Supporting Evidence

Supporting Evidence Document

Section 1: Statement of Intent

For my magazine, the target audience will be teenagers over 16 and adults below the age of 24. There will not be any specific gender target audience, as I would like my magazine to be accessible to as many people within the age range as possible. My target audience is also more likely to be teenagers that are politically active or have some sort of interest in current affairs as well as worldwide politics. The target audience are likely to be mostly regular teenagers, and ones that use social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, which is also where a lot of their news would come from. I would say the intended target audience would be mostly middle class and even possibly upper working class.

My magazine, The Journal, will have both print products and web pages. This allows for a more diverse audience to read the magazine as some people may not have access to the print version and some may not have access to the online version. This would also allow multiple people in one household to read the magazine at one time, especially if the household has access to the internet. The magazine will partner with other brands such as Starbucks and McDonalds to provide free coupons to he readers as these target audience could draw business for both brands taking part in this deal. There would also be deals on subscriptions to the magazine that can be found online

Both the print version of the magazine and the online version will utilise the similar blue, white and black colour palette as well as similar fonts so that the brand is recognisable no matter what platform you end up reading the magazine on. For both of the magazine prototypes I created, I kept the same colour palette but inverted the colours for both of the issues so that there is still some variety in the covers whilst also being recognisable. The layout of the magazine front covers would also be similar, with the title and the logo at the top of the page, followed by the tagline, date and issue number. Underneath this, there would be the 3 main headlines (all in the same font) and there would also be a large image in the centre of the page. For one of the prototypes, the image will be somewhat cartoony and for the other, it will be a real photo that has been take. This allows for more variety in the front cover too and stops it from looking repetitive.


Section 2:

Issue 1 – Front Cover

For the first issue of the magazine, I used the colour “Blue” for the main background and for the logo. The two other colours used on this front cover are black and white. I chose this colour palette as all three colours compliment each other quite well and the blue stands out. Using three simple colours doesn’t make the magazine come across as childish and fits the target audience of 16–24-year-olds well. For fonts, I used “Calibri” for the masthead and for the boxed text at the bottom, “Arial” for the date line as well as the rest of the text on that row and “Bodoni MT” for the cover lines. I used three different fonts in order to make each part of the magazine stand out. I would have used one image for the front cover of this issue of my magazine and it would have featured a cartoon/animated drawn image of the COVID-19 virus under a microscope. This would have connected to the “current affairs” genre as the COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing event and the biggest thing happening in the world as of the time I am writing this. The cartoony image would have reflected the current affairs aspect of the magazine well while also not being too serious but also not childish at the same time.

On the right is the first draft outline of what issue one was planned to look like. Several changes were made during the actual creation of the prototype in order to make it look better.


Issue 1 – Contents Page

For the contents page of the first issue of my magazine, I kept the same colour scheme of blue, black, and white in order to keep the consistency throughout the entire magazine. The black is more so used to highlight the contents box and the logo here. For the “contents” text I used the font “Elephant” in order to make it stand out on the page better. For the main body of text, I re-used the “Bodoni MT” font to keep with the theme of using that font for the headlines.

I tried to include a variety of headlines that would appeal to the target audience, such as the entertainment industry as well as the “eat out to help out” scheme.

I chose not to use images on the contents page to keep it clutter free and easier to read. The layout is very simplistic, a style I wanted the entire magazine to have throughout. I think this would appeal to the maturing target audience more than if it were cluttered with images and text spread all over the sheet.

Below is the draft of the contents page for the first issue of the magazine. The layout was changed slightly to be more visually appealing in the prototypes and I changed the layout of the colours too.

Issue 2 - Front Cover

For the second issue of my magazine, I re-used the same colour palette but changed the way in which it was used. Now, the main background is white and the top and bottom boxes are blue. The coverlines are also now white in order to make them stand out better. I changed the way the colours were used in order to give each issue of the magazine some variety but keeping it somewhat consistent so that the reader would still be able to recognise the brand. The image used on the front cover of this magazine would have also been cartoony, but this time of Boris Johnson giving a press conference on the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done to reflect both the headlines and real life, where he would stand in the same position most days at 5PM. The image would have been centred and would have used colours such as brown, grey, yellow and red.

For the draft of the front cover for issue 2, I just changed around the colours from the first issue as I wanted to keep the same, recognisable colour palette throughout.

Issue 2 - Contents Page

For the contents page of the second issue of my magazine, I tried to match the layout of colours used on the front cover; primarily blue with some white boxes. I tried to appeal to more diverse audience by including a story about the BLM movement and why that is something that everyone should support and why it is important. This would be relevant to the younger demographic as they are still impressionable. There is also the topic of free school meals for children in the UK, which could also just reach the target audience that would be in college and high school.

For the draft, I ended up changing the colour layout slightly and pushed the contents title down the page a little bit to match the contents page of the first issue.


Section 3: Home Pages

I chose the blue, white and black colour palette as these colours all go really well together and each one makes the other stand out on the page. These are also the same three colours used consistently throughout the entire project, from the home page and linked page to the actual magazine prototypes. This creates a house style and colour palette that is instantly recognisable to the readers and that would be easy to connect with the brand. On my home page I would have included two images. These images would have been representations of what the two major stories on the home page of my website. I would have taken these images myself, one at my local cinema and the other at a local community centre which could pass of as a polling station. The image of the cinema would have been taken at night time when the lights were on and the polling station image would have been taken during the daytime so that the reader would be able to tell what the building was meant to be.



For the second page on my home page, I added 6 different news headlines which all relate to the current affairs brief. I planned to use images for all 6 of these links. For the first image, I would have taken a picture of a friend pretending to be Matt Hancock posing for an interview, wearing a suit. For the second image for the second headline, I would have taken an image of a friend pretending to be Donald Trump. The third story would have featured an image of a friend with their head in their hands, representing mental health troubles in teenagers. The fourth image would have been of an EU flag flying in someones garden. The fifth image would have been of a friend pretending to be Ray Fisher, a man mistreated in the film industry. The sixth and final image would have been of a particularly bright day in the winter. I stuck with the same black, white and blue layout here too, primarily using blue for the advert as that is where it fit best on this page. The advert is tailored to the target audience as 16-24 year olds are likely to use Costa.




For the final part of the home page, I decided to add in a box where there would be information on why the reader should subscribe to the magazine. There would have been an image of several different front covers of the magazine in this box. Brand synergy would have been created here too as the website is promoting the magazine and offering specific offers to people. The very bottom of the page would have featured several social media links which would have been aimed at the target audience as they are more likely to use social media.

 

Section 3: Linked Page

Once again, I used the blue, white and black colour palette as well as the same fonts used on the home page in order to keep a consistent house style. This linked page is linked to the special report section of the website, where it covers one major story as well as links to smaller stories and an interview on the second and third page of this linked page.

On the second page of my linked page, I designed it to have 6 links to different stories and articles. Each one of these links was set out as a box, featuring text underneath an image. I stuck with the blue and white colour palette to fit with the start of my linked page. The first article would have featured one of my friends posing with their head on a school desk looking troubled to reflect the nature of the article. My second article would have featured an image of a first aid kit which would be a stand in for a COVID-19 testing kit because I would not have been able to get one of those for an image. The third article would have featured one of my friends posing as a famous footballer, halfway through kicking a football. The fourth article would feature a second image of a cinema at night-time, but instead of using the same cinema from the home page, I would use a different one. For the fifth article, I would have one of my friends pretending to write an exam paper, deep in concentration. The sixth article would have featured an image of a chalkboard outside of a local pub stating that they will be closed until further notice due to COVID-19 restrictions. This image would have been taken during the daytime to get the sunshine on the chalkboard. All these images that I had planned to take would have fit with the topic of current affairs, same as the articles.

 

For my audio-visual piece, I decided to script the introduction to an interview with footballer Marcus Rashford. This was relevant to my magazine as the interview would have been based around Rashford’s recent quest to get free school meals for the children of the UK during lockdown.

Section 4:

I believe I have met the brief of the coursework as I have successfully created a current affairs magazine that is aimed at a target audience of 16–24-year-olds. My prototypes for the coursework reflect this through the simplistic uses of colour and the cartoony images representing serious events. I kept in mind the target audience when using advertisements, tailoring them specifically as brands that the target audience would likely use. I created a brand identity throughout the 4 print products, using similar fonts and the same colour palette consistently throughout. This would allow the reader to instantly recognise the brand and allowed for a somewhat satisfying layout in my opinion. The brand synergy is also present as I stuck with the same layout and colour palette for the websites as well as the print products. My products never really challenged many of the conventions of what a current affairs magazine would be like and even followed some conventions in the way of using somewhat cartoony images on the magazine front cover (like NewStatesman). I appealed to my target audience of late teenagers by including several headlines that would be relevant to them, such as exams and the mental health in teenagers. I chose a range of different headlines that would appeal to the older, early twenties audience too, so there was a balance between the ages.

For the strengths of the coursework, I think my prototype designs are mostly solid given the limited software I had available to make them. I also think I did a good job handling the colour palettes and managing the different fonts used. Something I do not think I did as well on is the layout of the contents page. I think I could have done something a little more creative, however software was limited.

 

 

 

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