Evaluation: Forms And Conventions

The genre of the music magazine I have created is a general music hybrid magazine which contains different genres of music with sections of pop, rap, indie and others rather than focusing on one specific genre such as metal for example. I hope this hybrid magazine will fill a gap in the market as there are very few currently. The layout for this genre of the magazine is a large image covering a high percentage of the cover, leaving room at the left and right hand sides and at the bottom of the page for cover lines and stories.

The double page spread also has one page covered with a large image whilst the other page is all an interview style article, in columns. The content of the magazine is all fairly typical with interviews, competitions, CD and album reviews and chart predictions. The language of the magazine is fairly informal but still understandable and it addresses the audience in a way in which they could relate to (as it is fairly young and uses typical words) Smash Hits and NME are all examples of this genre of music magazine although I do feel I have challenged these conventions slightly as my magazine is aimed at a slightly younger target audience and mainly females. My magazine is also much more general than the existing two examples as it contains more genres of music, whereas NME is much more focusing on one or two types.

The front cover of my magazine is very bright as i have used the colours green, blue, yellow and pink as the background and in the title. The background pattern has been made to look like a spotlight with the rays of colour coming from the top left hand corner. The date and issue price is in the top right hand corner and the bar code is in the bottom left. The image on my cover is a female model facing the readers left hand side, pulling a pose. This connotes excitement or mystery as you cannot see the models full face or her exact expression, although she appears to look cheery. She is wearing purple and white because the purple is another bright colour which goes well with the background and the white ties in with the subtext underneath the cover lines. There is an outer glow around the image.This is because i used the lasso tool and cut the background off the image so i only had the main subject but i was left with rough edges which i needed to hide. As well as this i think the outer glow looks effective as it shows the importance of the person i used. I wanted the image to look very girlie as this would attract the suitable target audience i was after. I used two black spade graphics because i thought they would show the magazine was informal and fun and i situated these inbetween cover lines to try and break them up slightly. My coverlines were down the left hand side and right hand side of the image, and also at the bottom of the page. I think they could have been bigger so that they could be read from further away. I changed the font style on some of the cover lines to add a bit of differentation, and the same was done with the font colour although i used the colours within the background and title. The cover line “free CD of the newest tracks” has an inner and outer black shadow. This was to make the text stand out more and look more defined so that it catches the readers attention.

The contents page of my magazine uses the same background style as the cover page of my magazine but uses the colours green, blue, yellow and purple instead. I kept it the same so that there was a running theme. Rather than using a list, i included photos with information underneath of what was to be expected in the magazine. This was so that the reader could see what the article was about without having to read lists. The artist titles were all in the same colour, font and style and the same applied to the text underneath and the page numbers. I did this because i thought it would look very messy and confusing if lots of different colours were used. The title is rather large in the top right hand corner and underlined. I really like this because i made the text closer together and it looks really effective how some of the letters meet others. I also think the title sticks with a fun, interesting style but is different from the masthead of the magazine which is an advantage because there needs to be some change between pages. I used some vertical text in the bottom right corner because all of it was horizontal and it would stand out more; especially as it is the editors name. At the bottom of the page i included a small list of what else was to be expected in the magazine, as i felt that the 3 images with text about them was not enough and there needed to be more to interest the reader. I wrote this list in the same font, colour and style for the same reasons as before and the reason i used the colour pink was because it was the colour i had originally used on the background of the front cover but changed to purple on the contents page. It contrasted nicely with the background it was laid upon.

The double page spread of my magazine is my favourite page because of the colour scheme used. The background of the first page uses a pink and white display similiar to the others but with less of a spotlight look, just more of an interesting pattern and the second page is plain pink. The second page however, gets covered with a large image of my female model. The model this time is facing the camera, with a slight smile on her face. She is blonde with long hair and is wearing very girlie clothes and a necklce and headband which shows she cares about her appearance. Her hand is also in a position which looks like she is touching the magazine. This shows she could be posing again and looking very glamorous. There is an outer glow around the image for the same reasons as before but i think it looks brilliant as it adds some variation to the plain pink background. There is a polaroid style photo in the top right hand corner which has been rotated slightly. The model is wearing the same clothes, just pulling a different pose. There is a yellow crown graphic below because i thought this would describe the artist as being the ‘queen of pop’ without using text. It would let the reader make up their own mind.The first page has a large, bold title using the colours yellow and blue alternately. These colours are the main colours in my interview article as the columns are yellow and the pull quote boxes are blue. The colours remind me of a circus theme as they are bright and contrasting. The questions in the interview are asked in pink and the replies are in blue. This is so that there is no confusion between who is talking. The interview is informal and uses slang. There are pull quotes written in pink on the blue boxes as this pulls the reader in by wanting to see more of the article. There is also a standfirst/kicker which is a short paragraph which gives the reader a bit more information about what the article is going to be about. The text is left jusitfied, therefore giving a ragged right edge and there are gutters between each column which make the page not look so crowded. There are page numbers in the bottom corners throughout my magazine which make the organisation easier and lets the reader flick through the magazine easily.

Evaulation: Representations

In my photos I have used a female model wearing fashionable clothes- from the high street store ‘New Look’ which is where a large number of teens in the age of my target audience shop (including males). My subject is not smiling or looking aggressive and is not looking in the camera- she is pulling a glamorous pose which connotes mystery or something unique. The cover lines and articles use slang and imply that my audience are interested in fashion, the latest trends and all of the things typical teens are. According to my magazine, young people have the attitude of wanting to be popular, wearing the latest clothes and fitting in with others. I have reinforced stereotypes of youth. I have represented gender in a stereotypical way, by using girlie girl models and subjects for my interviews. I have not represented race or class in a particular way as my magazine is suitable for any culture and any class- it is just aimed at normal teens from any background.I have represented youth in a quite light and playful way. My magazine does not connote rebellion and instead connotes fun, gossip and information which is enjoyable to read. I have tried to connote this by using bright colours, in certain patterns such as rays that look like a spotlight from the top left hand corner of the front cover which start thin and get wider towards the bottom end of the page. These are in a range of colours. I have also included graphics and used fun, rounded fonts to give the reader the impression that the magazine is informal and cool looking. This again fits in to no youth sub-culture and is purely for individuals.
The text on my front cover and in the contents page makes very few assumptions as to who is excluded from the text, as it is fairly neutral and not leaning towards anybody. The reader would have to like and take an interest in the articles and bands in the magazine but other than that it is not aimed at anybody in particular. I have created rather a stereotyped representation of feminity in my products. The double page spread is assumed to be girlie as it is an interview from an American female who is number one in the charts for producing a dance song and males would not want to read it; The reason for this being that the interview includes conversation about boyfriends, dogs, shopping and stereotypical girl interests. The colour scheme could also be described as being girlie with main colours of pink, yellow, green and blue which could automatically deter any male who turns to the page. These assumptions tally with my target audience as it is supposed to have a higher number of female readers than male. The person in my magazine is posing in photographs, looking very glamorous and icon like? And is being a typical female in the articles as described above. The appearance of her could fit in with typical stereotypes of blonde, dumb girls who are famous and obsessed with their own appearance, or vain even? I have probably reinforced this stereotype in my interview with the female artist ‘Lady Gaga’ by some of the conversation, using typical American and female phrases such as “oh my gosh” and “pooch.” I do not necessarily think that this is a bad thing however as teenage girls would be able to relate to the topics approached and words used.

Evaluation: Institutions

If I was to use a large publishing company such as Bauer, I would probably have high quality products being printed to meet deadlines. The audience would trust the publishing company as it is very popular and they produce a large amount of different magazines. A disadvantage to this would be that I would not know a great deal about the process or know who I was working with as I would only be one of many to them, and there would be no time for them to get personal with me and what I do. This gives an advantage to having a small media institution distribute my product as the customer care would be much more personal and I would be able to work with others one on one. The cons to this would be that the company would not be able to print large quantities or magazines due to lack of equipment, funds or resources and the company could easily go bankrupt, leaving me with problems. There would almost likely be a large difference in the cost between the two publishers. If I was to use a larger publishing company, a lot of money would come from advertising (selling space within my magazine) as well as just circulation as the publishing company would be well known and trusted to deal with advertisements due to having used them before. This is a big advantage because usually the same amount is made from advertising as it is circulation. A smaller publishing company would not be able to provide this. Using the Audit Bureau of Circulation website I was able to work out approximate values. My magazine price is £2.99 and if I multiplied that by the number of copies sold (which im estimating at 10,000) the total amount of money made would be £299,000. The amount NME is paid for one full page advertisement for example is £6, 920. If there was to be 40 pages of advertisements, this final cost would be £276,800. If you compare the two prices they work out to be very smiliar.

Evaluation: Target Audience

The demographics for my magazine are that it reaches out to a target audience of teenagers aged 15-19 though it is based more for a larger percentage of females readers than males. The social status of the audience is hard to categorize as teenagers do not really fit in to a class of social status however they would probably be of a middle market, C1 or C2; being students or in education. The race and area of the reader is not relevant as it can be anybody from any culture or any region in the UK, as long as they are interested in the style and contents of the magazine. The psychographics for my magazine are mainstreamers. They would listen to pop, RnB/Hip-Hop and Indie and their consumption habits would be clothes and shoes, fashion, ipod’s and music, technology and festivals and gigs. They would wear colourful tops, skinny jeans, dresses or tunics, plimsolls, leggings and lots of jewellery or accessories. Their hair would be medium or long length which is well styled or looked after, for example straightening or use of hair products such as dyes and gels. The lifestyle of my magazine readers could be anything ranging from intelligent students in a well mannered home to somebody not in any education, rebelling against their parents and causing trouble in general. It simply depends upon the individuals situation. My magazine is intended for no sub-culture identities such as punks, emo’s etc as I feel there is no stereotype for all of the different genres of music I have included in my magazine and readers could not be labelled.
The type of products that could be advertised in my magazine are fashion, cosmetics, beauty products, electronics, food and drink, brand names and logo’s, festivals and events and other magazines (if with a large publisher who manages others) as these are products that people the age of my target audience would buy. This would provide advertisers and publishers a big opportunity as there is a very large range of categories to advertise and it could get them a lot of business.

Evaluation: Addressing My Audience

I addressed the audience for my magazine in an informal, chatty way in which the target audience would be able to relate to. I tried to make the layout fairly simple, and clear to read by having font which was large enough to read and making sure there was still plenty of space surrounding the text so that all of the text and images were not too cramped. Especially on the front cover, I tried to make sure that the cover lines did not overlap the main image too much as it was of a famous singer; therefore having her on the cover would attract more readers. I found it hard on the contents page to fit everything in without it looking messy because I had too much to include and very little space. I think I managed it quite well in the end because of the colours I used. The background used was blue, yellow and purple so I used contrasting colours such as pink and navy to add text over the already bright background. This fitted in with the theme of also making the magazine look more for female readers as the colours would not be likely to appeal as much to males. I also used a light colour scheme on the rest of the magazine as when I edited my images, I made them a lot brighter with a higher contrast. I edited most of my images on curves so that I could adjust different sections at a time. I decided to do this because all of my colours were light and fun, rather than dark and dreary so I did not feel darker images would fit in very well with this theme. My cover lines are not very interesting and I think I could have used more luring ones which were chattier and spoke directly to the audience, possibly by asking them a direct question? This would attract the audience’s attention by using quotes rather than just listing what is inside. I could have used exclamation marks and question marks such as rhetorical questions to address the audience more directly so that i am talking to them exactly and getting them involved with the magazine.

Evaluation: Technologies

During the process of making my magazine I have learnt many new skills, especially when taking photos and using Photoshop. I have learnt about the right surroundings to take a photograph in, especially with the digital cameras I was using. I needed to be somewhere with a high level of light as a lot of the images could be dark when they were uploaded to the computers. If necessary I could have used a portable light to position when taking photos in a low resolution area but fortunately I never had to use this. I already knew quite a lot about Photoshop from the previous products we made on their, however I did learn a few new techniques and skills on how to make my product look more interesting. One of these was to use gradients for the page background and there was a wide choice of patterns and designs to choose from. I also learnt how to use guidelines when making columns for the interview on my double page spread. This was very simple but I was never aware of it and it made my page look a lot neater. Finally I learnt new ways to edit pictures by using the special effects which transforms the whole image into a certain setting such as cartoon, rather than editing the brightness and contrast all the time. The models I used in my photographs had to be positioned in a way which told the audience a lot about them which is why I made my female model use very glamorous poses- to connote her status to the reader. I think the made models I used for the image of the boy band looked really good as I positioned them spread out over two benches, all sitting at different levels and at different angles. I had to make sure that all of their faces could be seen clearly and that the sun was not shining in one particular way. I found that this took a lot of time to do as it was hard to gather all of the models at the same time and find a suitable area around college to take the images. The editing of the images was not time consuming at all, it was just being able to get the perfect picture. The use of Photoshop was very time consuming also as the programme froze a lot and the ways in which you could do things could be long winded.

Evaluation: Skills Development

Looking back from when I made my preliminary task, I feel I have made a lot of progress in the time it took to make my full product. I understand how great the need is to research existing products, and to do audience research and questions because I found out a lot of information about what conventions are popular in the industry and what readers prefer. This would boost the sales of my magazine if it included a lot of things people wanted to see. I feel I have used the technology and computer programmes with more confidence as I am improving on using different skills and features, and not needing to ask for help as much. I am able to just play around with different items and go back if need be without ruining anything and I know how to save the files as JPEGs as well as Photoshop files. I have more basic knowledge. I am also learning from other people what other things I can do and how I can experiment more with my products. I think it is very important to pay attention to other people’s magazines as they are all different and can provide a lot of ideas. The same applies to getting advice and opinions from people looking at my magazine, as the feedback tells me what looks good and what doesn’t work- allowing me to change it and make it look more realistic and suitable for the target audience. I also learnt a lot about needing to be attentive to detail as I thought that I had finished my magazine but it came to my attention that a lot of the text was incorrect, as I was missing apostrophes and very small bits of punctuation that I did not notice until pointed out. Even small items such as page numbers and dates made a huge difference when I added them at the end. The final checking of my product made a very big improvement as I knew that it was all correct and no longer a rough version. This has made me realise that next time I need to pay more attention to my journalism and writing skills as the interview featured in my magazine was very informal and chatty and it would be interesting to see how I coped with a very formal and serious style article. I think going outside my comfort zone would be a challenge for me in the future.

Cover Flickr Analysis

Cover
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92

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Contents Page Flickr Analysis

Contents Page
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92

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Double Page Spread Flickr Analysis

Double Page Spread
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92

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My Final Products

Existing Contents Page Analysis

This is an existing music magazine contents i am using to analyse.

Existing Double Page Spread Analysis

This is an existing music magazine double page spread i am using to analyse.

Rejected Product/Alternative Version.

This is a version of my front cover which I was going to use but rejected it and improved on it to make a better product.
I did not like this front cover because of the main background. Whilst making the draft, I used a colour gradient to make the colour green change over the page however when I had done this the layer locked and I was unable to change it until a later point when I found out that I could duplicate the layer (which would not be locked) and then edit it. The reason I did not like this was because I thought the colour green would only appeal to a percentage of the audience and it needed to be slightly different rather than being simple and plain throughout. A wider range of colours would connote something more to the audience such as fun and coolness and would appeal to more people, boosting the sales.
I also did not like the title as the letters were very far apart from one another and the font colour again was very plain with a black outer glow. I think the general look of it made the magazine cover look very spacious and boring. The bottom end of the magazine had the opposite problem and I thought that it looked slightly cramped with the three larger coverlines together, taking up the left and right hand side. I thought that the coverline on the right was slightly random and was not nessecary, therefore I wanted to get rid of that one; leaving most of the right hand side clear.

When I had improved this version and made an alternative front cover, I compared the two together to see the changes and what worked better.

My Original Photos, Unedited.

These are my original images before i edited them to put on my product.

Paper Drafts Of My Three Products

Target Audience Research

For my audience research, I needed to find out a lot of information in order to get an idea of the most popular features and characteristics of magazines. This is so that more people would be willing to buy my magazine, due to being happy with many aspects such as price, contents and genre. I thought the easiest way to do this would be to write a questionnaire and get a large number of people to do it, therefore i would get a fair sample and more reliable results. I wrote a questionnaire and asked 20 people the following questions...

Questionnaire
1-What is your preferred genre of music magazines to buy?
General/Pop, Rock, Metal, RnB/Hip-Hop/Other

2- How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine?
£1-2, £2-3, £3+

3- How often do you purchase music magazines?
Every Week, Month, Few Months, Year, Never

4- What music magazines have you read before?
NME, Q, Smash Hits, Blender, Other, None

5- What artist do you most like?
Lady Gaga, Eminem, My Chemical Romance, Ne-Yo, None At All

6- What colour scheme would you most like to see?
Pastel, Florescent, Black + White, Bright, Other

7- What would you most like to see in the magazine?
Interviews, CD + Band Reviews, Competitions, Freebies, Gossip

8- Would you prefer a magazine based on one genre or a mixture?
One Genre, Mixture, Dont Mind

9- Do advertisements in magazines appeal to you at all?
Yes, Sometimes, No

10- Do you think the market for music magazines is too small, the right size or too large?
Too Small, Right Size, Too Large

I also held an interview with a media student from another class, Jordan Brett.
"Do you read any music magazines?"
- I used to, but not anymore. It cost me too much in the long run because i bought them quite often and they werent worth the money.
"What ones did you read?"
- NME mostly, i used to get a different one each week so i could see what was available in the market but i found NME was the one i liked most because it had a lot in and what it contained appealed to me and suited my tastes in music.
"What is your taste in music?"
- I like a lot of the rock and indie bands that the magazine features, such as The Last Shadow Puppets and The White Stripes. Im very versatile.
"Do you think it would be a good idea to have one genre then or a mixture?"
- I'd quite like a mixture really, it'd be different to most of the magazines in the market at the moment because none of them really do that, it would be a unique selling point.
"What would you expect to find in a music magazine?"
- Interviews with well known bands, information about upcoming bands and music and albums to buy, tour information and recent photos. Maybe competitions sometimes to meet a band or something.
"What sort of colour scheme would appeal to you most?"
- Something bright i think because it connotes fun and cool, it lets you know the magazine isnt going to be boring. I think graphics give across this message aswell, people our age like a bit of colour.

Results-
My Questionnaire and interview tells me that most people would prefer a magazine about general music and pop which costs between £2-3. A large percentage of people who took my questionnaire bought music magazines monthly and the most popular was NME however the most popular artist was Lady Gaga, which brings a slight variation between the two genres of music. People would most like to see a bright colour scheme and a mixed genre magazine rather than one- this refers back to the general music/pop on question 1. Interviews and CD + Band reviews is what people would most like to see inside the magazine and the advertisements in magazines only appeal to the audience some of the time. This means i can afford to have a smaller amount of advertisements in my magazine than others do, as they take up a lot of pages and most people turn past them a large amount of the time. Most people said they found that the market for music magazines at the moment is too large, but in the interview it is revealed that people would like to see more magazines that specialise in a mixture of genres rather than one. This could provide me with an advantange.

My own music magazine: Initial Ideas.

After my music magazine research I decided on what kind of magazine I wanted to do and who my target audience would be. It took me quite a while to think about who I would like to aim my magazine at because I needed it to fit in with a certain popular stereotype so that I could base my designs and ideas on a particular style.

I thought of quite a few titles for my magazine such as 'funk' 'vibe' and 'RAWR' but eventually i decided on 'RAWR' as i thought it sounded different and less typical of magazine names.

The demographic status of my target audience:

Gender Female but the magazine will be aproachable to males.
Age 14-19(Females), 14-17 (Males)
Marital Status Single/In a relationship but not married as the magazine is aimed at a young audience.
Region Any
Social Status C1, C2

The physcographic status of my target audience:

Music They Listen To Pop, RnB/HipHop, Indie

My target audience consumption habits:
Clothes/Shoes- Fashion
Ipods, music
Music festivals/gigs
Technology

They Wear:
Skinny jeans
Colourful tops
Dresses
Tunics
Leggings
Jewellery and accessories.
OR TShirts, cardigans, jeans, trainers (males)

Hair style:
Long or middle length.
Well styled and looked after.
Straightened/curled?

The ideal price for my magazine is £2.99 as it keeps demand high but also circulation income high too. The audience is more likely to think it is a good magazine if they are paying a larger price for it rather than a cheap 99p one but it also should not be too high of a price as it could discourage people to buy it due to being too expensive- and a waste of money if they buy every issue in the long run.

The content of my magazine will be artist interviews (in a question and answer format. open questions), music and band reviews, gig and tour information, upcoming bands/albums, gossip, competitions and possibly free sample CDs and giveaways.

The style of my magazine will be very bright colours, using graphics, light coloured images and rounded, aesthetially pleasing fonts. I want the style to look cool so the magazine is inviting to the audience. I also want the magazine to look quite spacious rather than cramped and not to contain too much text.

The unique selling point of my magazine will be that it specialises in a mixture of genres and music in general, rather than just one specific genre such as metal or rock like all of the other magazines in the market currently. This could provide my with an advantage as people could be interested in buying my magazine due to it being new and different or more to their tastes.

Clash: Cover Analysis

Analysis Of An Existing Music Magazine Cover
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92

This is an existing magazine cover which I have analysed. The target audience for this is males and females aged 18-26. There are ten issues per year and each costs £3.80 an issue or you can subscribe for £35 per year. The magazine contains interviews with popular bands, reviews of music, films and high-street fashion.

Hip Hop Connection: Cover Analysis

Analysis Of An Existing Music Magazine Cover
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92

This is an existing magazine cover which I have analysed. The target audience for this is mainly males aged 17-23 although there is a small percentage of female readers. There are frequent issues each month and each costs £3.99 an issue. The magazine contains band and artist interviews and song reviews.

Blender: Cover Analysis.

Analysis Of An Existing Music Magazine Cover
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92

This is an existing magazine cover which I have analysed. The magazine is created by the same companies who produce mens magazines, therefore the target audience for this is mainly males aged 16-35 although there is a small percentage of female readers. There are six issues per year and each costs $3.99 an issue. The magazine contains album reviews and images of females singers.

Planning my college magazine.

I undertook some research as part of the planning for my College Magazine. In small groups, we all looked at 6 existing magazines which we had to analyse. We commented on the font, size, colours, images and tried to work out what the theme was. This gave me many ideas as each of the magazine covers differentiated and i was left with an idea of how I wanted mine to look. As part of the planning for my college magazine cover, the whole of the class came up with a questionnaire which we could all use. This had 10 suitable questions, some of which were yes or no answers and others were categorized answers. There was also an 'other' choice on some of the questions in which the person filling in the questionnaire could state what their other choice was. The results from this showed that the majority of people who filled a questonnaire in said yes to wanting a college magazine, wanted to see college news, local gig guides, events, technology reviews and more, would pay £1 for an issue every fortnight, liked pop music and the most popular pastime was music. Most people also read vogue, nuts and glamour as an existing magazine and wanted a chatty college magazine.
The target audience for the questionnaire was college students or people at the same age. This is because anybody of a different age would have a different opinion of whether a college magazine would be a good idea or not. They would also have different opinions on the type of things they would like to see included in a college magazine, and possibly the price. College students would also have many ideas on ways in which the magazine could be improved, and they would be able to give a valuble contribution to what the magazine should include and what they would like to see.
I analaysed a real existing college magazine called "Be Your Own Pet." I did this on a programme called Flickr where I was able to add tags to different parts of the front cover and write about them. The tags would only appear when the mouse was hovered over them therefore it did not ruin the image either. The magazine has a natural theme as the band which are featured on the front cover are standing outside, in very natural poses. I was able to gather a lot of information about the inside meaning of the text, fonts and images. I also got ideas about what to include inside my own magazine.
To plan my contents page, I used an existing real magazine in which I had to copy the layout for. I used 'Womans Own' magazine but changed the title of my contents to 'ENSFC' which is the college name. To plan my front cover, I sketched out on paper a design of how I wanted it to look after i had made it. I got my ideas for this from existing magazines i had seen, the questionnaire results and my own creativity. I used the same colour scheme as the exisiting magazine in which I based my contents page on as I wanted them to look similar. I used contrasting yellow and pink as it was bright and grabbed an audience's attention.

College Magazine: my original photograph.

College Magazine

The Denotations:
- Computer
- Boy
- £1
- 'ENSFC'
- Yellow Blocks
- Pink Font
- Bar Code

The Conotations:
- Fun
- Bright
- Enjoying College Life
- interesting

The front cover of my magazine is a medium close up, eye level image of a college student near a computer. This makes it look realistic because it is what you would expect a typical college to contain. The coverlines are overlapping the image but not blocking out the top of the image- the students head or the computer as these are the main features of the image which the audience will look at. I have tried to stick to the colour scheme of yellow and pink (which i used in the contents page.) This is because they are bright and contrasting colours which will attract peoples attention. The cover lines are ones which i have made up but are related to the contents page and are what the questionnaire for my research shew the audience wanted to see featured. They were aimed to make students want to read the column because they were of an interest to them. The minor features on the front cover were seperated by a row of dots. I think this looked very effective. The font was also in black and white which diffrentiates from the other coverlines which are in yellow, pink and black. The major coverline is the in the largest sized font, with unerlined words and all in capital letters so that it is the first thing the reader looks at on the front cover. I also added a bar code image in the bottom left hand corner as i thought it made the magazine cover look more realistic. The price was added in right the top right hand corner, in a bright pink spiky shape which contrasts with the soft shapes used in the rest of the cover. Another one of these shapes was used on the contents page and this was an oval shape in which to have the words "all new!" Blue arrows were used in my contents page next to some of the column titles to show which ones were featured on the cover.

I think this was appropriate for my target audience because the majority of anybody older or younger than the age of a college student would not be interested in what the magazine has to offer. The 'gossip' and events would be irrelevant to anybody outside of the college as they would not be aware of what is going on. I also think that the language used was suitable as it was formal but used slang which the age group of 16+ would be able to relate to. College students would also have a different view of the colours used and i think the bright and contrasting colours would appeal to them whereas anybody of a different age would perhaps prefer a different choice.

I think my product is successful becuause it meets the brief and includes all of the things in which myself and others would like to like to see on a magazine such as the price and the issue. It contains a wide range of stories such as 'College party gossip', local gigs, film and music guides, college events and personal information. I think it covers a wide range of the audience as a lot of people would be interested in at least one of more of the columns, if not more. The colours look very effective and the image is fairly interesting. I like the fonts used because they are not plain and connote enjoyment. I tried to use a theme of enjoying college and what a fun time in life it is.

The less successful things in my college magazine are that i found it very hard to add text over the image as it was hard to read because of the two colours overlaying one another. Although i tried to fix this with a drop shadow to highlight the text more, it is not perfect and could be improved. On my contents page, i think i could have added the page numbers in the contents because i have only written the column names and which ones feature on the cover, not where in the magazine they are. This would have been more helpful and convienient to the reader.

I have learnt many new things and developed my skills during this preliminary task. I have definitely learnt the most in using photoshop as it was new to me previously and i ended up having to use it for all of my magazine designing. I knew the very simple things such as adding text and images but i learnt how to edit the image by adjusting the brightness, saturation and hue to add an interesting twist. I also learnt how to add shapes and drop shadows and how to change the transparentcy levels in text. The thing which i found most helpful to do was to use the magnetic and freeform tool to cut out certain shapes from the rest of an image and paste it somewhere else. The deselect tool i found very hard to find at first but it played a big role once i knew where it was as i was able to get rid of highlighted bits of image. I have developed a wider understanding of the way in which magazines work and how the editors make it to fit the target audience by using ways to grab the audience's attention. I have seen a wide range of different magazine types which are all successful and it has shown me that there is not just one certain way in which to create a magazine.

National Student Magazine

This is my analysis of the National Student Magazine cover. Click the image to see the analysis.

National Student Magazine
Originally uploaded by abbietaylor92