Target audience

What is my target audience?

My target audience is generally a younger audience, and more aimed at females and people who are country/folk singers, or are interested in country/folk singing. Although, my magazine does contain information that could interest either males or females.

How did I address/ attract my audience?

I attracted the female audience through the use of features in how my magazine looks, using feminine fonts, and a generally feminine house style running throughout the magazine. I addressed the country and folk singers by using aspects and artists that they can relate to, and people who are interested in this sort of music by using a country artist as my feature artist. I attracted the singers through using a competition in my magazine to win the guitar of a famous singer who they would look up to, this entices them into buying the magazine, as well as adding a fun aspect to it.

Media Institutions

Research into Media Institutions:

Bauer Publishing Group: 
On the left shows most of the brands that Bauer publish. They publish lots of gossip magazines such as 'Closer', and 'Take a Break', as well as things like '4 music' and 'Golf World'.
Their slogan is 'We think Popular', which suggests that they focus on publishing magazines that they believe will be popular with their target  audience, as lots of the magazines they publish are fairly similar.






IPC Media:
IPC media focus on more up market magazines, as well as having a very wide variety, including music magazines, fashion magazines, and even golfing magazines. On the left shows lots of brands that they publish.
They say that they have 'more than 60 iconic media brands', suggesting that they focus on bolder brands, and magazines that will catch people's attention and stand out from the others rather than necessarily being popular brands.








What type of media institution might publish my magazine?

I think that the type of company that would publish my magazine would be someone like IPC media. 

I think that they would publish my magazine, because they publish magazines that also cover my target audience, and they publish music magazines. 

A magazine that they publish which covers a similar audience to mine is 'Marie Claire' (as shown to the left). They cover a similar audience to me because they aim at females, using feminine fonts to suit the main person on their cover, and colours that go with the photo. The only aspect of the 'Marie Claire' magazine that attracts a different audience to my magazine is that it isn't based around music. However, they do also publish magazines that focus on music, such as NME (shown below). 

They have a range of magazines that cover similar topics, and address the same audiences as my magazines. NME introduce lots of artists to their audience, a similar to mine, which therefore also means that they aim at the same audience, although they cover more of a male audience than 'Lyrics' does. As well as this, IPC publish more up market magazines, which is the type of magazine I would like mine to be, as opposed to 'gossip' magazines.

Why is it a good idea for the publisher to invest in 'Lyrics'?
It is a good idea for them to invest because Lyrics focuses on similar audiences to IPC media, and it will add to their already wide variety of magazines.

Social Groups

How does 'Lyrics' represent a particular social group?

I believe that the social group it represents is mainly females, and some folk singers. The fonts and the look of the artist are very feminine, with a look about them that mainly appeals to females, as well as having the masthead being a similar font, that females would relate to. The front cover represents females well, due to the flowery girly look of the artist, because of what she is wearing, and how she has presented herself, and the general style of the magazine also represents this group well.


 It represents folk singers, due to the rural, outdoors, soft kind of setting of the picture. It shows aspects that most people relate to folk singers, such as the guitar, and the neutral colours such as green and some blue-grey tones. This is a positive representation of these social groups because the artist I am using to represent them is well presented, successful, and a very down to earth type of person, that portrays females and folk singers well.





It also represents everyday people, this is through the artists I include being fairly unknown, on the verge of being popular in the music world. It means that artists in my magazine are relatable, and represent everyday people that perhaps read the magazine, and would therefore make them want to buy it, perhaps even because they are aspiring to become like the artists I use some day.

Feature Article Evaluation

Evaluation of my Feature Article

Below shows two versions of my magazine's feature article during the process of me making it, the first version is when I initially started creating it, and had my pictures laid out differently with not much text, and the second version is not much different from the final one, however the text is different, as it is more spaced out, and there is less of it.

      

 This is the finished version of my feature article, it shows how the text change between this one and the 2nd version.

Why did I lay it out how I did?

I laid it out mainly based on my original design (see research and planning blog), however did have to change it around slightly whilst editing. For example I had to move the positioning of the two smaller pictures, as how I had originally planned to put them did not fit in with my house style, as the text would not fit around them properly, so I moved them so that it would be neater, and fit with the house style of things essentially being laid out in boxes throughout my magazine. I chose to make the text closer together and add in more questions than originally planned, because it made it look as though it was filled up, and that there were no gaps or empty spaces on the pages. I added lines around some of the corners of the page in order to add extra detail, so that the readers would find it appealing to look at, and so that the use of the 'NEW ARTISTS- on the cover', would mean that this is a convention I could carry on throughout the magazine with different things such as 'AT HOME WITH- Victoria Phillips'.

Positives about the feature article:
I believe that my feature article is very eye catching, this is because of the large picture in the top right, which is bright and colourful, as well as taking up a large space so as to attract the reader's attention. It is also eye catching because of the lines used around the corners of the pages, and a consistent line across the bottom of both pages, which adds colour consistent with the green and blue tones I had already used. As well as this, my feature article contains questions that would have readers interested, getting to know a new artist, and lots of details about her, as well as addressing the reader almost to make them feel welcome when reading the article.


Negatives ( what I could have done better) about the feature article:
I could have perhaps added even more detail such as a smaller article in one corner, or even just more colour or pictures, as although it does look detailed it looks slightly plain. This would have made it even more interesting, and perhaps look more like a magazine feature article, and intrigued the reader into buying it. I could have added a sell line from the competition on part of the page, as it is to win the guitar in the pictures of Lola Roberts, which would have related well to the feature article and at the same time added something extra to it in order to intrigue the readers.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my magazine

What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my magazine?

As 'Adobe InDesign CS' was new software for me, I found it difficult to use at first, with the concept of using boxes, and simply through it being unfamiliar to me. However, gradually through using it, I learnt how to operate it, I was able to re-arrange the text, insert images, and lay it out how I wanted. I learnt a lot by doing this, and it allowed me to be able to create an effective overall magazine.

I also had to come to terms with 'Adobe Photoshop CS' when creating my magazine, which I hadn't used properly before. I had previously briefly seen  how to use it, although had never properly had a go myself. I had to do some practice photo editing in my research stage, because when it came to editing my actual photos, I wanted them to look as good as possible. This meant me looking through the different filters and effects that could be applied to images, how to add shadow or blur parts of it, and it helped me to edit my photos so that they had my desired look to them, and so that they were professional.

Below are some screen shots of my work space when editing photos in Photoshop, it shows buttons I used such as blur, filters I used when editing the colours on my pictures, and how I used the burn and sharpen tool for extra effect.

The first screenshot is of the levels of colour in the photos when editing them I used this on all of my photos to bring out specific colours that I wanted to include in them. This was useful because it made slightly darker photos look brighter, and almost added another dimension to the photos that you wouldn't get in the original copy, I also used the 'Brightness' tool to make photos brighter, and the 'Saturation' tool to make colours look more intense.

This shows the 'Blur' and the 'Sharpen' tool, I used these multiple times when creating the pages for my magazine. I used the blur tool to blur the background of pictures, and distract from certain things so that I could bring focus to the main aspect of the picture. I used the sharpen tool whenever I had a slightly blurry image that I wanted to use, it made it look clearer and easy to see, as well as making it look more professional through not using blurry images in my magazine.

This shows the 'Burn' tool, which is also a tool I used quite a lot in my images, I used it to create shadows in pictures so that there would be more of a contrast and it would stand out more. I also used it on anything that looked particularly light, so that it wouldn't be so bright and obvious, and would just dull it down a bit, but not so much that it looked obviously done, rather so that it looked more natural. The arrow is pointing to an example of where in the photo I used the burn tool to make corners look more defined, and also very lightly on parts of the srtyist in order to enhance her more, such as on parts of her hair ot her jacket.

Contents Page Evaluation

Evaluation of my Contents Page

Below is a saved version of my contents page whilst I was creating it, it shows how my page improved between then and my final page, and some of the changes I have made.

This is the final version of my contents page and shows the improvement from the original idea I had in mind:

Why did I lay it out how I did?

The design of the contents page is arranged to be neat looking, yet very informative. I laid it out using boxes so that it could all be organised and nothing would look 'out of place, which makes it look more professional and up market. I originally wasn't going to have the small section featuring 'Victoria Phillips' on my contents page, as I was going to have her on the front cover, however as that didn't fit, I still needed to include her. As well as this I put in the 'At Home With Victoria Phillips' section because I felt that the contents page needed more pictures rather than just lots of text, as I was originally going to have text in the place of it.

Positives about the Contents Page:
The first positive about my contents page, is that it looks professional yet still appealing to the younger audience through the font I have used, and the artists that are being featured. It looks professional through the use of the boxes, and the pictures, and general layout of the page, for example with the shapes behind the page numbers, and in the top left corner of the page. Yet it looks appealing to the younger audience because it  contains young artists, and the font is a very modern font that they would find interesting,, as well as having the competition to win the guitar to attract them. Finally the page numbers are clear, meaning that readers will find it easy to find anything they need in the magazine, rather than it being unclear and confusing.

Negatives (what I could have done better) about the contents page:
Firstly it could look more consistent, for example the background of the picture of the guitar doesn't really fit with the rest of the page. It stands out, and it is only supposed to be a small feature of the page, it could perhaps be more dulled down. Also, there could be more colour in the background, for example a very pale blue or another light colour, however when experimenting with this, I couldn't find a colour that worked, which is why I didn't include it. Finally, I could have included less text, as it makes it look a bit 'busy' and full up of information, and perhaps used more pictures instead, or made the text smaller.

In Comparison to Other Magazines

Comparing my Magazine to Others

In comparison to other magazines...
I would say that my magazine is similar to magazines that aim at female audiences, and talk about things that females would be interested in, like new up-and-coming artists or celebrities, an example would be something like marie claire based on the look of it, being similar to my magazine, or Q magazine based on the contents, writing about music, festivals, and about new artists.