Friday 30 April 2010
Monday 7 December 2009
Colour Testing
Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.
Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is a color found in many national flags.
Red brings text and images to the foreground. Use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions; it is a perfect color for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons on Internet banners and websites. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings (red lips, red nails, red-light districts, 'Lady in Red', etc). Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). This color is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.
Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Red strikes a chord with more cultures than many other colors because of its intensity, passion and invocation of an inherent physiological response. Red is the color of celebration and good luck (China), purity and integrity (India), and mourning (South Africa). When used with a wide brush, red typically makes whatever it’s painted on look larger, whether it’s a torso or wingback chair. The color is bold and audacious, so it usually dilutes the colors around it. For this reason it’s used to accent and highlight objects of importance such as the stop light on a traffic signal.
Studies show that red can have a physical effect, including increasing the rate of respiration, raising blood pressure and thus making the heart beat faster. Red is also said to make people hungry (McDonald's, Burgerville, corner cafés). The red ruby is the traditional 40th wedding anniversary gift. Red is also the color of the devil in modern Western culture.
Magenta:
Magenta symbolized artistic creativity or anti-racism.
Rose:
Rose symbolizes optimism (as opposed to the gray which is used to represent pessimism) or romantic love (since it is the color of roses, which it is the custom to give to ones beloved in many cultures). It also represents innocence, romance, love, and simplicity.
Pink:
Pink is a sister color of red, but they are very different in terms of symbolism. It is a tranquilizing color. For this reason in many prisons the cells of the most dangerous residents have been painted pink[citation needed]. It symbolizes spring, gratitude, appreciation, admiration, sympathy, socialism, femininity , health, love, romance, June, marriage, joy, flirtatiousness, innocence and child-like features.
Orange:
Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.
To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Orange is the color of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.
Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.
Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Orange symbolizes royalty, and as William of Orange was the Calvinist color, orange symbolizes protestantism, particularly in Ireland (Orange Order).
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.
Yellow:
Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.
Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often associated with food. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxicabs are painted this color. When overused, yellow may have a disturbing effect; it is known that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning. In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.
Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. You can choose yellow to promote children's products and items related to leisure. Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. Men usually perceive yellow as a very lighthearted, 'childish' color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men – nobody will buy a yellow business suit or a yellow Mercedes. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark color to highlight it. Shades of yellow are visually unappealing because they loose cheerfulness and become dingy.
Gemini, Taurus, Leo (golden yellow, star signs), April, September, deceit, hazard signs, death (Middle Ages), mourning (as in Egypt and Frank Herbert's Dune), courage (Japan), royalty (China) and God (gold). Yellow ribbons were worn during times of warfare as a sign of hope as women waited for their men to return.
Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy.
Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.
Green:
Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.
Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.
Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.pervertedness (Spain), deceit, disgrace (China), illness, greed, ,corruption (North Africa), life eternal, air, earth (classical element), sincerity, Cancer (bright green, star sign), renewal, natural abundance, growth, health, August, balance, harmony, stability, calming, creative intelligence, Islam, and the ordinary.
Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.
Blue:
Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.
Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.
Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.
Blue can symbolize clouds (New Zealand),Earth (planet), Virgo (light blue), Pisces (pale blue) and Aquarius (dark blue, star sign), strength, steadfastness, light, friendliness, peace, mourning (Iran),[citation needed] truthfulness, love, liberalism (US politics), and conservatism (UK, Canadian & European politics). In many diverse cultures, blue is significant in religious beliefs. It is held to keep the bad spirits, stupidity and misfortune away.
Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
Purple:
Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.
According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colors. Purple is a very rare color in nature; some people consider it to be artificial.
Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design. You can use bright purple when promoting children's products.
Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.
Indigo:
Indigo symbolizes spirituality and intuition. In the Seven rays belief system, indigo is believed to represent both love and wisdom.
Violet:
Violet symbolizes magic. [6] In Chinese painting, the color violet represents the harmony of the universe because it is a combination of red (yang) and blue (yin).[7]In the United Kingdom it is traditional to package chocolate in violet colored packaging because of the association of the color royal purple with luxury.[8]
White:
White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.
White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.
In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility, so you can use white to suggest safety when promoting medical products. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products.
Black:
Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.
Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown (black holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, 'black death'). Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie, black Mercedes). In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief.
Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background diminishes readability. A black suit or dress can make you look thinner. When designing for a gallery of art or photography, you can use a black or gray background to make the other colors stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colors. Combined with red or orange – other very powerful colors – black gives a very aggressive color scheme.
Gray:
Gray, somewhere between white (good) and black (evil), is a blasé color. It can symbolize elegance, humility, respect, reverence, stability, subtlety, wisdom, old age, pessimism, boredom, decay, decrepitude, dullness, pollution, urban sprawl, strong emotions, balance, neutrality, mourning, or formality.
Brown:
Brown is the color of soil, giving it an earthy, environmental quality which is popularly coupled with green. Shades of brown represent skin tones and produce a comforting feeling. Brown symbolizes calm, boldness, depth, natural organisms, nature, richness, rusticity, stability, tradition, anachronism, fascism, boorishness, dullness, filth, heaviness, poverty, roughness, earth (classical element), October, and the quality of being down-to-earth. Brown can stimulate the appetite, wholesomeness, steadfastness, simplicity, friendliness, and dependability. Ironically, brown is also associated with disgust
Thursday 3 December 2009
DJs content page analysis
There are a number of images on this DJ music magazine contents page. The smiley faces are placed on top left hand side of the page. The colour of the faces are yellow and this helps them to stand out on the background. They attract the reader's eye to them because they are of a bright colour and this makes them seem more attractive to the human brain.
Next to these images of the top right hand side is the phrase "Living and breathing dance music", this suggests to the readers that this magazine is all about dance and music. It is in capital lettering and is in bold.
As well as the phrase, also on the right side of this page is four sections and next to each section is an image which tells the reader a bit more of what each sections is about. The first two images show a huge theme of a musical concert(fun), where as the next two images show a more serious theme. This puts a balance on what the magazine is really about.
There have been alot of colours used on this contents page. The background colour is white but also has a section that is black on the bottom left hand side. Also at the top of every section there is a straight, bold line that is a different colour. This was done by the designer to ensure that each section clearly stands out. The title "contents" is not really easy for the reader to see because it is not bold ot in capital lettering and is a very light gray on a white background. Just below the title is the four sections. The first section is called "UP FRONT". The words are in capital lettering and bold. The first word is written in grey and the second is in black. The second section is called "AAA" and the text is slightly bigger for this title. The sections are very beautifully layed out and attractive due to quiet a few things. The text wihin the sections are of two colours. The firsts sections teaxt is pink and black, the second is blue and black, the third is in brown and black and the fourth on eis purple and black. This is a unqiue style. The main pallet for this contents page is black and white because they are the two colours that are most used.
The feacture section is on the left hand side with a black background. This section isn't very colourful, it is of a simple layout. Many readers will believe that this is a clever idea. The feactures section has also got white text in it, the sub-headings are also white but they are in bold. The reader will first be drawn to this section of the page because it is so different to the rest of the page which is colourful.
The magazine is getting the information of music across to the readers. This magazine is aimed at an audience who is interested in the type of genre this magazine is and i think the age group for thier target audience is from about 15 to 30 years old but it could be for any age group because of everyone's different tastes in music.
NME contents page analysis
- The title of this magazine is on the contents page. It is in a place where it is easy to see yet it is not the main attraction of this page. It is placed in the top right hand corner.
- It also has the date that this magazine was published at the top of the page in white capital lettering on a black background so that the text stands out, even though it is of simple font.
- The main pallet for this contents page is pink, black and white because these are the main colours used on this page. The text of this contents page is written in the pallet colours which links the page (text and image) together.
- The "1" at the top of the page, it is the first place that the reader's eye will be drawn into, this section of the page. This is because it is the biggest text linked with the biggest image of the page and also because it is in a star shape.
- On this page they are advertising NME TV. This will bring more and a wider selection of viewers to the program.
- The voucher at the bottom of the page will draw more readers to the magazine as well as the sale that is on. So even though there is a discount because so many more customers will probalily buy while cheaper, in the long run there will be a profit
Monday 30 November 2009
Friday 27 November 2009
Questionnaire
Yes /No
2. If so, when is the magazine you buy published?
Every Day /Every Week /Every Month /Every Year
3. How much do you believe to be a reasonable amount to pay for a music magazine complete with a CD gift?
£
4. Do you think having a CD gift on the front cover will attract more readers?
Yes /No
5. Do you listen to pop/rock/jazz music?
Yes/ No
6. Which gender are you?
Female /Male
7. What age are you?
Years
8. Which of these colours do you find most attractive to the eye? Pick 3
Red/ Blue/ Yellow/ Orange/ Pink/ Brown/ Black/ Green/ Purple
9. What do you enjoy about pop music
10. Do you think having a CD gift on the front cover would attract a wider range of publicity for the magazine?
Yes /No
11. Who is your favourite pop music artist?
12. Why do you like this artist?
13. What song do you like best?
14. Why do you like this song?
15. Would you want a “TOP POP SONGS” chart at the front of the magazine?
Yes/ No
16. Which of the following would you enjoy most reading about in a pop music magazine?
A bands raise to fame/
Information about an upcoming band/
News as to when a certain will be performing next A full of a singer or band/
The latest winner of a talent show, such as X Factor Band coming back together/
Who will be doing a concert next/
If any singers are joining together for a performance
17. Which of the following do you find most appealing to the eye?
18. Why do you find it appealing?
Friday 13 November 2009
double-page spread analysis
- This small heading is in the top left corner, staying within the main pallet of the page with black, blue and white. "Radar" insinuates new information found recently that any other magazine may not have. Its capital letters and the boldness of the lettering attracts the reader's eye to it, so that they will know what this page is about and then they can decide if they are interested.
- This double page spread is a prime example of a typical magazine article. They usually are possibily about a new and upcoming band to present them into the world of music.
- Focussing on the main photograph, it has been taken using the rule of thirds. The faces of the three members of the band have taken up a middle third each, the top three thirds are taken up by smaller photographs; this attracts the reader's eye because it creates a sense of wonder and mystery. The pose of the artist look very relaxed. The picture is large and takes up just over a size of A4 paper so therefore the eye can not help but be drawn to the image.
- This small box at the bottom left hand corner stands out to the eye because it is formed with bright colours which makes the box seem more attractive to the human eyes. Due to this, it attracts the reader to the extra bit of information about the article so that they recieve it. The text is in bold black and white, a mixture of the black, white and blue pallet which is continued throughout these pages.
- The title is in bold, black capitals, backed with a light blue. Not only does this create the pallet for the page but it also attracts the eye to the headline as it stands out from the rest of the page on the right side.
- The column of the far end of the page on the right hand side is sometimes quite common in double page spreads, particually in music magazines; it can be cheaper for less well known bands to have a mention in a magazine. Sometimes these columns can include the latest music chart, or album review. They add extra appeal to the page; also sometimes it can be related to the main article. For example it could be reviews of the album or live performance of the band being covered.
- The article itself is about a new band called "The Teenagers", by stating that "NME LOVES" this band, readers may read on to see if this new band is really all that NME claims them to be. The article includes, within itself, one small photograph of the band performing live, this is done most of the time in music magazines, a typical music magazine trait. The article is describing to its readers about the upcoming of the band, that they are the new "radar," with a quote, here and there, that one of the band members has said. One of these has been highlighted with the same blue as the title, this time in a white font so it will stand out to the reader's eyes.