Possible Magazine Fonts

These are the fonts that I have shortlisted to show my target audience. For the headers I have used bold fonts which stand out and also stay consistant to my logo design, I used Eras Bold ITC for my logo. Bold fonts also look powerful and dominant which reinforces the stereotype of rappers, especially when their name is in that font. For the text I have chosen fonts that are thin and condensed, this makes them more clear to read when cramped together. Also using thin text exaggerates the size of the headings, reinforcing the connotations that will be in place. I will now do a quick survey like I did last time with the colour scheme. I will ask 20 of my target audience for their opinion on these fonts and get them to choose their favourite from each section. My next post will be the results from my survey, which again will be in the form of a pie chart.

Survey Results For Colour Scheme

I asked 20 people from my target audience which colour looked best to them. The results came in showing 14 people thought the red looked best, 4 people thought blue looked best and only 2 people liked the look of green. My original idea has came out on top, so it looks like I'll be sticking with red. I can now go onto my final stage of preparation, deciding which fonts I'll be using for my magazine. I will choose 5 possible fonts for headers and sub headers  and then 5 possible fonts for my text. Again I will present these fonts, in my colour scheme, to my target audience so I can get an insight in to which they would find most appealing and conventional. I will then present my results back to you again in the form of a pie chart.

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.