Foundation Portfolio
For this question, 75% of my target audience answered that they would like the main image to be in a natural setting which is associated with the rock genre. This may be because of their previous experiences with rock magazines and know that they typically use backgrounds which aren’t plain. A background associated with the genre can give a deeper meaning to the artist, in a similar way to how songs can, therefore a background such as a graffiti wall is more appropriate for this genre as it can help connote different meanings as well as enhance their grungy, carefree attitude. Being influenced by the answers given, we have decided to position our artists in a location which is considered natural to the genre.
62.5% of young people asked said that they would associate ‘blue, red and white’ with a student magazine. This may be because of the fact that they are simple, but also very professional colours which have been used in thousands of magazines before. They may have also picked these colours because it represents school life perfectly. Red connotes the true reality of school life and how it can become overwhelming at times, whereas the blue and white connote that once you get past this, you will sail through life much easier as it has taught you valuable life skills. Due to this result, we have decided to make our colour scheme on our student magazine blue, red and white.
Out of 16 young people we asked to complete our questionnaire, 87.5% of them answered saying that they didn’t want free gifts in our music magazine. A reason for this may be due to them wanting a higher quality of interviews, pictures, layout etc. And that they would rather we place a larger budget on these than buying and placing possibly worthless gifts inside. Another reason why they possibly said that they didn’t want gifts is because the audience that we are targeting are young adults who like the genre rock, and these do not typically feature gifts due to their ‘harshness’. Gifts are targeted at children- not young adults. Due to this high difference in percentage, I and my partner have decided not to include a free gift inside of our rock magazine.
Compared to the other questions analysed, this question has more mixed reviews as every option given was at least chosen by one of the sixteen young voters. With 50%, having a sports captain on the front of a student magazine was the highest answer given. The second was the cheerleader with 25%. A reason for these results is possibly because of the fact that these characters within a school are stereotypically attractive, meaning that the audience is more likely to buy a magazine with someone that they consider to be ‘good-looking’, or ‘hot’ over someone that they personally consider as not attractive to the eye. ‘Geeks’ was chosen by 12.5% of the voters, which is possibly because they are stereotypically found within a student magazine, congratulating them on their achievements. From these results, I and my partner have decided to either have a sports captain, cheerleader, or even both on the front cover of our music magazine.
Similar to the question before, this question also has mixed reviews as everyone picked each location offered in the multiple choice question at least three times. The highest option chosen was the classroom at 37.5%; the second was the studio setting at 25% and lastly both playground and the school field was voted by 18.75% of participants. Our voters may have answered in this way because the classroom is what you automatically associate with a school building, therefore a stereotypical setting for a student magazine. The studio setting may have been chosen by voters due to past experience and seeing many student magazines with plain backgrounds to allow the model on the front of the cover to stand out. As of a result of this, we have decided to either position our model in a classroom or by using a studio have him/her simply posing with a white background behind.
ANALYSIS OF INTERVIEWS
To give us a better understanding of what my target audience would like to see on our rock magazine, we conducted two interviews with open-ended questions to allow our interviewees to elaborate on their views and opinions. In regards to our student magazines, both interviewees informed me that they both feel like the colour scheme is important in order for them to be attracted to the magazine. Due to different colours connoting different meanings, they would both like to see colours which represent the school as a great place to work in such as blues, greens and white. Therefore by using a limited, but very meaningful palette of colours, we are more likely to attract a larger and wider range of people to our magazine. From both questionnaire and interviews, I and my partner have decided to choose a colour scheme that will definitely involve the colours blue and white, and potentially have hints of red and green to appeal to our target audience.
From our lively interviewees who used loads of gestures throughout the second question, they clearly demonstrated that they would be impressed and would buy our rock magazine if it contains stereotypes in which they associate with the genre. From their answers, I have concluded that I will be including stereotypes on the front cover of my music magazine so that I can draw in the attention of my audience as this is what appeals to them. Using models which are strumming their guitar with clothing and hair that suits the genre (from my interviewees they said that they would expect to see the models wearing bandanas with big, voluminous stand-out hair) will attract my target audience as this style will be eye-catching and bold, allowing the target audience to see our magazine straight away even if it is on a shelf surrounded by other magazines.
It is more likely for the reader to skim over or skip a double page spread due to them being overwhelmed with tonnes of text with a disorganised layout; therefore we asked our interviewees what they would expect to see on a double page spread. We were informed that we should have columns located on our page, which is a code and convention of a magazine, however I also believe that this makes the page look much tidier and presentable, therefore should attract a larger audience. Both interviewees informed us that they would like a prominent main image of the rock artist, which will allow us to lure in the attention of our target audience. As expected, a main image is much more attractive than loads of text and as a result of this I and my partner will try to make the main image cover the majority of the double page spread, and have a small area dedicated to an interview or article. A pull quote was also suggested by one of our interviewees, which we will definitely use on our double page spread as this is one of the main ways in which we can lure in the attention of our audience as it is typically controversial, factual, or ‘huge news’ in the world of the artist which we as an audience are typically interested to read more about.
The last question which we asked our interviewees involved them telling us what they would expect the model(s) to be doing on the front cover of our rock magazine. Both answered in a stereotypical way, and used previous experiences with rock magazines to describe to us that the lighting is typically low key and that they would expect to see musical instruments. Low-key lighting is considered mysterious and dangerous, and I think that the interviewees would expect this lighting on a rock magazine because rock musicians are loud individuals which may be seen as scary to some. One interviewee informed us that they would expect the camera to be positioned at a low angle. I think that this person said this because a low angle makes the artist seem much more dominant, which suits the genre perfectly as rock musicians are considered harsh and grunge-like, therefore much more intimidating than other music genres such as pop.