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.