Survey Research

Here is my survey. I asked 20 people of friends and strangers to fill it in using survey monkey. Once collected the results i put them into graphs and analysed them.

My survey from Mark Rowland

i also did a lifestyle questionaire:

Life style questionnaire from Mark Rowland

Colour used in business and magazines

When designing pages in a magazine editors are very careful in what goes onto the pages. One way that dramatically improves the look of any page is the colours used.  The colours can help reflect on the mood of the readers, bands on the page, or just make the page look generally a lot nicer than a plain white page. The colours used all depend on the desired affect they want achieve.

Why they could choose a certain colour:

Who is their target audience:

Depending on who the audience is the colours used can vary from black (gothic styled readers) all the way to bright pink or neon colours (normally girls or energetic people).  For example a gothic styled person is not really going to want to want to see a lot of pink and bright colours because that would normally go against their style of clothing etc.

What is being presented on the page:

The next factor is what is on the page itself. Depending on what is being shown on the page, the colours can change no matter what. If a band wanted to send out a message about their new album, they could base the background to be the colour of their album. Not only would the background have a meaningful colour but anything that the editor would want the readers to see would be coloured in such a way that it would be hard not to notice and therefore be seen by all readers.

What do they want to portray:

The last factor is a mixture of the first two but also the editor’s choice. If they want to portray a sad song in a music magazine they would put colours that symbolize that feeling like blue. In effect the editors can have a slight effect on how the readers feel while reading the article.

Blue:

The colour blue symbolizes a whole bunch of things. 

With the sky and sea being blue, normally the colour symbolizes calmness and tranquility, this is shown in travel adverts where they use water in pools to show relaxing times.

As well as tranquility it also represents cleanliness and technology. The colour is used in loads of adverts to help portray the idea of smartness in technology ads.

The use of the colour blue in music magazines is normally used in covers where it is a calm singer. As the colour suits calmness and relaxation it tends to work well with that kind of genre.

Orange:

Normally associated with energetic activities and warmth orange is normally a very welcoming colour.

The use of it in magazines would help portray the effect of bands. Normally more electronic bands and loud music the colour can help the reader feel happier and feel more welcomed to the magazine, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Red:
The colour represents things normally represent danger and excitement. It also is a sign of blood and symbolizes war and with it being such a vibrant colour is used on safety signs.

The use of this on magazines can help make features and adverts stand out considerably more than if they were in white.  As its a strong colour it also is used in backgrounds to emphasize genres of music such as rock. This is because rock bands are bands that are known for being dangerous and shows the intensity of their music

Green:

The colour normally shows nature, youth and fortune. The colour is used on notes where they symbolize money.

In magazines it would be used to show the starting of new bands in articles. With it meaning wealth and youth it normally used a lot more in the magazines aimed at the younger generations.

Yellow:

Colour of energy and happiness it is used normally to help motivate people and cheer people up.

Magazines wouldn’t use this colour so much in big amounts. The reason is that it is a very obvious colour and can distract the readers from other features and parts of the magazine.

Rolling stones layout analysis

The layout of this magazine is very simple and allows the reader to know what music will be talked about in the magazine straight away. With it being a very simple design only the text that has to be on the cover is on it. Only the features, masthead, one small plug and a barcode are on the cover. This creates a minimalist and professional look to the cover. Due to the minimalist look everything that is on the cover now stands out even more meaning that there are less colours used and editing done to help attract more users.

 The use of features all on one side of the page enables readers to read easily what is in the magazine and also what the main article is.  As all of the features are on one side of the page it makes loads of room to show the photo without covering it up. Doing this not only means that the features will be in one place but also makes the picture a lot more evident. With the picture being one of the main ways a magazine attracts new customers having the features out of the way of the picture means fans of the artist or that genre of music  will instantly be interested in that article.

 As all of the features are on the left hand side naturally for the majority of people this makes it easier to read. As most of the western world (where the magazine is targeted) read from left to right, having the text on the left side makes it not only easier to read for the readers but also makes them stand out a lot more.

With the features being one of the main parts of the magazine how they are presented is one of the most important.The size of the writing on the features not only creates a change to the magazine but also creates a slight hierarchy in the features. The most important ones are printed in the biggest text size with their own straplines in a much smaller size. With the hierarchy in text size showing what the most important article is they use the side of the magazine to show this too. The features are all down one side with the most important ones at the top next to the masthead (where it stands out the most). Although there is a hierarchy in these features the use of features is to attract new customers in the target audience of the magazine. The features on the cover of the magazine are put on the cover because they are bands/ topics that the editor thinks the target audience of the magazine will feel are most important. For example they wouldn’t put an off topic girls band in this magazine front cover because they don’t appeal to the main target audience that the magazine is aimed at.

The font on the cover of the magazine is basically the same throughout the cover. The font used on the masthead is the exact same on the features and strap lines. Doing this makes the magazine look more professional and also gives the text a different look compared to the standard “san serif” text.  The font itself gives the reader a feel of importance in that particular article and with it being a bold font again makes it stand out even more.

The picture itself gives the idea to the reader that it is barley edited. As the artist Lil Wayne is covered in tattoos it means the picture isn’t as dull as other pictures in medium close up.  The fact he isn’t looking near the camera creates an idea that there is a meaning for doing so.

The masthead is the most important part of the magazine and how its presented helps present the whole magazine. With it being printed across the whole width of the page it doesn’t have to show the whole name. This is because the magazine is so well known that knowing it is a magazine and the first word is rolling, almost everyone is bound to know what the magazine is and what it will be about.  With the layout of the magazine being so simple having the masthead written across the whole page emphasises that it is such a big magazine.