Pasquale Buonanno's Media coursework blog: January 2013

Thursday, 31 January 2013

Audience research

After having looked at UK tribes I have decided on an audience for my magazine. The genre of my magazine will be pop/hip hop, so the audience for my magazine will have to match that as otherwise the magazine will not sell. I have looked through several different possible audiences on UK tribes and I have decided that the audience for my magazine will be both urban and mainstream. I have chose these because they are the kind of people that like the genre I have chosen for my magazine. I have also looked at VIBE magazine which is a magazine that mine will be like as the genre is kind of the same, and the audience for that is urban, so I have decided to also use that audience as well as mainstream as they will also like that kind of music and the pop side of the magazine as well.

For the age of my magazine I was thinking around 16-24 year olds, I was thinking this as that is the kind of age range that will be listening to the kind of music in my magazine, so they will be more likely to buy the magazine. These groups of people are the most likely to like the genre of my magazine. As they are quite young as well they don't need to worry about buying other things such as food and looking after kids, this means that they will have more money to spend on things they want, such as magazines.

Mainstream groups have alternative/trendy lifestyles and like 'chart topping music'. Big brand sportswear and high street fashion predominates with mainstream groups. They regularly watch TV and listen to the radio.

Urban groups like urban fashion and urban music, which is the most pervasive and influential genre in popular music, topping the charts around the world and sound-tracking the lives of many different groups. The core group members are mostly influenced by what is around them in their urban environments, in clubs and on social networks, such as Youtube and Facebook.

For the genre of my magazine I want to be able to create a magazine that will satisfy both of the needs of the two groups. The mainstream groups like popular chart music and as the urban music is becoming one of the biggest chart topping genres in the world the two fit together nicely, I think that the two can be put into a magazine as I think that it would be quite easy as the two fit together well. The genre of my magazine is a little bit based on the kind of music played on the radio station capital. The station play different kinds of music, they play urban, pop, and like mainstream music, so I would like to take the kind of music that is played on the radio station and use it to make my magazine. Capital is a popular radio station so I think that my magazine could be as well.

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Colour palette

The colour palette for a music magazine is really important. The colour scheme will be one of the things that makes the magazine appealling to the target audience, and also to make it stand out from the crowd. Most music magazines stick to a three colour palette, this is used to make the magazine look professional and appealing to the audience, as there is mainly three colours it doesn't overwhelm the audience either, meaning that they will be attracted to the magazine.

VIBE magazine stick to a three colour palette. They do this to make the magazine look simple and to not overwhelm the customer. From the image below you can see that they have stuck to a three colour palette of red, white and black, this is a common colour scheme when looking at music magazines. It works well as the black and red text stands out against the white background. The black and red text can be organised so that standard text is in black and the more important information for the reader is in red so that it stands out. The colours can also alternated so that it has a kind of pattern making the text look unique and simple which will again attract the reader.

The image below is another VIBE magazine, again you can see that they have stuck to a three colour palette, this time though they have used the colours blue, pink and black. Again these colours work really well together, and the blue and pink are quite vibrant colours which will catch the readers attention.

When think about the colour scheme for my magazine I chose the common palette which is red, black and white. I have chose this as it is the one that I think will look the best. The colours are quite simple so that it doesn't overwhelm the reader, but they are not too dull that nobody wants to look at the magazine. The colours will also go with the genre of the magazine, VIBE use the red, black and white colour palette often and as my magazine idea is a bit like theirs I thought that it would be good to go with them colours. These three colours work well with each other as it is easy to read the text. The colours all complement each other and catch the readers eye as well.

The colour red is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red brings text and images to the foreground, that is why it is good to use on a magazine as it makes the content stand out. Red has a very high visibility, that is why it is used on stop signs, stop lights and fire equipment.

The colour white is associated with light, goodness, innocence, and purity. It is considered to be the colour of perfection. White is associated with coolness and cleanliness as well, that is why it would be a good colour to use as the background for the pages in the magazine. It also makes text stand out more as they can be clearly seen.

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil and mystery. Black contrasts well with bright colours, when combined with red, another powerful colour, black gives a very aggressive colour scheme. This will make the magazine stand out, and it also kinds of matches the genre of the magazine.