Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Throughout the two activities, you will have been making creative decisions based on ideas you were developing about your readers. Where did these ideas come from? And how did they influence the 'micro' detail of shot composition and framing, anchorage, layout, mode of address and register?

I wanted a similar style to Q magazine and NME magazine. I took a lot of inspiration and a had a lot of help from these two magazines. I didn't want the traditional audience of an indie/rock magazine to be alienated by the way I have set out my front page, contents and my double page spread. I wanted them to be familiar with the traditional music magazine they are used to.

I took the traditional way to set out my double page spread, with the question in bold and in a different colour, I wanted the colour to be red obviously to keep my house style running throughout my entire work. I had to select my mode of address very carefully, I didn't want to bore them whilst they were reading it. I had to keep them engaged and so they couldn't wait for the next line of the interview. My mode of address therefore is very relaxed and causal, it reflects in my opinion an indie character. I also included swear words inside my interview, I think it relates very well back to my target audience with the use of swear words, it makes them feel they are having a conversation with a friend who they have known for years, instead of an artist who is fairly new to them. Whilst constructing my double page spread I had to be careful with my language, once again I didn't want the audience to be alienated by unknown language. I wanted them to understand the language and also use words and phrases that the target audience would use every day.

"Yeah that was a kick in the teeth for me"

To attract my audience I had to select my colours very carefully. I did not want a colour that would dominate the whole page, or a colour that would look out of place in terms of the colours on the image. My image in my opinion is dominated by the beautiful and vibrant red lips, I wanted my heading and my cover lines to match that red colour, of course I could guess and try match that shade of red, but using the eye dropper tool I took the colour of the lips and then transferred that colour to my headings and cover lines, it made my life a lot easier!

The ways and methods that I have used that are similar to other magazines for example Q and NME. Is that I have a number of effects which are only available on Photoshop that I have used on my final product, for example drop shadow, stroke, inner glow and an outer glow. These effects add a professional edge that Q and NME carry out every edition. Another similarity of my magazine to Q or NME for example is that my front page model is the one I will be carrying out most attention to, for example my double page spread. Another similarity is the title of mine, compared to NME's. They are very similar, with it being in large block capitals, the bold deep red, different effects used and of course the abbreviation of the two titles.

My unique selling point is the amount of hugely popular and famous bands/artists that are reviewed inside my magazine. For example "Lilly Allen and Florence and the Machine".I don't think any magazine on the market can offer this large amount of reviewed artists as much as my magazine does.