My 3 Colour Scheme Designs...

I have recreated my final Logo design 3 times, varying the primary colour between blue, red and green. I have kept the white and black to stick to conventions and reinforce my magazine connotations. I will now present these three designs to my target audience asking which one they find most appealing. I will use a tally chart in order to keep count of votes for each design. A tally chart will be useful as I can quickly convert it into a pie chart like I did for my last target audience research. This time I won't be receiving any feedback as there isn't any need to improve my design, however I will take notice if they don't like any of the colours used. Because I don't need any feedback more people will be willing to do my survey so I can ask a wider audience to comment on my 3 designs.

Final Logo Design

This is my final logo design for my magazine. I have stuck to my design idea which I thought of when looking at possible improvements in my feedback. Now I have used the colour scheme to tell the stereotypical story of a rappers life. I used the black background to help create the 3D effect, also black has connotations of death, evil and mystery which relate to the actual background of most rappers. The next colour that comes along is red which associates with war, danger, determination and passion. This shows that even though they are in a dark place they are using determination and passion to get out, even though they are still around war and danger. Finally the white shows after that determination they have taken on qualities of goodness and innocence in the life out of their 'hood'. Instead of a red outline I have used two copies of the font and made one of them red and the other white. I then arranged the white copy to the front so it's on top of the red and moved it slightly to the right so some of the red is shown, which gives the 3D effect.

Colour Scheme

Now that I have created my logo I need to get a final verdict on the colour scheme. Although I am confident with my black, red and white colour scheme I think it would be useful to get my target audiences opinion on it. I will present the colour scheme to them giving my explanation behind it so they can understand it. Then if they don't like it I will offer two alternatives for them to choose from, which I will decide up now.

After researching magazine colour schemes I have learnt most use black and white with a primary colour which stands out on the page. Although mine already uses one, red, I think I should offer a choice of two other primary colours and keep the black and white. If they don't like the connotations idea behind the colour scheme then they are more bothered about how attractive the colour scheme looks. I think the two colours most suitable would be blue and green as they are clear to view, over colours such as yellow and pink, and still offer a serious and sophisticated appearance.

I will now create the logo again using these colours and show my target audience. Again I will make a chart explaining which colour came out on top and I will be using for my design.

Survey Results and Feedback for Magazine Name...

I now have the results from my target audience for my magazine name. The winner is Redrum! I will now look into the feedback I received on how to improve the design into a professional media product. I was given a compliment and an improvement from each member of my audience. I believe receiving feedback from my target audience instead of tutors will be more useful as I am designing it to their interests and they do know what they want to see. Obviously each member had different ideas on how to improve, so I analysed each idea and decide which ones I will actually take action with. I created a shortlist of my top 3 suggestions, I will now present the feedback and explain to you how I will act upon their possible improvement idea. 

Feedback

Target Audience 1 - "I love the way you have put 3 words together that each relate to the genre. To improve you should add an effect to the font used, so it looks more appealing on the front cover of your magazine." When analysing front covers I noticed a 3D effect was popular and used consistently throughout the page. I could use a drop shadow effect on the text so it stands out of the page and into the viewers eyesight.

Target Audience 2 - "The colour scheme stands out and they have good connotations to fit the genre. However, I don't think they go that well together so you should choose another colour." I'm happy with the connotations of red and black, and they do agree with that. To solve the problem I will add a third colour of white to my design. White has connotations of goodness, innocence and purity which all subvert the rap stereotype. However, they all link to the common story of the bad rapper, with connotations of red and black, turning to the light through their skill of rapping.

Target Audience 3 - "The bold font really stands out on the page and works well with the red font colour. It could be improved by including a background for the colours to play on, this will make them stand out more." This advice has given me an idea on how to develop my last possible improvement. I will give the logo a black background and use white for the font with a red border. This way I can include all the colours as well as adding a 3D effect.

Asking My Target Audience: Logo/Magazine Name

Here is a short clip of my target audience commenting on my logo designs.

Redrum

The third design I have created is again based on a term from my key genre, however this time I have been more specific. The main style of hip hop I am focusing on is Horrorcore so I have chosen a popular term found there, 'Redrum'. The noun 'red' in the name has connotations of war danger and blood which all link to the genre of music, attracting the target audience. Redrum also includes the word 'Drum' which is the main instrument used in a hip hop beat, most MC's just use a drum line to put their lyrics over. The final word that has been included is 'Rum', which is an high percentage alcohol. The rappers that I will be focusing around will be them from a bad background, who used alcohol as an antidepressant. Making the name relate to the contents, purpose and audience of my magazine helps to create a specific idea on what to expect when reading the magazine, reaching the expectations of my target demographic. I have made the text bold so it stands out to the viewer as strong and powerful, which reinforces the rappers mentality I will be writing about. The red font with a thick black outline is used for the same connotations as I talked about in the '4Real' logo design, anger and violence which are stereotyped into the street life of early rappers.

DOPE

This is my second name hand drawn design, 'DOPE'. Instead of an O I have used a microphone. The microphone is a main feature in rap music and has connotations of skill and lyrics, which is what rappers pride themselves on. The target audience will see the microphone and instantly associate it with hip hop. I have used the word 'Dope' because it is commonly found in rap slang. This way I am directly targeting fans of rap music and they will appreciate it as they are reading for personal identity and diversion. This time I have stuck to a plain black colour scheme. This is to reinforce connotations of poor and dark backgrounds many of the rappers I will be writing about will have come from. Again the microphone shows that they used skill and lyrics to get out of that dark place.