Audience Feedback; Magazine

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By Heidi Nockels and Nicole Harman- Smith

What most draws your attention to this magazine ad?

• The masked character

• The simplicity

• Typography

• Smoke Effects

When asked what most draws the participants attention to the magazine ad, the common answers were, the masked character, the simplicity, typography and smoke effects. When creating our magazine ad, our aim was to keep it simple and striking. To do so, we wanted to keep the main features to a minimum. As a result the only features are the masked character, smoke and text. The effect of this is that it makes each aspect even more striking and powerful. As the majority of our audience mentioned these features, means that we succeeded in our aim of making a simple, yet striking magazine ad. Our main features were also recognised as aspects that most drew their attention.

What are your favourite features about the ad?

• The Simplicity

• Typography

• Close up shot

• Striking Image

• Informative

• Image reflects album name

When asked what their favourite features about the magazine ad, the most repetitive answers were, the simplicity, striking image and the typography. These features were what we most focused on when creating our magazine ad, therefore we are glad that this has been recognized as a favourite feature. The typography and striking image were what we worked most hard on as we wanted a signature font that would become iconic to our band so that it would be recognized on all media platforms. The image we specifically chose and edited, we aimed to be eye catching and striking, as typically the main image of any ad is what draws peoples attention towards it. The list of favourite features tells us that we have successfully appealed to our target audience.

What are your least favourite?

• Image too dark

• Not enough text

• Text placement

• Colour of text

When asked their least favourite features of the magazine ad, a repetitive theme was about the colour scheme. Many said that both the image and text colour were too drained, and needed to be made more vibrant. When editing both our image and our text, we chose to desaturate the colours as we wanted to create a creepy, disorientating atmosphere. However, our audience feedback has showed us that for advertising, brighter colours draw the most attention and audience appeal. Other least favourite features included text placement and that there was not enough text. Our reasons for this design was that we wanted to keep it both simple and clutter free, as we found from our research that this has the most impact and striking effect.

Do you think that the poster links to the genre of electronic/ dance?

YesNo

The majority of participants argued that, no the poster does not link to the genre of electronic/ dance. This outcome did not come as a surprise. When designing our brand identity we chose to push the boundaries of typical electronic/ dance features e.g. to not have vibrant colours, a DJ and a club location. Therefore we expected that not many would consider our poster to link to our chosen genre. However, few did say that it did link to the electronic/ dance genre. This may be a result of the use of smoke, and how the artist does not reveal its true self, they use a character to perform instead. These were two common features we found when looking at current eletronic/ dance artists of today.

Does the drained colour scheme still attract your attention?

Yes No0

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4

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8

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12

Yes or No

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Although many said that the drained colour scheme was their least favourite feature of the magazine ad, 11 still said that it does still attract their attention. This may have been a result of a strong and striking image as it is what draws the most attention. However, 4 participants answered no, that it does not attract their attention. This may be because they are too used to the typical bright, vibrant colours used on advertising. However, we wanted to break these typical boundaries.

Does the masked character intrigue you?

Yes

When asked if the masked character featured on the front intrigued them, all 15 participants said yes. The idea behind the masked characters was to create a mysterious atmosphere and link within the music video, digipack and magazine advertisement. When we research already existing electronic artists, we found that many don’t show themselves within their videos and advertisements, for example, Basment Jaxx, Daft Punk and Deadmau5. They create alter-egos. When creating our masked characters we had hoped that it would be both mysterious and creepy enough to entice and intrigue viewers. Looking at our results, it is clear that we had succeeded in making an intriguing and eye catching ad.

Do you think that it links to both the album name and the theme of

hidden identity?

Yes No0

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15

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When asked if they thought that the masked character linked to both the album name (Anonymous) and the theme of hidden identity, 14 answered yes. The idea behind the masked characters was to create a mysterious atmosphere that gave our artist a ‘hidden identity’. An idea that is common throughout the electronic genre.

In order to make our all our media platforms of highest quality, we found that they all had to have a solid link. We chose to make this our masked characters. The majority of our participants made this connection and agreed that it linked to both our album name and theme.

Is it clear which is the album name and which is the artist name?

Yes

No

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Amount of People

Yes o

r N

o

When we asked what our audiences least favourite feature was, an aspect that came up was text placement. That some found it wasn’t clear which text was the album name, and which was the artist name. From these findings, it was no surprise that over half of our participants answered no to the question of ‘Is it clear which is the album name and which is the artist name?’ When choosing the typography for our artist name, we tried to make it signature and different to any others, so that it became the brand identity. However, from looking at our results, it shows that we did not choose a unique enough font that would make it clear as towhich is the album name and which is the artist name. However, the choice of text placement also played a part in these results. We could've made it more obvious to our views about which was which.

What improvements would you make?

• Rearrange text

• Colours to be more vibrant

• Add text e.g. tour dates, reviews

• Change ‘Unhinged’ font

Finally, we asked participants what overall improvements they would make to our finished magazine advertisement. The most common replies were; to make the colours more vibrant and to change the unhinged font. As previously mentioned, many of our audience said that the drained colour scheme was their least favourite feature, therefore it is no surprise that this was the main improvement they would make. However, we chose to follow through with our colour scheme as it pushed the boundaries of typical electronic artists of today. As well as participants had previously mentioned that they still found the poster appealing as it is. Other participants said that they would changed the ‘Unhinged’ font to relate more to the genre and to make it more signature and clear so that it is an obvious brand identity. If we had asked for feedback earlier on through this process, this would've been an improvement that we would have worked on. Finally, our participants mentioned that they would have added more text, e.g. tour dates. However, during our research, we found that the simplest of designs had the most impact and effect. Therefore we stand by our clutter free design.