Investigating Target Audience

The screenshots above represent me designing an online survey which I have used Survey Monkey website to do this. The purpose of this task was for me to acknowledge what my target audience would like to have in a school magazine to make it interesting and enjoyable to read. By the use of a specialist website to create a survey I was allowed to browse through many answer options such as mutliple choices or even comment boxes, which allowed the person answering the survey to get his response across. All of the questions which I have inputted into the survey were reflecting back to my own magazine creation e.g. they allowed me to see what I will have to include such as pictures or information for my target audience. As of it being a online survey, I was allowed to send out the link to many people of target audience, asking for them to answer. It was a quick process and Survey Monkey automatically reviewed and analysed the feedback people gave me, allowing me for clear understanding of the results. To get my final results I have not only used an online survey as additionally I have recreated the same questions in a hand out form to give to people to fill in by pen.

Online Survey:
The images below show the questions which have been placed in the online survey and the answers already analysed by Survey Monkey by the use of graphs.

As we can see all of the answers to my questions have been sorted into neat, visual graphs which allowed me for clear understanding of the results and applying these findings to my magazine research. Firstly, I can tell that my online survey has been successful as we can see that all of the answers have been from the 16/17 age group and from the same year 12 year group, meaning that these are the students which attend sixth form or college (my target audience). From the graphs I can also tell that the students which have replied to my survey were mostly interested in sport, however they also found technology, automotive, art and music interesting. This shows me that for my magazine I would have to pay attention mostly to these topics, as to making the magazine most suitable for the students. On the other hand, the majority which have answered my online survey were females which could be a problem as the results could be biased, however I believe that the overall results which I have gained apply to both males and females. Additionally I can tell from the results that the student do not read school magazines a lot as they have mostly chosen 'slightly often' as their answer. This signifies to me that they have not yet found a magazine which suits them therefore I have to pay significant attention to the results which I have gotten from them to increase their interest in school magazines.

Furthermore, the online survey has told me that the students will approve any student interaction pages such as crosswords,wordsearches or competitions. I believe that by having pages dedicated to 'interaction' the magazine would cause competition between students which would cause them to socialise more with their peers. From the graph and the comments which the students have left, I have noticed that they prefer the magazine to have bright/eye-catching colours as to the comment 'sophisticated but eyecatching colours (red,blue,gold etc)'. By this I now know that the colours which I intend to use in my magazine have to be attractive however not over the top, but neat and clear to see. From the graph feedback I can also tell that my target audience either would like to have a portrait picture or a wide shot picture of a person on the front cover of the magazine. Adding onto this I have also been told that graphic art would be a great addon to the magazine. This allows me to briefly get an idea of what I can include in my magazine as a starting point, which I will later develop in my making as I have to asses visually which image types will be appropriate .Lastly the respondents have told me that in terms of content they will prefer school news, reviews, interactions and images. Whereas for the text which will be visible in the magazine they would like it to be alligned, easy to read or even fancy. 

Handout Survey:

Here we can see a image of my filled out handout surveys. I have used the same questions which I have placed in the online survey. The only adjustment which I have made in this handout survey is to exchange the answer techniques for a small minority of the questions, as for example on the online survey the respondent could choose an option from a dropdown menu which is not available in a physical, paper copy therefore I have replaced this with tick boxes. I have left the open questions to have a comment box as by this I have allowed the person to enter their own answer, the same way they had on the online version.

Concluding, from the handouts I have gathered very similar records as to what I have received from the online survey. By this I am assured that the answers which I have gotten in the first place were correct. By the use of the online survey & the handout version of the survey, I know have collected beneficial information  as to what the magazine will look like (colour and images) and what it will contain (content) which will be put forward into creation of my own magazine.

Recreation of a magazine page

              Original                                                             Recreation

Here we can see the finished results of my recreation task. On the right hand side we have the page chosen by me to recreate from a already existing magazine, whereas on the right we have the finished product. To do this task I have watched and followed an InDesign tutorial video which allowed me to acknowledge new skills in a new DTP software. The purpose of this task was to allow me to follow and copy each detail of the magazine as well as use a software which is new to me, making my mind focus on all of the details and tools which I have to look out for. During this task I have learned many different skills in terms of software applications, but as well as in terms of visual presentation.

The skill which I have mainly acquired from this task, is finding the same resources as the article author has used in the original. I have gained this skill by carrying out multiple in-depth searches for the exact same image as the author has used. Later on I have developed this skill by using Photoshop to recreate the text which is also seen on the female silhouette in the image. I have searched the entire list of font styles the programme provides us with to find the most suitable font which was close to the original. Additionally I had to make sure the text has the same finish, proportions and positioning to the one in the original as I was aiming for the highest quality recreation. I think that gaining a skill like this has been very beneficial for me, as it allowed me to work on my focus and determination to achieve the best outcome possible. This will definately pay off in my own magazine making as I taught myself how to be careful and patient with my work, meaning that I will put my already known DTP skills to a better use.

Another skill which I have also gained from this task, is to proportion my page layout by the use of InDesign. In InDesign I was allowed to create my own rows and columns by clicking and dragging the ruler tool onto the canvas. This allowed me to follow the before measured out layout of the original magazine, which made my recreation as most accurate as possible. By this, I have been taught page properties such as bleed or inside/outside margin. This improved my theoretical as well as practical knowledge and understanding of what factors I have to follow to make my page layout successful.

Concluding from this task, all of the skills which I have gained from it will be put to a use in my magazine creation, making it far more friendly for me as I was allowed to experiment with softwares such as InDesign which I have never used and explore its functions which would help me with my further design tasks.

Typography

Here we can see my final work on typography. The purpose of this task was to acknowledge the use of different techniques such as colour, font style, bold or italics and the effect they had on the quote. As we can see above I have completed two versions of the same quote, with two different meanings. In the first quote I have decided to focus it more on the older, more mature target audience by making the quote mysterious as if it could relate to our life. I have achieved this by the use of the black/grey colour scheme which makes the text look serious and neat and additionally by the use of underline and italic technique I have emphasised the text, letting the reader know it is valuable.On the other hand, the second quote has been targeted by me for children aged 10+. Comparing this to the other quote version, we can see that the font which I have used in all of the black text in this version contains very round edges making it look rather 'cartoony', suiting the target audience. Additionally the use of different font styles for specific text parts in this version of the quote is equivalent to the use of underlining and italic as in the version before. Lastly, we can see that I have used contradicting colours such as blue which stand out against the rest of the black text. By this I have made it look very friendly and joyful, making it suitable for the age group which I have specified for this quote. Concluding, from this task I was allowed to experiment with different text editing techniques which allowed me to identify useful text editing options to convey different meanings by the use of text. I will definately use this skills in my own magazine production.

Analysing current magazines

"WRD About Books" magazine
- Age group: 10+
- Price : £2.50
- Colours: Bright, live, eye-catching, suitable for the age group
- Style: It appeals to a childrens scrapbook making the magazine seem as it belongs to the children.     They do this by the typography and hand drawn graphics on each page.
- Layout: The images visible in the magazine are mainly set irregularly around the pages making it     more attractive and more appealing towards the 10+ age group. Most pages have the text                   split into a vast number of paragraphs with slightly bigger subtitle which allows the young                   reader to acknowledge what topic hey are reading about. 
- Font: On the front page the text font used has a white border around it. By this the text stands out in front of the images and also makes the text seem easier for the eye as from the outside the border has curved, smooth lines whereas he text has jagged edges. On the inside the font is very sharp and thin. By this it makes the text easy to read against the coloured backrounds. For the subtitles the font used is very similar. It uses the same jagged font however smaller.

Above we can see a small analysis which I have performed for the images of the magazine above. By the analysis I have identified key features of the magazine such as colour,typography and graphics which I will definately consider using in my own magazine. The feature which I really like in the magazine is the audience interaction pages. By the use of these pages the magazines theme and purpose has been clearly conveyed as it shows that the magazine is for kids to have it as their own scrapbook. Adding onto that I have also looked at a second magazine called "TOXIC". This magazine clearly contrasts with the "WRD" magazine by the use of graphics, colour and typography. By this we are assured that the magazine is for a older target audience.

Contrasting, both magazines have used different techniques suitable for their target audience. Concluding, I have identified suitable features which I would consider in creating my own magazine making it suitable for my target audience and meeting my purpose.

INTRODUCTION

This is my OCR As Media blog. In this blog I will progressively upload content which will convey my progress in design and making, as well as improving my skills. 

During this year I will complete two tasks; the preliminary task and the main task.

The preliminary task will consist of me using a DTP and an image manipulation program to produce the front page of a school/college magazine which will consist of a medium close up photograph of a student, a well laid-out text and a masthead. Furthermore I must produce a DTP mock-up of the contents page for easy demonstration of the program.

During my Main task, I am to produce a front page, contents and a double page spread for a new music magazine. I will make a full use of the skills which I have gained from my preliminary, which would help me to make the main task up to the highest standard as possible.

The purpose of this blog is to show a journey throughout my year of AS Media.