2. Existing Product The image used on the front
cover is taken in a studio. You tell
by the use of background and just
off my own knowledge its all done
by with a photographer.
When photos are taken and done in the
studio, the image itself is always edited
to make the person look better for the
front page. The image itself is looking at
the person whoever picks the magazine
up. To me the instantly makes me feel
that the interview is more of a
personally level of the rappers life then
how successful he is doing. Again
another reason why this may be the
case is how what t-shirt he has on. Its
ripped and got dirt on it maybe
suggesting he's actually having a hard
time at this moment in time. The final
interest of the main image I find is how
his hair has been frozen in shot. Instead
of it being tied up and hidden it has
been let go and for everyone to see
which is maybe what the interview is
about, the rapper is letting some
personally secrets about his life that he
has been hiding.
The colours used on this front cover red,
white and black are very plain and
boring. But with most of the rolling
stones covers they keep to the classic
style that they have always had. This
could also mean that the company want
to be known as a good professional and
classic magazine another reason for the
colour choices are they are more
masculine representing the main image.
With the masthead, it is coloured red
mainly because of eye catching the
colour is. Also with the mast head, its
placed behind the main image because
the magazine is so well known the no
longer need to dhow the full masthead
to be recognized.
When it comes down to the
audiences appeal I feel that when I
see this, I would want to buy it and
read through it. I think the reason for
this is because the cover looks very
professional and well done. Even
though there aren't any vibrant
colours popping out I feel that this
cover would still stand out and be
eye catching for its classic style.
I has chosen this to review because
its related to what I want to create
but also because I know that I like
the way they design their front
covers and how classic and
professional they look. I want to try
add some of their style into my
work.
The use of the serif font, I feel is another way of getting the
message across that its more of a serious topic and what
represents the rapper at the time. Below his name it gives off a
small clue is to what the topics of the interview will involve and
is worded enough to grab the readers attention by using the
word ‘angst’. The cover lines are placed in a very good and
convenient place not too much in the way but just enough to
catch the readers attention.
3. Existing ProductThe main image on the front cover of
this XXL magazine is again done in the
studio. You can tell by the choice of
the background colour and the
picture itself looks very edited and
touched up to look better. Another
way I can tell is that there is only one
side of his face shaded in and also the
shiny glow off of his other side of his
face.
Expanding on that point the two
different shades on his face are blue
and orange tinge. These two colours
are opposites, which to me represents
some duality of his personality which
is some good and some bad. This to
me can give off a clue to what you
might find out about him in the
interview. Then the background on its
own almost has its own meaning of
maybe we don’t know something
about him that he could be holding
back, ready to tell people. The colour
used is a very feminine so this could
indicate he is on touch or supporting
women in general. The main image
has the trap rapper with his arms
folded and eye level with the reader.
To me this means that its probably a
serious interview about the rapper
and that he isn't messing around and
has some serious stuff to talk about, a
personal interview. His facial features
are very plain and dead face giving off
almost a sinister feel to the rapper.
The masthead is quite big takes up a
larger amount of the top left corner. Its
good because it lets the reader know
what magazine company it is straight
away and is very eye catching along side
with the red. The red and the
background I well have been contrasted
well together so its very eye pleasing to
look at.
Having his name at the bottom the front
cover and the title of the issue works
well in my opinion because it would be
the second or third ting you spot when
first glancing at the magazine. Using the
choice of white and black in the bold
serif font gives off a almost gothic style
to his name and this also helps the name
stand out from the rest of the
information on the page.
The cover lines on this front cover are
nicely placed on both sides and not in
the way of the main image. The colours
the publishers have used are just classic,
simple and help them stand out against
the background. The writing itself is all in
bold, so this helps it stand out more
against the background. The content of
the cover lines is relative to the genre
and clearly states what information is
going to be added in the magazine.
For audience appeal, I feel that it’s a very interesting and
noticeable front cover and looks vey appealing to me and the
music industry in a whole. The content shown on the front
cover is enough to grab the audiences attention to read it. I
have chosen to review this front cover because like before it
has some good features that I personally would like to evolve
In my product. By adding these features it will advance my
work further.
4. Existing Product The main image on the front cover of
this magazine I feel gives off some
obvious context into what the topic is
about without even looking at the
bottom of the page. The lady on the
front is dressed like a queen which gives
off the meaning that she is dominating
the music scene at the moment in her
genre or the charts. Again she is looking
at the reader at eye level making it
seem more of a serious topic interview.
The image as a whole is making it seem
that Stefflon Don is the queen of united
kingdom when it comes down to the
music scene. The image itself will have
been taken in a studio. I can tell that is
has been done in the studio because of
the light being reflecting off the chosen
background, reflecting giving off the
effect as shown on the front cover.
The mast head is central and has a
nice bold font making it stand out a
lot. The colour of the mast head on
this addiction is all white and the
reason for this is because its
matching the red and blue
background to represent the United
Kingdom just like the main image. I
feel like the main image is covering
the mast head to get the point across
that the topic is more important then
their title and that’s what they would
like the readers to focus on, which
makes a lot of sense.
Here at the bottom of the front cover is the artist
name and a small two word statement. The state just
goes along with the main picture and gives the rest of
the context given by the main picture. The two word
statement is ‘BOW DOWN’ and basically is saying to
should be bowing to her as she is now the new queen.
Their isn't any cover lines on this front
cover, which to me suggests that its
only about the given main topic.
When thinking of audience appeal, I
feel that yes again it’s a very
appealing front cover. The design is
very eye catching sand different to
look at which will catch peoples eye. I
personally don’t listen to her but for
her fans and people who enjoy tat
style of music will be attracted to it.
Why I chose this cover to review for
two reasons and those two reasons
are because it’s the latest issue to
come out from this company and
again I do like the style that NME use
when designing their front covers.
Hopefully this can inspire me to
understand the latest style of front
cover.
5. Existing Product
This hoodie is from the rap group Flatbush
Zombies.
The colours and the design used are
very suited to the hoodie and work
very well. The pattern used is tie dye.
The pattern used relates the artist
music and style.
The name of the rap group is
clearly placed on the front of the
hoodie to show who the
merchandise is from and is also
placed on the sleeve. The font used
for both again is relating to what
the groups style is.
I would say the audience appeal for
hoodie is very good because of the
design used makes it a very
appealing item to purchase. It
would would appeal to the
audience because die hard fans of
this rap group will have the same
attitude in life and can relate to the
group. That’s another key factor in
why it appeals to the audiences
style.
I chose to review a hoodie and this
style of hoodie because I was
thinking of creating my own
merchandise and this in my
opinion is some of the better
merchandise out their.
6. Existing Product
This phone case is representing the rap group
Wu Tang Clan.
The colours used for this phone case
relates to their most famous album. The
use of black is very masculine and also
has a meaning of where they have come
from and the hard times they had faces
growing up. This is maybe why they
show off darker colours.
The actual logo shown is of their
clothing brand and merchandise.
The colour gold used for this stands
out a lot when placed on top of the
black background makes it stand out
and becomes very eye catching to
the fan/buyer. Another thought of
mine is that the choice of cold could
represent them as people fighting
through the hard times and
becoming wealthy and stars.
At the bottom of the phone case is a
faded picture of the group them self.
The picture may have been placed
there to put a faces to a name that
people might not know.
For the audience appeal of this phone
case is very appealing because it has the
nostalgic, classic Wu Tang Clan symbol
that will relate to their die hard fans. I
think the case looks well and all the
colours make the phone case its own.
I chose this phone case because it has
the same topic and genre I'm looking at
involving in my magazine. Another
reason is that I like how its designed and
laid out, I can look at it and maybe take
some tips of how to design my own.
7. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched
products have?
• For my first three products I have reviewed all have the same layout and design for a front cover. They have the
main image of the person that the interview will be about. All of them have some sort of effect to make them
specialised for that issue. All of the front covers I have chosen, are quite personal and have the celebrity looking
directly at the reader. Throughout the three front covers they have kept the same old classic style of magazine
covers which I personally like. For the other two products, as they're both items of merchandise they have an
obvious same feature and that feature is having the groups name in main focus showing off who's merchandise it
really is.
• What aspects of the research will you include
within your own production work?
• The main aspects of my research that I'm going to use in my own production are the classic styles of the front
covers and how they use their layouts so effectively. But when taking on someone else's idea I want to be able to
add my own style and thoughts to them so it advances in a positive way. Then with the merchandise, I was
thinking of taking their layout and colour design to make my own merchandise look the best it possibly can.
9. Audience research • Observation: it appears that on
my first question, out of the 22
people who did my survey 14 said
that rolling stones was their
favourite magazine out of the other
three given.
• What this says about my
audience: they have a good
knowledge on magazines and that
they prefer the classic style of
magazine and how well they make
the front cover look. They also must
enjoy how they give out their
content in the magazine as well as
the front cover design.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience: I
feel like my product will appeal to
this audience because I was getting
most of my inspiration from the
rolling stones magazine. But
hopefully they will like my own twist
on it.
10. Audience research • Observation: for question two I
was half surprised to see that
personal interviews were more
interesting the professional
interviews. But I guess that it can be
more entertaining then a serious
interview.
• What this says about my
audience: what this says about
my audience is that they enjoy to
learn about the artist as a person
maybe before getting to know their
music. Gives the audience
background on the person to add
into conversations about said
person.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience: I
was going to try add a bit of both in
because both topics are just as
popular as each other so I think
personally it will go down well.
11. Audience research • Observation: a lot more of the
male gender had answered my
survey then of the female gender.
• What this says about my
audience: mostly male audience
and I will mainly aim my content
towards men but I also need to add
in content for girls as I do still have
a girl audience.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience:
well I feel that it will appeal to my
audience because I was going to
make It appealing to both genders.
Such as unisex merchandise or boys
and girls merchandise and the
content in the magazine will appeal
to both genders.
12. Audience research • Observation: for question four,
it appears that the age range of my
magazines was more in between
16-18 then 19-23. which I did
expect because a lot of us in the
class are the same age roughly.
• What this says about my
audience: this says that my
audience is still maybe maturing
into a young adult, but again I do
still have people aged in between
19-23.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience:
well I feel again that I will end up
appealing to the target audience
but again it might not because Id
prefer to create a more mature
magazine for my audience.
13. Audience research • Observation: for question five,
all round its pretty equal on what
the audience would like to win in a
competition but what is annoying is
that the most popular prize they
would want to win isn't related to
my topic genre.
• What this says about my
audience: this says about my
audience is that they would want
me to have a console or phone for a
prize over a music prize, which
means they aren't that into music.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience: the
prize I was going to add in might not
be as popular as what the audience
might want.
14. Audience research • Observation: from looking at
question six I can see that
clothing items are way more
cared for then phone cases.
• What this says about my
audience: this says that they
would prefer to buy and rep
clothing then a phone case so
that’s what I will end up
designing a few clothing items to
appeal to everyone.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience: I
was going to design some
clothing merchandise before
dong this survey, so by getting
this response makes me feel
confident that it will appeal to
the audience.
15. Audience research • Observation: from looking at
question 7 I found out that from the
audience that they find posters
attract them the most then the
other options such as radio or pop
ups on applications.
• What this says about my
audience: my audience would
rather see a poster in the street etc
and that would get their attention
more. This means that they pay
more attention when walking the
streets.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience: I
was thinking of either creating a
poster or a radio advertisement but
now from seeing the results I think
that the audience will appeal to what
I'm going to create.
16. Audience research • Observation: looking at
question seven its very equal on
what the audience like to see in
magazines, which gives me a good
variety on what I can add into my
magazine.
• What this says about my
audience: my audience wants to
see a variety of information in my
magazine. Being given thins
situation I will have to try and cover
all topics in small bits and pieces.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience:
the content I will be adding into my
magazine I feel is going to appeal to
my audience very well on the fact
that I was already going to add
some of this information into my
magazine.
17. Audience research • Observation: for final the final
question I was interested in putting
this question, because it would
good to add in some more small
detailed information on prices for
my merchandise. And what I can
see is that I can place a wide range
of prices when it comes to finishing
off my merchandise.
• What this says about my
audience: if there was
merchandise for sale then they
would pay a decent price to help
support their favourite artists.
• How will your product
appeal to this audience: I
will take information from this
question and add into my
production so it will then hopefully
appeal to my audience.
19. Interview 1
• Do you buy magazines for the free gifts or the articles? And why ?
Depends on what the free gift is as I wouldn't’t usually buy a magazine so if I was
going to it would be because I am actually interested in the content. Although like
I said if it’s a really good free gift id get it for that.
• What do you personally like about reading Magazines? And why?
Seeing what other peoples views are about subjects I am interested in as it is
good to compare my opinions to theirs
• Do you find magazines educational depending on the topic? And why?
yeah I do as you can learn from them
20. Interview 1
• Observation: I feel that the answers that I got from the interview
were a little lacklustre but still gave me some good feedback and should
me through the production.
• What this says about my audience: I feel that they
don’t really read or buys magazines. But still has a good knowledge even
though they aren't interested in magazines.
• How will your product appeal to this
audience:
• I feel like my product will appeal to this audience because of what content
I will be adding into my magazine
21. Interview 2
• Do you buy magazines for the free gifts or the articles? And why ?
• No because I don’t often buy magazines, but if I do I usually buy them for the
stories
• What do you personally like about reading Magazines? And why?
• It depends on the type of magazine it is. If it was a music magazine I would enjoy
reading about new music or information on the band
• Do you find magazines educational depending on the topic? And why?
• Yes because you can get a magazine on pretty much anything. If there was a
magazine on history I would find that educational and I would enjoy it because I
find it interesting.
22. Interview 2
• Observation: Again I feel that it was a bit of both, good and bad. I
say this because on this interview they don’t really buy magazines but
they would buy them if interested.
• What this says about my audience: they aren't big on
magazines but it all depends again on the topic they would like to read
about. I expected answers like this.
• How will your product appeal to this
audience:my product will appeal to this audience because they have
the same interests as what my topic will be about.
24. Bibliography
1. Batty, T. (2018) Target Audience Research Survey (13.4.18)
2. Lister T. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/04/18)
3. Gibson, T. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/04/18)
4. Wenner, J. (2016) Rolling Stones magazine issue 1265
5. Townsquare Media (2016) XXL Magazine issue 64
6. New Musical Express(2018) NME magazine issue –
7. Wu-Wear(2015) phone case
8. Flatbush Zombies(unknown) Hoodie
Editor's Notes
Choose a recent product similar to your own and annotate it
Type of image- studio/location, angle, effects, post-production
Use of lighting/composition/mise en scene/costume/props/location/colours/fonts etc.
Audience appeal- how does it make its audience want to buy/watch/play it?
Why have you chosen to look at this? What have you learned that can help you in your project?
Choose a recent product similar to your own and annotate it
Type of image- studio/location, angle, effects, post-production
Use of lighting/composition/mise en scene/costume/props/location/colours/fonts etc.
Audience appeal- how does it make its audience want to buy/watch/play it?
Why have you chosen to look at this? What have you learned that can help you in your project?
Choose a recent product similar to your own and annotate it
Type of image- studio/location, angle, effects, post-production
Use of lighting/composition/mise en scene/costume/props/location/colours/fonts etc.
Audience appeal- how does it make its audience want to buy/watch/play it?
Why have you chosen to look at this? What have you learned that can help you in your project?
Choose a recent product similar to your own and annotate it
Type of image- studio/location, angle, effects, post-production
Use of lighting/composition/mise en scene/costume/props/location/colours/fonts etc.
Audience appeal- how does it make its audience want to buy/watch/play it?
Why have you chosen to look at this? What have you learned that can help you in your project?
Choose a recent product similar to your own and annotate it
Type of image- studio/location, angle, effects, post-production
Use of lighting/composition/mise en scene/costume/props/location/colours/fonts etc.
Audience appeal- how does it make its audience want to buy/watch/play it?
Why have you chosen to look at this? What have you learned that can help you in your project?
List all products researched in previous sections. Include anything additional you have watched/read in preparation for production. Alphabetise your list.