorials, there is one that is advertising reasons to subscribe to NME which is telling you good information about the magazine and what is in this could be seen as an advert for the magazine but it is unlikely as it is in the magazine itself which would make it rather strange to advertise for a magazine inside a magazine. There are also sections that are talking about upcoming tours for artists and it says reviews and how good/bad they are but because prices and dates are on there this could also be seen as an advert for these artists tours.
The house style is rather clear throughout, the background colour throughout is predominantly white and the writing is in a rather mundane black font. All titles of pieces stick out by being put in a very colourful font for example pink or blue which really stick out in contrast with the black font for the actual article itself, this house style is used consistently throughout the magazine apart from when it comes to the main topic of the issue which yet again links to the idea of making the Young Britannia article stand out because it is the main topic of this issue and so it is highlighted by the change in style from the house style. The house style relates to the target audience because the font is very basic and to the point and not too fancy which would appeal to the young target audience because that is what they would look for in a magazine, another thing which appeals to this area of people is the several bright colours and constant images throughout the magazine because it makes the magazine far more exciting to read and avoids the magazine becoming too text heavy.

Brief

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 you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).

NME analysis front cover picture

Research brain storm

Preliminary task