DRAFT Evaluation Question 5 -

How did you attract/address your audience? 

Front Cover -

REVOLUTION front cover 

Whilst designing my music magazine front cover i opted to use a variety of techniques in order to make the page noticeable and appealing to the target audience - indie scenesters. To do this, i used a variety of bright, eye catching colours in order to give the front cover a certain uniqueness which in turn allows it to stand out from any other. This uniqueness is highly appealing to the target audience as they are a group of people renowned for being unique and different from anybody else, i feel that through the use of bright, interesting colours, the uniqueness of the magazine cover can appeal to the unique personalities of the indie scenesters. 

Whilst researching existing indie/alternative music magazines, i decided that the overall style and appearance of NME, was the style which i would attempt to emulate in order to produce a magazine cover which was eye catching, simplistic and aesthetically pleasing toward the target audience. By recreating techniques used by NME, i have created a magazine cover which is appealing toward a similar target audience, the indie scenesters. Therefore, whilst designing my music magazine front cover, i used a number of techniques used by NME in order to create a professional, indie looking magazine which is extremely appealing toward the indie scenesters. 

Whilst designing my final magazine cover i opted to replicate a common feature used by indie magazines such as NME and Q, and used the main image as the CVI of the page. The use of the main image on my magazine cover allows the cover to become a statement and an extremely eye catching and intriguing page, and one which is once again unique from any other. The image used is of featuring indie rock band,Marshall Stacks front man, Harry Julian. The image consists of Julian staring directly down the lens of the camera in order to target the audience and give the audience a sense of his arrogant personality. By using an intriguing image with many connotations behind it, the target audience is likely to be attracted toward the magazine, due to its appealing aesthetics. 

Contents Page -

REVOLUTION contents page 

Whilst designing my contents page i opted to use a number of techniques in order to keep the target audience attracted and interested. To add a fresh appeal to the page i decided to use a different colour palette and used the traditional 3 printing colours of black, white and red. I decided to use these particular colours on the contents page as they have been proven to complement each other exceptionally well and allow important information, in this case what is featuring in the magazine, the be read simply and clearly by the target audience. The use of a different colour palette also keeps the audience attracted as the difference between each page suggests that the magazine is ever changing, as is the music industry and the indie scenesters themselves. 

Another technique used on the contents page to keep the audience attracted and interested was the use of linguistic devices such as interesting lexis e.g. "Kasabian to headline V" The use of language such as this keeps the reader interested as it is intriguing and simple to understand. Information such as this is extremely dysphemistic, something which is needed on a contents page. Language such as this is used in order to state exactly what is featuring in the rest of the magazine, this avoids unwanted confusion and allows the contents page to be the simplistic, easy to understand page which it needs to be. 

Whilst researching existing music magazines and their contents pages i discovered a particular technique which i attempted to emulate whilst designing my music magazine contents page. This particular technique was the use of a variety of features on the contents page. Whilst designing my contents page i added a list of the main features within the magazine e.g. "Marshall Stack Exclusive, find out why the tremendous trio are taking the UK by storm" by using a feature such as this, the audience is able to see clearly who is featuring inside the magazine and what their article will be about. Another feature i added to my contents page was reviews. I discovered this technique whilst analysing Q magazine and opted to emulate their style in order to create a contents page which appeared realistic and held a substantial amount of information. The reviews section of the contents page features singles reviews, album reviews as well as artist reviews. This extra amount of information allows the audience to have a variety of options whist choosing what to read. 

Double Page Spreads -

Marshall Stack Double page spread part 1

Whilst designing my two double page spreads i once again opted to change the colour palette in order to stick to the theme of change, to symbolise the constant change which takes place within the music business. The use of a different colour palette (black, white, yellow and blue) on the double page spreads also suggests that Marshall Stack, the featured band, are different and unique from anything else in the magazine due to the use of the different colours. This choice of colour allows the target audience, indie scenesters, to see just how unique Marshall Stack are. This uniqueness is what appeals to the scenesters, therefore, the use of colour allows both the artist and the magazine to appear to the target audience. 

On both double page spreads a CVI has been used in order to capture the audiences attention immediately. On both pages, the CVI is in fact an image of the band. I opted to use this particular technique to portray to the audience that the band are the main focus point of both pages. The use of the CVI also makes it easier for the audience to be drawn is, as the CVI is able to capture the readers attention immediately, due to its size and presence on the page. 

Marshall Stack Double page spread part 2

After analsying existing examples of double page spreads from indie/alternative music magazines i discovered a particular technique which made both the page and the entire magazine memorable, this particular technique is commonly known as a pull quote. The pull quote is a quotation from an artist which has been taken, or pulled, from the text and highlighted elsewhere on the page. The use of pull quotes on my double page spreads allows the audience to be entertained whilst reading, as the quotations picked are amusing yet sum up the band in a single sentence. Techniques such as this appeals to the indie scensters, as the members of this particular social group are youthful people who are not extremely interested in reading, so by using a pull quote the article is broken down and is made more interesting and therefore appealing toward the target group.