Research - Colour Schemes

I decided to ask my target audience of 16-18 year olds, what colours they were most attracted to, to use on the front cover of my magazine and throughout the magazine. I tried to use mostly gender neutral colours, as the magazine is aimed at both girls and boys. However, it is quite difficult to find gender neutral colours because the indie/rock/alternative genre generally use quite dark but vibrant colours

This colour scheme was the most popular when asked. It was described as "simple but effective" as these colours are quite dark, but also quite bold. In addition, these colours are quite neutral for both boys and girls, although the colours could be argued to be quite boyish as they are dark, but show the quite 'rocky' and edgy feel.

This colour scheme uses quite bold and bright colours to convey the rock and indie feel. In addition, the colour scheme looks quite like the colours the magazine NME would use, which is good as the magazine I want to make is an indie rock magazine. However, the colours are very simple and maybe too bright. As I asked my target audience what they thought, they thought it was too bright to be a consistent theme throughout the magazine.

This colour scheme is very neutral and has quite a soft feel, as they are pastel-y colours. Although they are not as 'rocky' as the other colour schemes have had, this could be quite a good colour scheme to use, as it connotes a more alternative and indie feel, just not as heavy as the other colours used before. This colour scheme was also quite popular throughout my target audience.

The colour scheme used here are very light, pastel colours which use the typical gender neutral colours of pink and blue to give the understanding that the magazine will be gender neutral. However, the colour scheme doesn't show the theme of the magazine well at all, as the theme and genre of the magazine is based on rock and indie. These colours would suit more on a pop magazine such as Smash Hits or Top of the Pops, but not on the magazine I want to create


Overall, the best colour scheme used here is number 1, as it connotes the indie rock feel for the magazine I want to make, as the colours used are mostly blacks, reds, blues and greys