Evaluation Question L: Skills Development

Evaluation Question K: Technologies

Evaluation Question I: Target Audience

Evaluation Question H: Institutions

Evaluation Question D: Institution

In order to begin considering who will publish my magazine I will have to take into account numerous factors, these being if they already have a magazine similar to this as they will be discouraged to distribute if this is the case, if the style of magazine will fit into the target audience they are trying to appeal to primarily, and also if it will be a magazine to bring in a larger group of people. Future PLC I believe are the most appropriate publishers for my magazine, they’re well known for their gaming, movie and music market, currently looking to target more musicians internationally. Currently they publish ‘Rhythm’ and ‘Total Guitar’, both well-known music magazines, however I feel I will get the chance to be published due to the fact that my magazine corresponds with the audience they are heavily hitting, also because this magazine is unique to them where they do not have a rock themed magazine where I believe there should be. The majority of Future PLC’s magazines are distributed in many high profile retailers with the likes of ‘Tesco’ and ‘ASDA’ for example, I believe my magazine has the potential to cope with the high demand that these retailers set.

Moreover, Distorted targets an audience similar to that Future aims for anyway and will still draw a larger audience in to this company. They already publish a few magazines that are based around music, though none like mine, this is what will be drawing in a larger audience punk rock fans will become more interested in their publishing company as a whole. My target audience will have previously heard of their gaming magazines as this is what appeals to them, and also due to their popularity. I needed to bring something new to a publisher this is why I didn’t go to another publisher such as ‘Bauer’, this is a company that will hesitate to distribute due to the number of magazines they already have similar to this one e.g. ‘Kerrang!’, plus my magazine won’t be as exposed as these as they are already top performing magazines where it will not be likely that their fans are going to switch to this magazine.

This is a publisher that largely relies on multi-media distribution, in the modern day this is the best way to connect to an audience, especially my younger target audience that will rely on digital based product and contact. They’re portfolio goes from print editions, to apps on mobile devices, online editions, etc… They also engage news and events largely through social media, through mobiles and any more. All this would mean is that my magazine will reach a larger range of my target audience, mainly the younger generation that relies on this method in order to keep updated and get their product.

Evaluation Question G: Representation

Evaluation Question G: Representation

I feel as if my product has done a very accurate job in representing the punk culture that my magazine is trying to portray, though I have mentioned previously that the whole culture is a large range of people and gender isn’t even considered as a difference within my audience, I have still found that the stereotypical demographic is a working class young adult; this is what I have planned around when designing. In order to appeal directly to them I had to understand and fit their known demographics into my magazine, this is what influences my house colour choices and cover lines etc. Throughout my research I found that the common punk fan wore fairly dark colours, this explains the black and dark red that I had used, the yellow and white was used in order to contrast with these to stand each concept out to the audience. Due to it being a magazine targeted towards males I used the majority male models, except the author’s picture, females would appeal to them however they would feel as if they have a connection already due to them being male and has something to relate to instantly; this is a convention followed by most punk rock magazines. When presenting what I have included in the magazine I have used news that would impact my audience in one way or another, these cause interest so they’ll read further into the edition. Sections I have included in my magazine such as ‘gigs’ are directly relatable to this audience, an activity that I have found is something that they do regularly to spend their time with friends for example. Other stories that I have featured are ones that will certainly grab the attention, the death of Lenny which is one of the most well-known rock stars in this culture so the majority will be mourning over his death creating a large impact on my audience in this aspect. Other audiences won’t be as affiliated to this kind of story as others, an audience of middle aged mothers whose hobbies include gardening will be the last person to pick up this magazine, they will not be seen as the kind of people to be interested in the merchandise that’s been given away free or the competition entries due to the prizes not being aimed towards them. 

Other design ideas had to be aspired towards in the sense that I had to consider even my language when writing my feature article for example. The language that I had used was intended to make it seem as if they are talking to someone else of similar interests to them, that the magazine was seen to be as having personality, to perform this and increase my consumerism within my selected audience I included words that would be found in a general dialogue between my audience including curse words and slang, this is also the way the lyrics in their favourite songs will have be written in order to direct it towards the same audience I am marketing for. Other than swearing and slang, I had to write the magazine so it will be as basic as I can make it without becoming patronising, an easy read is something that will be appealing to this audience, but they don’t want completely simplistic words as this won’t make them feel good considering even magazine brands that supposedly are on their side, become against them as well as society which they are trying to escape. However, this kind of language will only be suitable in this style of magazine whereas if I look at trying to target an elderly generation none of this will be seen as acceptable, possibly offensive, so I had to ensure that my content was written suitably. Images are a large part in creating a magazine for this audience, looking at the likes of ‘Kerrang!’ which are heavy users of imagery to promote their stories meaning that this convention is a very effective feature as it will draw more people in. So all my images had to be priority to me, the models in my magazine look as if they are to be taken seriously, though fun is no depravation of theirs still considering that some of them are made to look as if they enjoy their craft and want to do it as if it’s not a chore, this puts people off their music as they want passion, many fans of this music are happy just that I have taken similar photos to those I have seen in other magazines.

Evaluation Question F: Forms and Conventions

Feature Article- Double Page Spread

Evaluation Question F: Forms and Conventions

Forms and Conventions- Contents Page

Evaluation Question F: Forms and Conventions

Front Cover- Forms and Conventions

Evaluation Question K: Technologies

http://www.flipsnack.com/NathanPunter/evaluation-question-k-technologies.html

J. Evaluation: addressing an audience

Evaluation J: Addressing an audience

The point of sale for my magazine will start in major retailers such as Tesco or WHS Smith; these are the places where I believe my magazine will be noticed by a larger amount of people easily allowing it to gain popularity quickly, especially with my target audience. With the increased popularity I will begin having opportunities to sell my magazines in places such as large gigs where the attendees will majorly be my target audience, HMV retail plenty of products that are appealing to my audience, or clothing and skate shops that have a frequent amount of my target audience going in, this will increase the sales of my magazine steadily as these will be places focused on my target audience already.

The colour scheme on the front cover comes across as dark, though still very attractive from the bright yellow, an instant correlation on the magazine between punk music due to its ark culture though it has features that have been made to stand out more than others using bright colours, drawing attention, the colour scheme represents the music genre as a whole. My masthead is a unique selling point on magazine as I have named it after an effect commonly used in music to get a different noise, distorted, the title itself represents the magazine as a whole anyway; another way of outputting to an audience. Thomas Griffin, the person modelling my main cover photo, is showing direct mode of address, this is to make the audience feel as if he’s looking straight out at them, a more personal relationship between the main articles figure and the audience. All cover lines are placed down the right side of the magazine, a way of laying out my magazine cover in order to clearly present what is in my magazine as not to come across as messy, though I have made it a little messy and informal to appeal to the audience. The cover lines themselves all use large bold fonts, to show a sense of urgency more than anything, the yellow font draws the attention to who the story is about then the red is the descriptive of the story in order to see if the audience will want to read on. In order to make sure I had got the layout and design spot on, I constantly asked for criticism from my target audience and even had a questionnaire that went out to my audience in order to know what they want in the magazine.

When deciding on questions to ask Thomas Griffin I found that the majority of the people I had asked about what should be featured suggested that they would like to know a lot about his music other than just personal life, this is something they believe other magazines do poorly and feel that the articles are not what they are looking for, so I asked a few about his personal life but focused on his musical career. I also chose the question and answer format for the reason that he is new to the scene and people want to know about him before an article is written on him, this will get them interested in this person and increase his popularity. The language used clearly shows that this magazine is targeted to those between 16 and over, where the use of curse words are used for example as this is just how those that follow this culture are tailored to talk generally, but the interview as a whole is very friendly in the sense that it is very mellow and something that people will enjoy reading. There is also a few uses of slang though this won’t be noticed as much by my target audience as this is common etiquette of talking to each other.

Evaluation : Target audience

http://www.flipsnack.com/NathanPunter/evaluation-e-target-audience.html

Draft Work

Original Ideas Statement

Construction Schedule

Week 1 (5^th-9^th October) -Complete the three product drafts and other planning work

Week 2 and 3 (12^th-16^th October) -Photo shoot for magazine images, at least four images for the whole magazine

Week 4 (19^th-23rd October) -Create front cover template, collect text from websites such as dafont ready to place, edit front cover image in order to be used

Week 5 (26^th-30^th October) - Place all text on front colour and also the main image, then adjust these where necessary adding colour to text finding out what’s most suitable, now add shapes and banners to front cover.

Week 6 (2^nd - 6^th November) -Create contents page template, collect text from font websites ready to place, edit all of the images that I am planning to use in order to be used.

Week 7 (9^th-13^th November) - Place all text on contents page, add the images, then adjust these where necessary adding colour to text finding out what’s most suitable, fill in the shapes that I had placed on the blank template.

Week 8(16^th-20^th   November) - Create feature article template, collect title  ready to place, edit the double page spread image in order to be used as this will require quite a bit of editing, finally write out the article ready to copy over into Photoshop..

Week 9(23^rd -27^th November) -Place the image on to the page and add the article text over it then change the colour for it to correspond, next add the title in order to find out what colour to make it in order for it to stand out, now add conventions such as drop caps for it to follow traditional form and conventions.

Week 10(30^th November- 4^th December) - Add all finishing touches and tweaks to final products.

Location, props, costumes

Location/props/costumes

A range of components have to be considered when taking these images, but mainly how to make them relate to the target audience and stay relevant to the magazine. The aspects I have had to plan out are the props I will need the person to be holding or in the background, costumes that they will all be wearing as this is a key point in trying to relate to an audience, then lastly the location as to where the pictures will be taken to create the correct ambience, having a mise-en-scene that appeals to an audience is a dire need as these are strong selling points.

The main image on the front cover will be an image of Tom, Tom is the one who has volunteered to partake, though it can’t just be an image of him on a dormant space. He will need to be accompanied by details that will make the image appealing to my target audience, the electric guitar strapped around his neck will be a key point, and then large amps scattered in order to show that the magazine is loud with no drawback on quality. Contents page will have images of the items related to what the pages article is, bands, competition wins etc… The main article will have another image of Thomas as the front cover links to the feature article, to follow the conventions of popular magazines.

Costumes will need to be chosen accordingly to follow the stereotypical ‘punk look’, so the appropriate apparel will be generally skinny jeans or ripped jeans, skating style trainers, a shirt accompanied with an under shirt, denim vests and their own band shirts used for self-marketing their merchandise. Same with hairstyles, a non-formal, ‘against society’ look is what is commonly found, e.g. mohawks, so I will be using messy/spiky hair that will give this impression across. All of these are what make up the punk community as a stereotype and this will give the direct relations between the target audience and Thomas, who is the main selling point of the magazine, so he will need to be connected to the reader in one way or another.

Where I take the images will be an feature that needs to be accounted for, I will not use the studio the college has to offer for the reason that I believe it will be more appropriate to do it in a place that’s similar to the likes of an abandoned warehouse or a graffiti covered run down area of town in the evening, a studio would not appeal to my target audience. However, I will use the studio to get an upper body shot on Thomas and for a group photo that will represent a band, these are to show off these people formally and in a way that will come across as giving the audience a direct mode of address in order to become more personal with the reader. The other images will be taken in a gig location as to show off a band and how they connect to the genre, plenty of amps and instruments, then my feature article will be taken in a night time setting out in a ‘rundown’ section of a neighbourhood to show that he’s anarchistic and does what he wants.

To conclude my images will need to be having similar codes and conventions that a general punk fan follows the location and style. Skinny jeans that look worn out, even slightly torn in areas, shoes that look like they would typically come from a cheap skate shop included with used laces scuffed at the sides nearer the ends similar to a normal skaters shoes. A shirt that could be formal but has been made to look informal to show off that they don’t take pride in what they look like, how they go against orthodox intentionally. The hairstyle will be messy similar to popular punk bands that as sum 41 for instance, having similarities between popular bands in the scene will give clear indicators of how say Tom will portray himself as. My original images will be taken in a warehouse that’s currently being made up, this has the abandoned feel to it along with the gear everywhere and slightly ruined, but also to show we go anywhere we want, going against society as this is what my target audience will relate to.