Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly, I decided upon a target audience for my magazine. I knew I wanted to attract the 'Indie-rock' trend, as I liked the indivdualism that those particular people empowered and the unique factor that both their fashion and attitudes captured. After deciding this I had to research and look at the genre of music that were favourited among these people, I found that there was quite a wide variety and that I would have to limit my music choices. I chose the artists and bands that I percieved to be most relevant to the cause and began to base my magazine around this. I looked at photos of both models and those I knew that had the fashion associated with the 'Indie' genre and began to think of choices for my model. The two I chose instantly sprang to mind. My friend Charlotte, and ofcourse my main model, my cousin Poppy. She seemed to embody every aspect of my target audience and was the perfect model. Her clothing wasn't a problem as she had many antique pieces of clothing, for example her faux fur coat that had been her grandmothers and other 'Indie' based clothing.

Here is a picture of the fashion that Poppy endorsed.


I knew if I really wanted my magazine to stand out I would need a unique selling point. For example some magazines like NME and Kerrang often promote festivals and gigs.This had to be a combination of both the production and design of my magazine itself and in the music I included. I began wondering how I could capture the confident somewhat rebellish attitude of the genre in a photo. I realised it was all down to the 'micro' detail of shot composition,framing, anchorage, layout, mode of address and register.

In my front cover photo I used a close up of model (as often featured on the front cover of many music magazines) I wanted her gaze to be outwards and provocative, engaging readers. Here is the photo I used and finished front cover:

To convey more of her 'rebellious' nature. I gave her a prop to work with, she held it between her lips conveying power and confidence. In my other photos I shot her from different angles. One of the photos her face is tilted upwards and her arms are behind her back. This gave subtle connotations of arogance, yet rebellion and a 'I don't give a s***' kind of attitude. This is shown by this main quote featured on my Double Page Spread:





 Which is appealing to many young adults going through the harder stresses of life. I also had a few hooks inside my magazine, for example gig offers, festival ticket wins etc. All the gigs offered or promoted I had researched as being related to my genre, and included bands and artists that were in my magazine for example Reading which has artists such as 'Florence and the Machine' playing. I also feel that my cover lines and language helped to induce the readers, I used colloquial language and provocative phrases.