P1: Explain different ideas for an original media product based on a client brief
The way I analysed the brief is by highlighting key points of what the client wants me to make so they want a new high end magazine that is targeted at 18-30 year olds from the YouTube and Instagram generation who do not like traditional printed publications. So the key points would be the target audience and what they may like and the quality of the magazine. This helps me as I can now start to think more about this specific age range and their interests.
I had to also research demographics which is a term used to describe the study of a population based on: age, race, sex, income level, employment, location, level of education, home ownership and other things considering audiences. Since the client brief mentions they want a high end magazine we can assume it’s aimed at people with higher levels of disposable income so the ABC1 audience, as for the age the brief wants to aim it at an age of 18-30 who are most likely in the world of work so they can afford this magazine. The brief does not state what gender they are aiming the magazine at therefor it most likely means they want a mixed audience. The brief also states that it is for the Youtube and Instagram generation suggesting they most likely use does services.
I looked at magazine conventions through a number of methods such as reading various different magazines and looking at what are the conventions online. I found was that the key aspects of a magazine are the masthead which is the main title as well as the menu which is the context page these would be two very important pages especially the masthead as it is the first thing the potential readers see, other parts of magazine include subtitles, editorials which are a article written by an editor on a specific matter with some opinion involved. There is many more techniques too and they helped me get a better idea on how I would present my magazine so that it looks appealing to the audience.
I also looked at magazines from companies like PC Gamer, WEIRD, EDGE, TIME, Glamour and more to help me create ideas on what my magazine could be about to attract a large audience that fits with the client brief through analysing these images I understand how professional most of these shots look like, this means if I want to make sure my magazine is the best it can be and stands among the crowd I will have to subvert some of the conventions to give my product multiple USPs.
I had to also research demographics which is a term used to describe the study of a population based on: age, race, sex, income level, employment, location, level of education, home ownership and other things considering audiences. Since the client brief mentions they want a high end magazine we can assume it’s aimed at people with higher levels of disposable income so the ABC1 audience, as for the age the brief wants to aim it at an age of 18-30 who are most likely in the world of work so they can afford this magazine. The brief does not state what gender they are aiming the magazine at therefor it most likely means they want a mixed audience. The brief also states that it is for the Youtube and Instagram generation suggesting they most likely use does services.
I looked at magazine conventions through a number of methods such as reading various different magazines and looking at what are the conventions online. I found was that the key aspects of a magazine are the masthead which is the main title as well as the menu which is the context page these would be two very important pages especially the masthead as it is the first thing the potential readers see, other parts of magazine include subtitles, editorials which are a article written by an editor on a specific matter with some opinion involved. There is many more techniques too and they helped me get a better idea on how I would present my magazine so that it looks appealing to the audience.
I also looked at magazines from companies like PC Gamer, WEIRD, EDGE, TIME, Glamour and more to help me create ideas on what my magazine could be about to attract a large audience that fits with the client brief through analysing these images I understand how professional most of these shots look like, this means if I want to make sure my magazine is the best it can be and stands among the crowd I will have to subvert some of the conventions to give my product multiple USPs.
I came up with the direction and ideas for my magazine from personal interest and the fact that it’s a trend that technology and gaming is rising as that's the way we are moving in. As we are developing new technology such as VR headsets which is a huge step forward and with new electric cars being released every year with each new model improving on the last. It’s becoming more and more important for people to stay up with all this new technology that's coming out as it could impact them.
The research in section 1 helped shape this direction by me being able to view existing magazines and see what I liked as well as thinking about the brief and what types of products or service could my magazine be about to appeal to the target audience of 18-30 year olds from the YouTube and Instagram generation.
The research in section 1 helped shape this direction by me being able to view existing magazines and see what I liked as well as thinking about the brief and what types of products or service could my magazine be about to appeal to the target audience of 18-30 year olds from the YouTube and Instagram generation.
I used mind maps to map out possibilities for my new magazine by getting a lot of images of already existing and established magazines to see how they present their magazines and what I can take from them I created a collage of images to ensure I have a variety to pick from.
This helped me by seeing what works well and what looks tacky and overcrowded as well as broadening my horizon on the ideas I had initially when starting allowing me to have a bigger diversity of art styles and layouts.
When presenting to the group I got feedback on a number of things such as what would be the USP for the two directions I am suppose to go in as I should have two separate ideas ready incase my client may not like one so I came up with my USP for each of the routes I am planning to go down, this contributed to my direction as initially I was uncertain about my USP but after the discussion I found what they were. The group helped when presenting my ideas by telling me what I need to think about such as the layout of the front cover what would work better for the two routes I am taking and so on.
By creating a survey I would be able to show my idea to a much bigger range of people with different perspectives allowing me to learn more on what they think and in turn making my product even better. As for focus groups it's a good way of finding out things as I can directly ask my audience about what they like and dislike in my ideas I could also record it with their permission so that i can refer to it in the future. With visiting industry practitioners I could find out new techniques that professionals use to ensure their magazines do well as well as any other tips and standards.
By creating a survey I would be able to show my idea to a much bigger range of people with different perspectives allowing me to learn more on what they think and in turn making my product even better. As for focus groups it's a good way of finding out things as I can directly ask my audience about what they like and dislike in my ideas I could also record it with their permission so that i can refer to it in the future. With visiting industry practitioners I could find out new techniques that professionals use to ensure their magazines do well as well as any other tips and standards.
I understand that many things go into creating a magazine such as printing, advertising and distribution costs with distribution and shipping being the two biggest costs when getting the magazines out there. How can more money be earned is also an important consideration the main way to gain extra income other than the selling cost is advertisers who pay you to be featured in the magazine or a sponsor who provides you with income but gets a share of the profits. And even simpler things like the chances for growth in the future as the design style of the magazine, is it going to appeal to the target audience and many more.
There are a lot things you need to spend money on when creating a magazine these costs can include things such as distribution, printing, shipping, contributions, design, photograph, editing and proofreading and many more. I will consider these costs by researching my market and anyways I can reduce the costs in anyway possible like me doing some of the things myself, alternatively I could just find the cheapest but best options on the market when it comes to each choice. I will also research other magazines and see what type of things they have to consider when spending money to gauge are estimate of how much I would need to spend to ensure my magazine was selling and was interesting.
Some legal requirements when creating a magazine are that you have all copyright papers ready and completed as if your using someone else's product in the magazine you need to make sure you have all the paperwork incase they try to sue you, if I was not using a physical object I would need to ask for permission and have evidence. Other legal considerations libel so saying anything in a text or a print based media about another person that could negatively affect their reputation this is something I would want to avoid as it’s morally wrong to do.
Included a range of images to have some variety when looking at them to get inspiration I had different images so my choices are not as linear. I also chose to include a range of styles as I may have not seen some before and thanks to that I was able to choose my style more easily. Another reason for why I created a mood board is to generate new ideas and develop existing ones, it did help with that as i was able to combine ideas and develop them so that they created one buy better idea.
The magazine is for 18-30 year old people who do not like printed publications and instead are a part of the YouTube and Instagram generation, the theme and subject area my magazine will be is gaming and technology this will mostly include new and upcoming technology rather than talking about retro and old-fashioned technology.
My product meets the brief in terms of appealing to the target audience of 18-30 year old who do not like printed publications and instead are a part of the YouTube and Instagram generation this is good as that is the major aspect of the brief but I am still uncertain if my magazine will feel like a independent publication so I will have to subvert some of they typical conventions that owned publications use. I will subvert the conventions through my layout and my unique selling points, the USP for my first idea is that it is more behind the scenes magazines where I would talk to the creators of famous technologies and ask them some questions about their creation and them. The USP for my second idea was that it is more informative and immediate as it’s more to do with numbers and imagery of the new technology rather than the people behind it, this would be data which would be much simpler to get access to than getting a interview with major CEO's.
Magazine 1: The style I’m planning for my first idea is a portrait image of the people who played a role in creating the technology accompanied by some text and interesting colours in the background to ensure it looks interesting. This idea is more simplistic as it’s easy to find images of famous people and then just adding some text next to it that is relevant.
Magazine 2: The style I’m planning for my second idea is more spontaneous in terms of imagery as I would want to include different angles on the technology and maybe include some illustrations to change it up a bit I would want a moderate amount of text to give enough information but not be overwhelming so the layout will play a big role with this idea
I would also have to consider the frequency of my magazine publishing as if it's too frequent the quality will suffer drastically but if the publication is not frequent enough then the target audience will lose interest and forget about the magazine.
To ensure I keep my target audience interested in my product I will have to come up with ideas on how to do so here are two ideas I came up with.
Magazine 1: My first idea is more people based so the inventors and major contributors to the creation of technology.
Magazine 2: My second idea is more factual and about the stats of technology this will include infographics as part of being more visual.
My magazine will require advertisers so I looked into it and my choices are not very limiting when it comes to that I can include advertisers such as razor which sell computer accessories as well as computers themselves or I could have advertisers from the gaming aspect of it so from Microsoft, Sony and any independent publishers.
My first idea meets the brief by being about technology which would appeal to the YouTube and Instagram generation as they use technology on a regular basis and they would be more interested in it’s also is aimed at the same target audience so 18-30 year olds which are both things the brief asked for I also added an element of education with learning the behind aspects of the technology through interviews with creators for the first idea.
My second idea meets the brief in the same way as the first one with the target audience and the theme but instead of having a more being the scenes view of the technology it has a more statistical view so the statistics of the technology how good it is using illustrations mostly so it’s more interesting.
My product meets the brief in terms of appealing to the target audience of 18-30 year old who do not like printed publications and instead are a part of the YouTube and Instagram generation this is good as that is the major aspect of the brief but I am still uncertain if my magazine will feel like a independent publication so I will have to subvert some of they typical conventions that owned publications use. I will subvert the conventions through my layout and my unique selling points, the USP for my first idea is that it is more behind the scenes magazines where I would talk to the creators of famous technologies and ask them some questions about their creation and them. The USP for my second idea was that it is more informative and immediate as it’s more to do with numbers and imagery of the new technology rather than the people behind it, this would be data which would be much simpler to get access to than getting a interview with major CEO's.
Magazine 1: The style I’m planning for my first idea is a portrait image of the people who played a role in creating the technology accompanied by some text and interesting colours in the background to ensure it looks interesting. This idea is more simplistic as it’s easy to find images of famous people and then just adding some text next to it that is relevant.
Magazine 2: The style I’m planning for my second idea is more spontaneous in terms of imagery as I would want to include different angles on the technology and maybe include some illustrations to change it up a bit I would want a moderate amount of text to give enough information but not be overwhelming so the layout will play a big role with this idea
I would also have to consider the frequency of my magazine publishing as if it's too frequent the quality will suffer drastically but if the publication is not frequent enough then the target audience will lose interest and forget about the magazine.
To ensure I keep my target audience interested in my product I will have to come up with ideas on how to do so here are two ideas I came up with.
Magazine 1: My first idea is more people based so the inventors and major contributors to the creation of technology.
Magazine 2: My second idea is more factual and about the stats of technology this will include infographics as part of being more visual.
My magazine will require advertisers so I looked into it and my choices are not very limiting when it comes to that I can include advertisers such as razor which sell computer accessories as well as computers themselves or I could have advertisers from the gaming aspect of it so from Microsoft, Sony and any independent publishers.
My first idea meets the brief by being about technology which would appeal to the YouTube and Instagram generation as they use technology on a regular basis and they would be more interested in it’s also is aimed at the same target audience so 18-30 year olds which are both things the brief asked for I also added an element of education with learning the behind aspects of the technology through interviews with creators for the first idea.
My second idea meets the brief in the same way as the first one with the target audience and the theme but instead of having a more being the scenes view of the technology it has a more statistical view so the statistics of the technology how good it is using illustrations mostly so it’s more interesting.
M1 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the different ideas.
Strengths of my first idea:
One of the strengths of my first idea is that it covers something other magazines don’t really cover so the being the scenes in the technology so what was the idea that lead to the creation of the product and the process behind the actual creation. It also would have interviews with the companies leaders and their roles in the companies.
Weaknesses of my first idea:
Some of the weaknesses of my first idea not everyone is interested in how the technology is made and interviews so this would only be really aimed at people who are interested in that specific aspect of the market. It could be hard to get to interview big company executives.
Strengths of my second idea:
The strengths of my second idea is the magazine gives you easy access to the statistics of a lot of technology rather than looking it up online and trying to find it for who knows how long. It would be designed in a way that would be appealing to the target audience and it's going to be high quality which is what the brief stats it wants.
Weaknesses of my second idea:
A weakness to my second idea the information that will be in it is already mostly on the internet if people are willing to look for the information meaning less people may want to buy it.
Conclusion:
My first idea has more unique content that can’t really be accessed anywhere else were as my second idea has content that can be found out by the people but is more likely to sell better because of what it’s covering and the conventions in what people are interested in when it comes to technology, this gave me an idea that it could be a good idea to combine the ideas as that way both audiences could be pleased.
I also have to take under consideration the weaknesses and I feel if I were to combine my two ideas i would be able to remove both of those weaknesses improving my chances of creating a successful magazine idea.
Strengths of my first idea:
One of the strengths of my first idea is that it covers something other magazines don’t really cover so the being the scenes in the technology so what was the idea that lead to the creation of the product and the process behind the actual creation. It also would have interviews with the companies leaders and their roles in the companies.
Weaknesses of my first idea:
Some of the weaknesses of my first idea not everyone is interested in how the technology is made and interviews so this would only be really aimed at people who are interested in that specific aspect of the market. It could be hard to get to interview big company executives.
Strengths of my second idea:
The strengths of my second idea is the magazine gives you easy access to the statistics of a lot of technology rather than looking it up online and trying to find it for who knows how long. It would be designed in a way that would be appealing to the target audience and it's going to be high quality which is what the brief stats it wants.
Weaknesses of my second idea:
A weakness to my second idea the information that will be in it is already mostly on the internet if people are willing to look for the information meaning less people may want to buy it.
Conclusion:
My first idea has more unique content that can’t really be accessed anywhere else were as my second idea has content that can be found out by the people but is more likely to sell better because of what it’s covering and the conventions in what people are interested in when it comes to technology, this gave me an idea that it could be a good idea to combine the ideas as that way both audiences could be pleased.
I also have to take under consideration the weaknesses and I feel if I were to combine my two ideas i would be able to remove both of those weaknesses improving my chances of creating a successful magazine idea.