NA9: Short List of Design Ideas for Article with Audience Feedback

Fonts:

• Sans Seriff- My documentary and my poster both feature sans serif font styles throughout. I feel that if I keep this the same then it will look good in terms of continuity and I am also available to keep a strong brand as well as keeping to the serious manner that I have displayed throughout. My audience feels that solely based on continuity issues I should stick to this font style.
• Seriff- Some of the issues I discuss in the documentary and the accompanying products have an edgy twist so it might come across as a slightly edgy documentary. After considering this further and discussing it with my target audience, we collectedly decided that this would not be a good idea.
• Impact- As I wanted my serious approach to shine throughout, I considered using impact for parts of my write-up based on its very thick and block font approach style. My audience told that this was too childish for my 12-30 male target audience so I then went against using this.
• Helvetic Neue 95 Black- Its a very serious and bold font which is what I like about it. I feel that this is one of the best possible fonts for the approach I am going for. My audience say that I should consider as long as it follows the conventions and font styles used by the channel listings company that this is being made for.

Colour:

• Brown- As well as connoting stability which is clearly tested and challenged by people who featured in this documentary but brown is also connoted with strength. The footballers in my documentary have had to show great strength to bounce back and get their careers kick-started again. My audience think that brown is a good colour to use as it can also be associated with self reflection which is a lot of what my documentary contains.
• White-  This combined on top of another colour I feel will look excellent on my work and connotes the lightness and prosperity about what the future might hold. It also represents 'goodness' which connotes that these footballers have just become unlucky and on the whole these are all good people. My audience also agree that white would work very well on top of a darker colour. White would also connote patriotism as he is an English footballer.
• Black- Black connotes traditional football colours of balls and boots. It connotes power which for some of my star vehicles has now become there lives via coaching. It also connotes the dark times that players have faced hence they are featured in here. My audience feel  that using colour gives more impact even in terms of a serious article. I may use black as part of my image structure but when its come to deciphering upon my text, I will avoid using black.   
• Blue- Blue connote football because it is a common colour used for strips. However, both myself and my audience feel that I should steer away from blue due to its positive connotations.

Layout:

• Basing my article on a footballing example- I am considering looking at styling my article around a real life example from a magazine such as FourFourTwo. By doing this I will be connoting the same types of layout used in industry standard pieces. My audience like this idea because it shows that I am considering my audiences wants and needs from a documentary.
• Using one of my two pages just to make my main image stand out- I have thought about doing this because you see that most successful articles do whatever they can to make their main image stand out. My audience like this as they are likely to recognise a star vehicle if a large image of them is used to take up the majority of my left page.
• Using boxes to use for text which will make my article formal- Doing this will follow of both techniques and methods used in channel listings and football magazine articles. My audience wanted me to do this particularly as it shows clear links between the football and television listings industries together.
• Using a circular speech bubble on my article text- This can help me to highlight significant quotes that stand out more than the rest of the text, This is also used to draw readers in from a far. My audiences said I should use this technique on the proviso that I choose just the right quote for this.

Design:

• Text on top of text boxes- This makes the design of my article seem more catered for. It comes across that that I haven't just wrote a load of unnecessary text on some images. It shows I have carefully planned this and take care into what I am producing for my advertising material. My audience want a piece of advertising to be planned out and cared for and I feel they will be getting via this technique.
• Using bright white text on a darker background layer- I feel it makes the white text connoting a clear future stand out when you place it on a colour such as brown due to its muddy associations.
• Keeping all of my text on one page- This helps me to keep a level text to image ratio in my article. It also makes my main image stand out and my text to have its own recognition that it truly deserves. My audience like that idea but they wanted at least one image on my other side, this links onto my final design idea.
• A smaller action shot of a star vehicle on top of my main text- Doing this adds an exciting touch to my main piece of text which from a distance may come across as slightly tedious. My audience found that the addition of a small action shot adds a lot of character to my article.