For question 1, 50% of the respondents preferred a house style which harmonized with the cover star. This encourages me to create a very strong symbiosis between 'HARK' magazine and my cover star, so that two big things may come together to form one strong, brilliant piece of work!
Next, 33.33% wanted a black and red house style, most likely since black and red are typically bold colours that are used in many magazines. The dramatic dynamic red and black brings to the cover can catch the eye of the audience instantly; but having said this, I do prefer for the house style to harmonize with the cover star, just like what the respondents said. In this way we see the magazine company and cover star 'getting along' which invites the reader in warmly!
In question 2, in terms of the tone, I had a very varied response. Two mentioned a 'powerful' tone, two mentioned 'energetic', two mentioned 'smooth' or 'stylish' and one said 'edgy'. From this, I could take that mostly, the audience wants this magazine to be unique and bold. Something in which people can scan their eyes over the magazine rack and instantly pause at this one and say 'Woah!That's a cool magazine! Give it to me!' I could apply these factors to not only the cover star (and the make-up, body language, expressions and effects involved in that) but the masthead itself, the layout of the cover lines and fonts used as well as colour.
It's great to see that in question 3 that everyone's in agreement of an informal magazine. This makes it much more freeing to make and means that the articles and cover lines can be fun as well as appropriate for the story at hand. By the magazine being informal, it means it doesn't take itself too seriously and opens it's door for everyone and anyone to buy it.
By question 4 stating that most like the idea of a monthly magazine shows that people want a quality magazine to look forward to occasionally. This gives greater opportunity for the writers to find even better, juicier stories to write in it and makes it much more valuable since so much time was spent on it; quality over quantity.
Question 5 asks of regular content of the rock magazine, and the respondents had lots of different and similar ideas. They mention music tips, interviews and special gossip, exclusive offers like concert tickets, popular artists of the month, song charts, local talent and gigs. These ideas give me excellent food for thought and I'll definitely make use of all these ideas when constructing the content and cover lines of my magazine!
The majority chose 'Other' for question 6; mainly saying the masthead's colour should harmonize with the cover star, general house style and the ethos of the magazine. This links greatly to question 1 when asking about the magazine's house style. Both these answers suggest the crafting of a strong symbiotic relationship between the magazine and cover star; I'll take this idea on and make the best out of it!
From the responses from question 7, it's clear to see that the audience prefer a larger distribution of image than text. This will catch the attention of the reader instantly and emphasises that it's the featured article if the image is a statement; yet, you don't want it to be so distracting that it's hard to read the article.
just over 80% said they'd pay from £4-£5 for a music magazine. This suggests that, again, they want quality over quantity, but also want it to be affordable. Besides, the company deserves to be well paid for all their efforts of putting a great magazine together!
It's interesting to see in question 9 the balance of those who want a single artist on the cover and a group. This puts less pressure on me to pick either one way or the other and allows me to pick my initial idea of a group on the cover. Besides, I love the interaction of two cover stars since it can show a lot about the tone of the magazine as well as the attitude of the band itself.
Finally, question 10 asks about the ordering of the magazine content, and though its a mixed bag of results, its easy to see that most people want the news to come first to 'break them into' the magazine and to create a 'build up' to the featured article that they're all looking forward too. Besides, if we give the audience what they want straight away, they wouldn't care to look at the news or other articles in the magazine which'd have less interest.
I will certainly take inspiration from these results and do what I can to make my music magazine as bold and stylish as well as interesting as possible; with both style and substance.
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