Lily Whitby created an indie music magazine titled "Untitled" targeting 16-24 year olds who enjoy indie music. She conducted a questionnaire to understand her target audience's interests, which informed her magazine design. The magazine focuses on indie artists, costs £2.50 based on what readers said they would pay, and advertises a free app download since readers acquire music digitally. Whitby consulted readers on her designs and made changes based on their feedback.

1. AS Media Evaluation Lily Whitby

4. My Magazine This is the final cover for my magazine ‘Untitled’. I decided to use the title ‘Untitled’ because when I consulted a group of people from my target audience ‘Untitled’ received the most positive response as a potential magazine name. Names I also suggested included ‘This Music’, ‘Music Net’ and ‘Live Music’

5. I made two versions of my cover page with my first version on the left and my updated version on the right. I made some changes from my first version after consulting my target audience and making allowances for such necessities as a barcode When asked, my target audience group suggested using a banner style advertisement relevant to my main feature across the main page in order to better advertise it. This is because they felt that a larger, more prominent advertisement would grab the eye of someone browsing through magazines and that if they saw a magazine with a large advertisement for a feature inside they would be more likely to buy it than others.

6. I also made two versions of my cover page, this is mainly because when I showed my target audience my first version they commented that it was not identifiable enough as a page from a music magazine. Because of this I created an entirely new version which received a better response from my target audience. However, I did choose to keep things such as my font choice and some key aspects of layout such as the introduction to the contents page. But I also added features such as advertisements for subscriptions and a magazine app because not only are both items prominent on a lot of music magazine contents pages but they are also relevant to my target audience.

7. My double page spread was inspired by semi-minimalist designs for articles I found when reading indie music magazines. If I could make another version of it I would add in quotes and some more images per the advice of some people from my target audience. I used my logo and ran with the same font I have been using on the other parts of my music magazine, this was to keep continuity. When I showed my double page spread to a group from my target audience I received a mixed but overall positive response and was given the advice I previously mentioned above.

8. Conventions My magazine is an indie music magazine and as such has to adhere to the conventions of that genre. For example I noted that a popular and common colour scheme for music magazines of this genre was Red, Black and white so I decided to use these colours as the main colour scheme for my own magazine. Examples:

9. Another convention I noticed in indie music magazines, as well as most music magazines in general was that whoever is featured on the cover is almost always looking directly at the camera as a device to make the magazine more appealing and likely to draw in potential buyers/readers. While I have used this convention to some extent I have also chosen to challenge it by having my model use a telescope to look at the camera. I do not feel that this impacts negatively however as the rule of eye contact with the camera is not absolute and has exceptions. Examples of eye contact Example of the rule being broken

10. Another convention I have used is the convention of slanted text in contrasting boxes. I have found that on covers and throughout my chosen genre of music magazines, text designed to attract attention is often boxed off. Example I have used this convention because I feel it helps accurately identify the genre of my magazine at a glance and may prove beneficial when the magazine is being sold with others when it comes to someone browsing for a specific genre.