LO4: Evaluation

THE BUZZ is a local genre magazine that has been created due to SPH looking for a new magazine that will appeal to a Sheffield audience. 

SPH brief specified that 4 pages were needed including a double page spread, contents page and a front cover. I decided to create a local genre magazine as personally I think this will attract the largest amount of readers in Sheffield due to the under saturated genre. The magazine features articles such as food and drink, music and businesses, the vary of topics that will be covered will also allow me to yield a huge amount of Sheffield readers due to the large content range. This genre of magazine will fulfil SPH brief as it would appeal to the Sheffield audience due to the relatable content inside and this will allow the magazine to act as a surveillance piece of media (Denis Mcquail) as they can use the local genre magazine to find out recommendations and new and upcoming independent businesses in their area. 

My target audience is a 25-40 female and male audience, even though that is a mass audience in terms of large-scale magazines however because we are only focusing on the Sheffield area it is a niche audience; therefore, I can use special devices and techniques to specifically target the audience.  

     

The first page created was my front cover, the page heavily featured Alan, the owner of Create Coffee, the interviewee for the exclusive on my double page spread.  

It was important for Alan to be featured as the main cover image to allow the magazine to fit into the local genre conventions, it also allowed the readers to put a visual face to the exclusive interview which makes the target audience more engaged and want to read more inside. 

Alan was purposely photographed to appear like an ordinary person e.g wearing a plain shirt and not having any hair or makeup. I wanted to create connotations of normal everyday locals who live in the Sheffield area so the reader can have relatability with the model, This I felt was especially key for my local magazines genre as they want the model to appear normal and approachable due to star personas not being appealing to the target audience due to the local and nice target audience wanting to see everyday people to create relatability. 

For my masthead I chose to have a bold san serif font to spell THE BUZZ, the font 'Arial Black' was chosen to ensure that it connoted inclusivity and would appeal to my target audience of female and male readers, this wouldn’t have been achieved if I had used a serif font as this may have been perceived as too girly due to it having connotations of handwriting. I found that the vast majority of lifestyle and local magazines often used san serif fonts due to its modernity and visibility, I wanted my magazine to fit into the genre so I made sure to follow as many conventions as possible as this would maximise the audience reach and fulfil SPH’s brief. 

I did encounter problems whilst creating my front cover however though, whilst creating the cover I went through trialling many different colour schemes as I felt as if a lot of them didn’t represent the ambience of the magazine, for a large proportion of the production I had a teal tone* edited on the main cover image, 

*To add the teal tone to the image, I used the software photoshop and used the adjustment 'photo filter', I then used the colour picker to ensure i found the exact shade I was wanting.
To edit the image with this blue hue, I did also slightly adjust the contrast and brightness to emphasis the hue as much as possible.
I added this shade of blue to connote a vintage and indie style to the image, this was done to exaggerate the independent business the main cover image model is plugging in their exclusive interview on the double page spread.

this however ended up creating more negative connotations about Alan as it portrayed him as cold and upset. In the end I found that just adjusting the image slightly in Lightroom to add slight contrast resulted in the best outcome as it left the image looking natural and not too edited which ended up fitting perfectly with the scheme as I wanted to create an air of relatability with the models and the reader to demonstrate the normality and down-to-earth qualities they possess this kind of being an opposing technique to an ideal self being used on the cover. 

Anchored onto the main cover image is a cover line ‘Scolding hot exclusive with Create Coffee’*,

* In creating the cover line 'Scolding Hot Exclusive' I began by adding the text with the text tool, the cover line was created in three separate layers. The 'scolding exclusive create coffee' text was all the same font and size this was one individual layer, whist 'Hot' was in a much bigger size and different font, this meaning that it was easier to arrange if on a separate layer. I placed this text in a contrasting font to the rest of the cover line to create contrast and make it more eye-catching for readers. The last layer being the graphic steam, this was on a separate layer again due to it being hand drawn and the eraser tool being used often therefore to protect the text it was easier for it to be placed on a new layer.



I have chosen a cover line that has a metaphorical link to the article. The scolding hot metaphor for the article appears humorous and demonstrates efficiently what type of business is being interviewed and promoted in the exclusive interview with the main cover image, Alan. The humorous side of the cover line also allows the target audience to understand the formality of the article, in this case the audience can connote its laidback and peer to peer mode of address. Alongside the writing I have also placed steam rising from the word hot, this graphic further allows the reader to connote the contents of the article and what it will entail, this graphic also attracts and engages the audience due to its fun addition to the cover line and give visual aid to the phrase.

The use of the word ‘exclusive’ is deliberate used to it convince the reader of the article’s rarity and almost secret like information, this enticing and acting as a pull for the audience to read a copy of the magazine.

For my contents page I decided to have my page split into two halves with the lower half of the page having very tightly packed columns expressing the contents of the page and the upper part of the page being a more visual representation of the contents of the magazine.  The page denotes a range of content of what would be in the magazine both visually and written this allowing the page to be as enticing as possible for the reader to read on. 

I decided for the page I wanted to have a coral and white house style; this was purposely done as both colours are known as gender neutral and it wouldn’t connote a certain gender unlike colours such as pink or blue, this being important to not exclude any of my target audience and  to demonstrate inclusivity for the magazine in general.

The numbers on the page will be in a rage of fonts and sizes*, this is to reinforce and connote the idea of the variety of people, cultures and ethnicities in the area that I am focusing on, I am trying to demonstrate this by using fonts and colours that will appeal and represent the community, this is to adhere with the SPH brief as this demonstrates me changing pages to target the Sheffield audience in particular that SPH is keen to attract. 

* For placing numbers and text on the contents page I selected the text tool and drew a text box that would be the desired size of the text, in placing the numbers on the page I decided that I wanted them in a serif font, this was to create contrast on the page as the text describing the contents on that page number was in a very harsh san serif. I wanted the text to be in black as I knew I wanted the background of the page to be white therefore it would be the most readable and eye catching.

The masthead of the page is very similar to the front cover masthead, the same font was used to denote continuity between pages, the san serif font as discussed before allows it to attract my varied target audience due to its non gender associating connotations  and it maximises the writings visibly from afar. However, unlike the front cover this masthead is in black to contrast the white background of the page, using contrasting colours is very important to create eye-catching pages that will entice the target audience.

My double page spread features Alan again as the main image due to the page having an exclusive gonzo style interview with Alan this is conventional as once again the target audience can associate the written article to the visual of Alans image, this making them feel more connected to the article and more likely to read on. 

The image has been taken in natural lighting and Alan is making direct eye contact whilst smiling, this is important so the reader can see emotion and make a connection with the model.  

I have taken the image using a shallow depth of field technique, this means that part of the image is unfocused on purpose, in this instance I have only captured the coffee cup that Alan is holding in focus whilst the rest of the image is slightly blurred, this is to demonstrate the iconography and really emphasis what is the topic of the page. Alongside this I have used selective colour* to just really connote the importance of the coffee cup, the colour of the coffee cup is one of the main house style colours of the page, this allows the page to be very seamless and blending with images and graphics. 


* In this screenshot I am demonstrating how I edited my main cover image to have a selective colour effect. I began by  using selecting the coffee cup alone the selective tool and then inversed the selected area so the whole image except for the coffee cup was selected, I then added a black and white adjustment to the image and this was applied to the whole image except for the teal coffee cup.
I added this monochrome filter to really exaggerate the iconography of the coffee cup and connote to the audience the importance of coffee in relation to the page.

Alan is dressed in casual/smart clothing but won’t have star persona, it’s important that Alan is seen very relatable and down to earth as the magazine will be read by local residents who want to see normal people and don’t care for photoshopped images and face tuned people who build a fake persona as THE BUZZ is about a community and the niche target audience  will appreciate the truthfulness represented, this is very important to make sure I am fulfilling the SPH brief, by targeting a specific community it demonstrates my understanding of the niche target audience and how I construct the assets on the magazine represent this. 

The main masthead of the page is ‘Create Coffee’, underneath this is a subheading that reads ‘Spill the beans’. The first masthead is very graphic heavy, I have created the masthead* so each individual letter has its own banner that is positioned according to the angle of the letter, this is a technique that I have seen used in indie magazines and it creates a very eye-catching masthead with connotations of very indie and vintage aesthetic which is perfect as Create Coffee actually exudes this.

* In creating this title I began by placing rectangles using the shape tool, I placed several rectangles with varying width and length to form the banners of the letters. After being happy with the arrangements of the rectangles I then used the text tool and placed all letters on separate layers this again allowed more ease in arranging the graphic.

I chose to do this heavy graphic title to attract my target audience due to once again no genders are denoted due to the colour scheme and font chosen, I am really happy with the results and think it embodies the aesthetic featured  in local businesses in the magazine.

I wanted to create a unique masthead for the double page spread as I didn’t want the target audience to get bored of seeing the same title style every page, the variety allows the magazine to be more interesting for the reader. 

For the subheading ‘Spill the beans’, I created this in Arial Black alike mastheads on other pages, even though I wanted to have variety on this page I still think that continuity is important to demonstrate themes. I included a pun in this title to add humour to the magazine, adding the element of humour is very conventional, especially for local genre magazines where the topics are normally very light-hearted and this is a very attractive quality of the target audience therefore I wanted to emphasis this technique by having assets connoting this article style.

The article itself is in the mode of address of peer to peer and is written in a gonzo style, I have chosen to have this mode of address to ensure that the entertainment purpose of the magazine is present and the target audience can easily connote the purpose of the article, but also to make the conversation not too heavy and factual to read and more light-hearted as if amongst friends. 
This type of light conversation is very conventional for local magazines and i have seen this literary technique in Exposed, a popular local Sheffield magazine, therefore by me including this convention I will be fulfilling SPH's brief as this will appeal and attract to the specific Sheffield target audience.

I have asked open ended questions to ensure a lengthy article and these questions will be about the shop e.g ‘when’s your busiest days’ alongside questions about starting your own business and advice this allows readers to get a variety of information after reading the article and actually having an element of knowledge to take away from the article afterwards, once again making the magazine a piece of surveillance media (Dennis Mcquail).  

I have also laid out the article in small paragraphs focusing on certain points at a time this I have done to structure the article as I don’t want to intimidate the reader by having massive chunks of writing, This is also not being appealing to the reader as they can’t clearly see the contents of the magazine and making them less likely to pick a copy to take away. 

I really like the overall magazine I think that it does have clear specific conventions and codes of a local magazine and in my opinion I think that my favourite page is the double page spread due to the house style colours and the layout of the page.

The weaknesses of the pages however is mostly surrounding the front cover, in my personal opinion I think this page is the least conventional and least attractive to the target audience. I think if I was to recreate the page I would change the muted colours that are the house style of the page. 

I also think another weakness of the magazine as a whole is the double page spread main cover image, even though the page house style and layout look good and aesthetically pleasing, I think the main cover image is too heavily edited and doesn't show conventions of a local magazine.

However overall I do think I have fulfilled the SPH brief and the magazine is encoded to specifically target a 25-40 female and male audience.