Market Research

 For the market research I wanted to research what current villain have been developed and are obvious within popular TV programmes and magazines that are directed at the same audience as I will be designing a villainous character for.

I first searched online for popular TV shows being created for young audiences around the age of my demographic so that I had a vague idea of some of the most popular TV series and characters of the time. I then went to a large supermarket and looked at the selection of magazines available to children aged 7-11. I reasoned that a magazine would only be commissioned if the TV series was popular enough to encourage readers and subscribers so it would give me at least a starting off point for which to carry out some current market research.

 Ben 10

One of the most popular cartoon series on children's screens at the moment seems to be Ben 10. I found a magazine in the supermarket and cut and pasted images of villains and villainous characters to begin to ascertain a feel of the colour palette and running trends throughout the magazine/show so that I may compare these to other villains portrayed in competing shows/publications. The colour palette used in this publication are dark but bold colours, reds, blues, greens, purple, black and white. The adversaries to Ben 10 are generally depicted as animalistic or robotic, with menacing facial expressions/features and often are depicted as rather large in size. Reading through the magazine, each enemy had his or her own 'power' and also in balance their 'only weakness' which Ben 10 must take full advantage of.

 Doctor Who

Originally a science-fiction series created in 1963, showing until 1989 and then recommissioned in 2005. In the beginning stages of the series questions were often raised regarding the 'appropriateness' of the programme for children, as many seemed to be scared by the show, however this only seemed to fuel it's popularity - especially with the younger audiences. Now in it's return Dr Who seems to be as popular as ever with children as this magazine, clearly produced for the child fans of the show demonstrates. As with Ben 10, I cut and pasted images from the magazine and searched for common themes running between Dr Who's enemies, including their appearances, colour scheme and even their names. The appearance of each enemy of Dr Who (similar to Dr Who himself) are various in their individual look, however, some similarities are still evident. Most of Dr Who's adversaries are depicted in a humanistic way, with extenuated features, usually with some kind of damage clear on their outer shell/skin (wrinkles, rust, scales, poor skin quality). The colour palette is relatively used across the board in the depiction of each villainous character, the uses of dark and muted colours are clear to see such as browns, greens, greys, blacks, red and white. The only bright colours used seem to jump out from the 'new generation' of Daleks. As with regard to the names of these adversaries they either seem to have harsh phonetic sounds used such as 'sk' and 'ks', 's' sounds that carry connotations of snakes hissing and slithering (to which many people find fearsome) or low and deep sounding names suggesting danger or impending doom such as the Judoon.

 The Beano

A favourite comic of mine as a child, The Beano is still in publication and has been since 1938, spanning an incredible 74 years. Unlike the previous publications I have researched, the Beano demonstrates the villains from each story mainly by facial expression rather than colour scheme or menace. The colours throughout the comic are bold and striking whether the character be on the side of good or evil. I personally think that this is due to each story having characters acting in a menacing or villainous way, rather than being an out and out 'bad guy'. For example, Walter is generally not seen as the 'villain' of the Dennis the Menace sketch, but rather usually takes the position of the wimp and someone whom Dennis usually gets the better of, however, in the sketch above Walter is behaving in a rather sly and cunning way which is depicted by his facial expression rather than his overall appearance. This same facial expression can be seen time and time again throughout this edition of the comic on various character's faces, being 'real' villains or just acting in that manner for the purpose of the story.