Billboard Poster Designs Focus Group

A focus group was held once the design were completed to gain an opinion on the billboard poster designs from a consumer point of view which is of course invaluable to the designing process. The group was made up of 14 individuals all from the regional newspaper focus groups.

The first design was shown to them and only few thought the simplicity was a good thing because they saw it as having a good circulation basis and that everybody would know the regional newspaper straight away. others argued this was a poor design because yes the simplistic design is good at indicating a strong circulation and a secure newspaper but regional newspapers are constantly advertising to maintain that circulation they have worked hard to obtain. I agreed with this viewpoint as the research indicated that regional newspaper are constantly advertising to keep their newspaper viable. The majority of the group disapproved of the first design as a whole due to the message being conveyed in the billboard.

The second design was shown to the focus group and many liked the logo that overlapped the banner at the bottom and the image because it added aesthetic quality to the billboard and as part of the logo is the county logo, the regional newspaper is directly tied to the region. However, some did not like the images as they thought it was too general and did not tie to the regional newspaper or the county very much which they did not like and the image of the van and the strapline could be misleading to some. The strapline "Bringing you the local news" with the van makes the Shropshire Staffer appear like a delivery service for the regional newspaper rather than being the regional newspaper or that the newspaper only delivers to the consumer rather than being able to purchase the newspaper in store. The first design was preferred more than the second design because many agreed that the confusion that could be caused by the billboard is not as good as a simple billboard poster that has a clear message being conveyed.

The third design was approved by many of the focus group with only a few opposing it. It was said the logo, name and website being placed on the bottom left was great because it advertises the regional newspaper very well with clarity. The text to many was quite thought provoking and made them question the statement (Stuart Hall's Reception Theory) which they thought would leave a memorable print on them in the future. Although some thought the borders where the colour scheme was used between the beige and dark blue was used needed a more defining border. It was suggested that a darker colour could be used such as black or possibly a lighter colour such as silver. I thought about using drop shadow effects on the border to give a 3D effect. The "NO ONE!" text was suggested to be made bigger to add more effect from the statement.

Overall, the third design was the favourite of the three because of the thought provoking statement caused by it and how the colour scheme and the logo and the web address was displayed (ties with research about regional newspapers advertising their online presence). Suggestions were made to the third designs which will be implemented to see  if anyone of them will have the desired effect on the billboard poster.  The schedule allowed time for the creation of materials such as banners, the regional newspaper production produced the materials I already needed so no new materials have needed to be produced at this due time.

Bilboard Designs

Billboard Poster Questionnaire Results

Billboard poster questionnaire results from bdr628

Billboard Poster Questionnaire

Billboard Poster Research and Analysis

Billboard poster analysis and research from bdr628

Regional Newspaper Front Page IMPROVED

Below is the improved front page of the regional newspaper. before starting the billboard poster ancillary task, I decided to look over the product once more and spotted two flaws in the design. One being the "Special Delivery" advert was too large and competed with the logo and the logo itself had no emphasis on the price of the newspaper. Research showed that many newspapers have a badge that shows the price, mine did not have this. As a results these flaws spotted have now been fixed and therefore the overall newspaper has improved.

Regional Newspaper Evaluation Question: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evalaution stages?

The regional newspaper used many different media technologies to produce, analyse and distribute to audiences so that the audience could easily obtain and read the regional newspaper.

The main media technology used was Adobe Photoshop CS6 because of the incredible and flexible tools available. the first thought in my mind on what program to use to produce the regional newspaper was Microsoft Word which many would consider but further thought proved that would of been a bad idea. Photoshop supports the changing sizes of canvas, images and text all in one whilst Word does not. In Word, the page size is not as flexibly changed compared to Photoshop which is why Photoshop was used instead of Word for the main formatting of the media product.

Photoshop was used for the main part because of the features such as texts with a variety of fonts and the importing of images with ease. These features are key in producing newspapers because images need to be added and formatted into the page easily without any hassle or causing problems.

Microsoft Word was used to a great degree to spell check the text for the regional newspaper because Photoshop does not possess a spell check system as good as Word which is why the text was created in Word then pasted over to Photoshop without any grammar mistakes present.

Other media technologies during the post-production of the regional newspaper is Prezi, an online presentation software, and this software was used because no other formats of media technology supported the regional newspaper to be presented in detail to an audience. Word or Photoshop is not viable to be distributed and other programs like YouTube is the wrong format and even if placed in the video, the media product could not be read from the screen due to the poor quality. Prezi allows the audience to zoom into the media product and be able to read the media product with no complications.

Overall, media technologies were used in a variety of roles for a variety of reasons to ensure that the media product could be properly produced, analysed and distributed without any faults or complications occurring to both the audience and myself during production.

Regional Newspaper Evaluation Question: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Regional Newspaper Evaluation Question: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Regional newspaper Q2 from bdr628

Regional Newspaper Evaluation Question: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Regional Newspaper Final product Survey Results

The vast majority of the participants that took part in the survey online through Survey Monkey were happy with the overall layout of the regional newspaper pages which leads me to strongly relive that the media product is structured like a regional newspaper because otherwise the audience would have answered that they wasn't happy with the layout. However, the participants had a mixed reaction to whether the mix between original images and already taken ones (royalty free) was a good idea for the product with half in favour that it was. This may be down to just the tastes and likes of the individual.

The ones who responded they hated the mix between the images thought it was because they did not mix well together with the colour scheme whilst the other half of the participants thought that the mix of images gave a better variety in visuals.

The text aspect of the regional newspaper received a great response from the audience as nearly all of the participants thought that the headline was very clear and that the text itself read like a newspaper as well. this was great feedback to receive because a newspaper has to read like one because there is a certain factual style to how it is written. Some thought that the layout itself in a way complimented the text which may be because the text is moulded round the layout.

The adverts of the regional newspaper was thought to be very clear as well by many which means the details and images used in the adverts are very clear in how they present themselves which is a key aspect for advertising. the logo including date and price got good reviews as well with many agreeing that the date and price on the newspaper was very very clear. This is possibly because the price is highlighted in a bubble whilst the date is in white text on a dark blue background which stands out from the main body of the logo.

Overall the results received from this survey were very encouraging that my own media production was a success because otherwise the audience in the survey would have given less complimenting feedback.

Regional Newspaper Final Product Survey

This is the survey for consumers of the media product to completer after having read the final two pages of the regional newspaper. Create your own user feedback survey

Final Inside Page Step by Step Documentation

Final Front Page Step by Step Documentation

Completed Regional Newspaper Production Schedule

The finished production schedule for the regional newspaper is below where you can see the actual start and end dates plus comments left by myself about why certain tasks were started when they were.

Finished Production schedule from bdr628

Final Inside Page of the Regional Newspaper

Once again, the Prezi Presentation was the only viable choice for the final inside page to be presented without sacrificing the quality of the media text.  For it to be possible to read the text on the presentation, when on the slide for the final newspaper front page, please click on the page. This is will zoom in on the page, then you will be able to zoom in and out at free will by using your mouse wheel and be able to read the text. Thank you.