2. The social group my magazine was
aimed at was teens and young
adults, mostly male interested in
indie music and films, I wanted to
represent male teens in a less
stereotypical, conventional way and
more in an individual, unique
depiction. By doing this I hoped to
appeal to my target audience as they
would be looking for something a bit
different, and less mainstream, which
my representation of teens would
hopefully reflect.
The company would like to distribute
my magazine was the Wire, which
often covers indie music, film and
upcoming bands and artists so it was
important that I represented my
models and social groups in a way
which would appeal to the Wire, as
they often use eccentric costume,
mise en scene and shot types.
3. I chose the model for my front cover because they were the
perfect portrayal of how I wanted to represent my target
audience: a teenage male with individuality and not
conforming to dominant ideologies.
He also generally dresses in non-stereotypical, unique ways,
as seen on the front cover. The costume chosen for the
front cover was the most eccentric one, with the bright
colour and waistcoat with badges.
The mise en scene also included a ukulele rather than a
guitar, more typically associated with male teens, so adds
even more individuality.
I had the model looking away from the camera, but smiling.
Unlike many other magazines, even within the Wire, which
have the model looking directly, and confidently straight at
the camera. This challenged the convention and made him
seem more genuine, and less staged. This would help relate
to and reflect my target audience.
The whole look of the front cover image, whilst he looks
important, doesn’t look over-edited or false. He looks like a
normal teen male with an individual, unique style,
associated with the Indie culture.
4. Unfortunately I did not take
enough images to show a diverse
range of teens; however I had two
female teens, and two of the male
teen on my cover, this way I at
least had both genders and also
was still able to represent the
individuality and unique, indie
style that I wanted to. The two
female teens were still not over-
edited or particularly staged; they
looked like two friends just having
fun which again defies the
convention of having heavily made
up, edited females looking
conventionally ‘beautiful’.
5. The layout, fonts and colour
scheme I used all had my target
audience in mind
The black and white connote
sophistication and the indie genre;
the Wire typically uses black and
white, pale colour schemes,
however I also wanted to inject
some colour into my magazine to
reflect the young people in my
target audience and also make my
magazine a little bit individual and
more appealing.
The font I used for my masthead
chllenges the stereotype as it isn’t
such a plain, formal font as
commonly used in upmarket indie
magazines; it uses more dynamic
fonts and techniques such as ---
and ---
House Style
