Evaluation Draft Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

My audience age range is 16-24, so it ranges between older teenagers and young adults of both genders, I designed my magazine in a way that will attract this specific type of readership and using both a male and female on the cover meant that it would not become too gender focused and would appeal to both the male and female target audience as I feel that having just a female model on the cover would attract more of a male audience and could end up conforming Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory, which would not be appropriate for my magazine genre or target audience.  The very basic mono-tonal colour scheme (black and white) used throughout my magazine also meant that my magazine would attract both a male and female audience as it is simplistic and minimalistic which suits the genre of the magazine, the band featured on the cover and the ‘indie/alternative’ target audience I am aiming DWNLD at.

The initial part of the magazine that the reader would see if it were to be placed on a magazine shelf in a shop is the masthead; this is because it is positioned at the top of the magazine meaning it would be visible on a shelf. The font I used (Innovation) is bold and clear yet it has an unusual italic edge to it, this means that readers will form a ‘brand recognition’ in relation to this type of font and the magazine itself. I used a similar font style to magazines i-D, Wonderland and Dazed & Confused; they are all bold and therefore hard to miss, they also share the same audience as my magazine so I can be assured it will appeal to the correct audience.

The models I used on my cover are dressed in the same style as my target audience are interested in, creating a blog post prior to taking my photos meant I was able to do some research into where my target audience like to shop and the current trends they were wearing (UK Tribes research), I then had the chance to plan out their costumes prior to the shoot to ensure it would attract the correct audience. My final cover features both the male and female members of the band; both in juxtaposition to each other (in relation to their poses). Both of their personalities are clearly shown on the cover which attracts the audience well, as they are a new band readers will see the bold image on the cover and will want to find out more. George is presented as the more serious member of the group, ‘moodily’ looking directly at the camera and addressing the audience with a rather intriguing expression on his face, whereas Ellie is presented as playful with an attitude and her winking facial expression contributions to her outgoing personality; which attracts the readers.

On my contents page I decided to use an image where both models are directly looking at the audience, again the grabs the reader’s attention and is one of the main focus points of the page, Ellie’s blue eyes and red lipstick are very appealing to readers and again draw the audience further in. Using clear and concise subheadings and columns on my contents page created a symmetrical page with a minimalistic and simplistic style that my audience could read with ease, shortly summarising each feature with a suitably vague sentence leaving them wanting to know more e.g. ’Are you having a laugh? TEED’s Orlando Higginbottom certainly is…’

When writing the article for my double page spread it was important to get syntax and grammar correct as any spelling mistakes for example could alienate my audience and create a bad name for the magazine, however it was still important to get the right balance between formality and syntax, as making my article too informal and too much use of colloquial language wouldn’t suit the genre of my magazine or the band, however making my article too formal may mean that readers may not be able to understand what they are reading and again could alienate them/put them off buying the magazine again.