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A2 media mag research

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Feedback and experimenting with fonts on my magazine cover

This is a third attempt at my magazine cover. I received a lot of positive feedback about my last cover. It was said that it looks very professional, colourful, interesting and most of all very 80s. However it was also said that it had too much of the same font and perhaps I needed to experiment more with the fonts to appeal to an older audience. Therefore in the images below I have tried various different fonts and hopefully from this selection I can pick out the final result of my magazine cover…



I kept the magazine title font as Super Black SF, and I kept the small sub headings as Balloonist SF. However for the main heading ‘The 80s are back!’ I changed this to the font, Bolts SF. I chose this font in particular because it looks very different and I think contrasts nicely with the other fonts on the cover. It also has quite a retro look about it which is suitable for the theme. The font is bigger, bolder and in my opinion more eye-catching.

As you can see I also used the Bolts SF font for ‘Michael Jameson talks about…’

I then tried out the font Sonic XBd BT (below) and I immediately disliked it. I found the words hard to read and it seemed completely out of place amongst everything else on the cover. I abandoned this font.

I then tried changing the font of the small sub headings in the red rectangles. I kept the Bolts SF font on the main headings and changed the small ones to Stylistic SF (below). Although I liked the font and it did seem appropriate to the genre of the magazine, this particular font does not make text stand out and it is very hard to see the sub headings in the red rectangles. I preferred the original font, Balloonist SF, therefore kept to this.

I then tried different coloured backgrounds, as this was suggested by a member of my target audience...

None of these above I like, although I want the magazine to be colourful, all of these to me just look tacky and amateur. Therefore I am going to attempt a different approach on this magazine cover. Claire Dymond said that in order to appeal to an older audience, as well as a younger audience, I need to re-consider the general cartoony appearance. This will be my next step.

Improvements on my magazine cover according to feedback

Here is my second attempt at my magazine cover. Personally I think the white background makes a huge difference and it generally looks more professional as a magazine cover.

The small subtitles I have put on the top and bottom of the magazine are various things that I have stumbled across during my 80s music research and thought would be appropriate to have in my magazine is this were to be published.

The Rewind Festival Line-up

The Rewind Festival is an 80s themed music festival that brings back classic 80s stars and gives them a chance to perform in front of a huge audience. This is something that my target audience would certainly be interested in, particularly those who were alive in the 80s and appreciated the popular music. Also, younger members of my target audience, who like 80s music now, may also be interested in the Rewind Festival, however this will be a small minority.

The Real M.Jackson?

Michael Jackson’s new album, Michael came out recently, which supposedly contained songs which Michael made before he died. However, there has been many debates about whether it is actually the real Michael Jackson singing or not and I thought an article discussing this topic in my magazine would hopefully generate a lot of interest from my target audience. Michael Jackson was a popular 80s music artist as well as New Jack Swing artist, so his fans would probably be interested in the article. I know that this new album of his has appealed to younger members of my target audience as well as several of my peers have bought this album. It is generated much discussion amongst them, therefore hopefully an article about this in my magazine will appeal to them also.

Bobby Brown’s The Masterpiece

Bobby Brown is considered more of a New Jack Swing star, however he was very popular during the late 80s and he has just released his new album, The Masterpiece which contains many of his 80s hits. The New Jack Swing fans, which are part of my target audience, will be appealed to an article like this, as Bobby was named The King of New Jack Swing.

What happened to Kid Creole?

Kind Creole and The Coconuts was a popular 80s funk band, who is performing in this years Rewind Festival. They have had many recent successes, but perhaps have not had as much mainstream press and attention as someone like Rick Astley as had.

Feedback

I posted the magazine on Facebook and tagged people in it of all ages, so I could get a variety of different comments. Hopefully, this will provide me with enough information to help me improve my magazine cover.

I recieved comments from a variety of people...

I posted the magazine on Facebook and tagged people in it of all ages, so I could get a variety of different comments. Hopefully, this will provide me with enough information to help me improve my magazine cover.

These were very useful comments; in particular the ones from Angela Paskins and Claire Dymond as these two people are part of my target audience. Thomas Paskins, although he is more familiar with New Jack Swing music, he is not a huge fan of any type of R&B or pop music, so he really is not part of my target audience.

In the next post, I experiment with various different fonts (as suggested by Claire Dymond) and background colour (as suggested by Angela Paskins).

My First Magazine Cover Design and feedback

This is my first design at my magazine advert. I recieved a variety of feedback on this. People commented very positively on the image of the silhouette and said that the 'bombardment of colour' was so very 80s and made a plausible verisimilitude.

However, they did question about the black background and said that it looked a bit like a chalk board. They said that perhaps I should have a lighter background, with darker outlines around the text. People said they liked my original header, 'The Groove' but suggested that I should just have 'Groove' as another 'The' is placed in 'The 80s are back.'

One person reminded me that magazine front covers do not usually have actual adverts for the CD on the front cover, so he suggested that I get rid of 'Michael Jameson Summer Love Out Now' and instead replace it with other things that could be featured in the magazine such as interviews with other artists.

Inspiration for my Magazine Advert Design

I was quite inspired by the designs on recent albums from Michael Jackson (This Is It) and Bobby Brown (The masterpiece), although these were recently released, they contain tracks from the 80s. Also Brown and Jackson were 80s superstars, therefore I feel looking at thse designs is all relevant to my genre. I want to try something similar and create a silhouette that is filled with loads of imagery from my digipak and music video.

I also looked into the designs from the popular 80s magazine, Bravo and I really liked the vibrant colours and 'busyness' of the designs. In my opinion, the designs are a big bombardment of colour, but this of course was very typical of the 80s and I want to use this on my magazine cover. These designs I found in particular include Michael Jackson...

I also looked at the 80s designs of the Rolling Stone Magazine, which although is about the rock music genre, I really liked the bright outline around the text, which makes the header stand out. This is something I want to consider when making my magazine advert and make sure I choose a good header to that stands out.

Possible Names for my Magazine

I thought of various names for my magazine. Some were better than others, however I did try to all keep them relevant to my cheesy 80s theme. A lot of the names were inspired by 80s street dance moves.

·         The Groove

·         Poppin’

·         The Wave

·         Funkadelic

·         Funk Machine

·         Vibrant

·         Shizzle

·         Fizz

·         Buzz

·         Lockin’