3. NME Music Magazine
Using NME Magazine's media pack I have discovered the
following information..
Average age: 25 years old (however has a target audience
of people between 17-30 year olds).
Gender: Predominantly male
Social Status: Live in England, from a variety of social class
including , upper middle and working class segments.
Genre: young, modern and trendy individuals who have a
passion for music, films and technology with a quirky and
unique vibe.
4. Q Music Magazine
Using the Q magazines Digi pack I was able to
find out the following information….
Average age: 29 years old
Gender: Predominantly female at 75% female and
25% male.
Social status: Sophisticated women whom are
interested in artists such as Adele and whom are
of upper, middle and lower middle class. Their
readers are usually the older generation with a full
time or part time job.
6. In order to create my focus group I had to decide on a genre and theme to
base my ideas and design on, after deciding on Soul kind of genre with a
retro vintage vibe I then communicated this to them. I could then share some
examples and ideas with my focus group in order for them to help me adapt
and develop them while they have these ideas of what I am trying to achieve .
After analysing and researching existing media products and music
magazines , I have decided that I will base my ideas loosely around the same
themes as NME and Billboard as these magazines both fit the same cognitive
needs for their target audience as my chosen target audience. Therefore
when creating my focus group it was important for me to pick the correct
category of people that suited the demographics of my magazine that I
would create. In total I found eight people willing to participate in this that
fitted this category. These needed to be within the ages of between 18-25
year olds and could be either male or female and of any social class. However
the music genre of my magazine is based on vintage , soul and indie music ,
although it would be useful for my focus group to have an interest in this
music genre it was not vital as a they are commenting on the design of the
magazine rather than then content. The screen shot , shows me creating my
focus group and asking participate if they are willing to answer my questions.
8. Magazine name
I had decided on three music magazine names these were, Soul, Sound and Vibe. In order to
choose one I asked my focus group after giving them a small briefing on the genre and theme I
would like to attempt. The chart below demonstrates the overall views and choices made about
the possible names in which the focus group voted on. From this it is clear to see that ‘Soul’ was
the preferred name so therefore I have chosen this to be the name of my magazine. There is also a
screen shot included of my focus group to show evidence and demonstrate how I used iMessage
to communicate with the focus group in order to gather this information. I also spoke to them in
person about this decision and the five people that preferred the name ‘ Soul’ was because , “ this
suits the theme and genre of the magazine you are trying to create and also creates an instant
idea in the readers head on the type of music included and what to exact from the magazine
itself”.
VIBE
1/8
SOUL
5/8
SOUND
2/8
9. Front cover design
Another example of what I asked my focus group on was to
decide between two different layouts for my first cover design.
The majority did choose the first choice which was to have a
close up shot of the featured artist as this followed the codes
and conventions of music magazines that I have previously
researched however one participant did suggest that the idea
for the collage of images would be good to use on my front
cover as they proffered a variety. However as the overall
majority of the focus group decided upon the first choice , to
have a featured artist in a close up shot as they felt that this
would suit my magazine type and create the best impact.
10. Mast Head Font
I asked my focus group on which out of these styles of
masthead they best thought would suit my style and
genre of my magazine. As shown below my focus
group decided that the option number 2 would be the
one that most suited my magazine as the style of the
font ‘ Broadway’ reflected the ‘Soul’ genre and style I
was trying to create. Option 1 they decided did not
suit the style as well and also didn’t create such an
impact as option 2.
1.
2.
11. Front cover image
I also asked my focus group about the image for my front cover whether they
preferred It set in black and white or in colour as shown below. They all agreed on
colour the reason they mainly thought this is shown in the screen shot of my
focus group…
Images that I sent to my
focus group
12. Themes and ideas
In order to help establish my overall theme and ideas to my focus group I created a collage to
give them an overall idea of the types of images and themes that I wanted my magazine to
present. We discussed this face to face and they all agreed that they found this useful in order to
stimulate more ideas and also they all agreed that what was shown to them would suit the
magazine and also the demographics of the target audience I have chosen.
