Front cover and contents page drawn out rough plan

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.