Evaluation
Who would be the audience for your product?
During the research and planning element of this task I created an audience profile based upon the type of audience I would have liked to target. After actually creating my product, I would like to say that I have created and designed it in a way o=in which it did target the audience I originally planned.
This audience would be older teens between the ages of 17-25. They may mostly be students and therefore only have a small amount of disposable income. Furthermore, they would mostly be male, however, a large proportion of them would be female and I would need to target them too. They would spend their free time studying or with friends and therefore only have time to read this before bed or at lunch time.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
Q magazines audience demographic is very similar to the audience I wished to target, this meant that following a similar style and scheme would ensure that I was attracting the correct audience type. Moreover, the image I used on the cover was highly inspired by an issue of Q.
The type of cover lines I used were all surrounding acts and features of which my audience would listen to or be interested in. This theme was also translated onto the contents page as I had to include more features to fill unnecessary space.
I also had to ensure that the type face I used attracted the correct audience because using a serif font or a script style font could have potentially targeted an older or more female audience which would not have been the type of audience desirable for my product.
The artist I used also helped me attract the right audience as they are nearly 18 and could be found attractive by the male readers or as inspirational by the female audience. They would play in a popular genre of music; however, they would also be recognised for pushing conventions. This is what my audience identify with.
what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
I believe and institute such as Bauer media would be ideal for the distribution of my music magazine. As an already established institution, Bauer know exactly how to target and reach my desired target audience. Furthermore, with a history of publishing music magazines such as Q and Kerrang already, Bauer already have the knowledge of dealing with new creative magazine ideas which aim to capture their audience and readership in new creative ways.
They would allow ‘Up n Coming’ to be published online and in stores which could directly target my older teen readership demographic whilst still expanding to other new audiences. This is why Bauer would be perfect for distributing my magazine, their experience and ability in the field are incredibly powerful in this institution.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product?
One of the main things I have learnt from the preliminary task when transferring these skills onto the full product is the amount of research and planning that is vital in order to achieve the best possible product. This part of the task is something I did not do as well as I would have liked to in the preliminary task and therefore I spent a lot more time focusing on these details. Furthermore, this made producing the final piece a lot easier due to the fact that it helped me select colour schemes and fonts which would target the correct audience. For example, in my questionnaire two colour schemes were selected as the most appropriate for my design; however, after conducting interviews to see why one particular colour scheme was selected I decided to settle for the other as this seemed to fit the genre magazine better.
Another thing I found I have learnt is that although the pages are individual designs, when producing them, you must visualise them as one whole production. This was important due to the fact that in order for each pages’ design to suit the house style appropriately you would have to look at each page together to see which ideas would work as one. This was not something we had to focus on in the preliminary task due to the fact that we only had to produce the cover.
I also learnt the true value of being able to use technologies in the main task due to the fact that there were more images and slightly more complex designs which required patience in order for them to work out and look professional. I enjoyed using Photoshop to edit my images, particularly the image for the double page spread as this required an eye for detail and a lot more patience.