Magazine Front Cover

Magazine Contents Page

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Evaluation:

The research and planning I carried out helped me to gain and develop an understanding on how to plan and produce an effective product. Looking at college magazine front covers and contents pages made me understand common conventions and how to apply these to my own work.

My magazine front cover and contents page followed typical conventions, such as placing the cover lines and masthead in the appropriate places and using a medium close up shot of a college student. Arguably my front cover challenges certain conventions because all of my cover lines featured are located down one side of the page.

I tried to create cover lines that appealed to different age and social groups, so I would have a larger audience and therefore more appeal. Including different year groups might attract more interest, because the magazine is involving a wider range of people.

One media institution that may produce my product would be an Internet based company that could advertise my product online. Many members of both my primary and secondary target audience are likely to use the Internet often, so it would be an easy, effective way to advertise my magazine.

The primary audience for my magazine are teenagers of both genders, aged 16-18, as this falls under everyone who attends college. My secondary audience is anyone outside of this age range, but mainly parents or carers of the students.

I addressed my audience by using the appropriate image and content, and I made sure my magazine appealed to them by making my typography stand out. I also used a wide variation of different fonts and colours to make my magazine look more appealing.

In terms of digital technology, the only thing i used was the survey feature, which improved my knowledge on creating survey questions that are appropriate to my audience.

I think the main strengths of my final product are the images I used and the layout of my contents page, as the images follow common conventions and appeal to the audience, and the contents page also follows common conventions as well as suiting its purpose.

One of the weaknesses with my preliminary task is the lack of responses from my survey. I only received one response, which didn't give me enough important information about both my primary and secondary audience. If I had more time I would have requested that more people took my survey, so I could develop my understanding on creating my magazine. I also need to improve on my time management skills, as I didn't get to spend as much time creating the front cover and contents page as I had hoped for. This meant that I didn't get to put in as much detail as I would have liked.  

Photoshoot

Photoshoot Planning:

For my photoshoot i would like to get a medium close up shot of a student in a location related to college that almost everyone can associate themselves with. I was considering doing this in the library, as it is one of the main places in the school that almost everyone has been to.

For my magazines front cover i wanted a medium close up of a student who attends Bodmin College, so it will make the audience feel more comfortable and familiar with the magazine. It is also more relatable to them. The medium close up shot follows common magazine conventions, as almost every college magazine includes an image of one of their students to make it relatable. I also wanted the background of my front cover to be interesting and relatable for my both my primary and secondary target audience. I decided to photograph Caroline in the library because it is a familiar environment to most of my audience. 

I wanted to use a different student for my contents page to show variation in my work. I also thought it would show both my primary and secondary audience that books appeal to different people of different ages, as evidenced by my images. This might create more interest for my magazine. 

Flat Plan

Primary Target Audience Research

In order to develop my understanding, I need to profile my primary target audience by using the uses and gratification theory.

This diagram gives me a better understanding on peoples needs and how important they are.

Primary Target Audience Profile:

My primary target audience are teenagers (aged 16-18) of both genders, as this falls under the category of all those attending college. My target audience is not gender specific, as all of the college magazines I looked at appealed to and was targeted at both males and females. Also, I want my magazine to be as appealing as possible, which is why its content will be as equally as interesting for both boys and girls.

Audience Demographics:

Age: 16-18

Gender: Male or female

Social grade: C2 - E

Locations : My magazine will be aimed at Bodmin College students, so my locations will be at areas in Bodmin.

Audience profile:

Chloe is a 17 year old girl who lives in Bodmin with her two parents and her younger brother. She enjoys listening to music, writing and hanging out with her friends. She enjoys attending college and is interested in learning about what goes on in the school around her.

In order to link my magazine back to Chloe and her interests, i will create a calm, relaxing magazine that will appeal to her.

For my magazine i will create a questionnaire to help me on important decisions, such as magazine price and what genre i should make my magazine.

Survey Response 

I only received one response for my survey so this limited my understanding on who i should aim my magazine at. However, my responder was a male teenager, which shows that my magazine should appeal to both genders. He also wasn't interested in any music websites, which shows that i maybe shouldn't try to create my own, or include any music website information in my magazine. The response also informs me on how much i should price my magazine, and what genre to make my magazine.

Preliminary Task - Analysis of two college magazine covers and content pages:

It is important to look at existing products before i create my own to develop my understanding on the presentation and layout of magazines. It is also important to look at content pages to understand how they are usually presented. 

Target Audience: The primary target audience is young adults of both genders (aged 11-19), as this is the age range within the school. The magazine is also aimed at a secondary audience - the students parents/carers. Many people reading this magazine would be categorised into social grades C1 to E.                                                                                

Layout: The overall layout doesn't follow common genre conventions. For example, the magazine cover only features one main image, whereas most magazines have one main image as well as several other smaller images to intrigue the audience and make them gain interest in the articles they are promoting. Despite not following this convention, the magazine still looks interesting and exciting, and the focused close up of the mask will appeal to both the primary and secondary target audience.  

Images: This magazine cover goes against common genre conventions because it only includes one image as the main feature. However, the close up image of the mask follows typical conventions, although arguably the main image used for this magazine is more of an extreme close up rather than a close up.The extreme close up gains interest, but it may have been more effective to have a more zoomed out image of the mask to appeal to the audience more and give them a better view of the mask. 

Masthead: The masthead suits its purpose in appealing to the audience because it stands out against the background. The Bodmin College logo is positioned so it effectively stands out without taking any attention away from the main image. However, the white text located at the top right of the magazine is difficult to read because of its size and colour. 

Colour:  This magazine mainly uses colours that are similar to each other, so they blend together well. The bright, bold colours used for the Bodmin College logo makes the magazine grab attention and stand out against the darker colours used for the mask. The most effective colours are the ones featured in the middle of the magazine - the orange and white eye stands out against the darker colours. The colours used in this magazine don't follow the common conventions used by most magazines - many magazines use bright, bold colours like red, blue and white/black to gain interest from their audience.

Typography: The magazine uses a small range of different types of text, which follows standard conventions but it doesn't use as many different fonts as many magazines do. The magazine includes a small teaser to go alongside the main image, but there are no other cover lines to advertise any other stories featured in this magazine. This may make the audience become less interested in what the magazine has to offer, because they haven't been given any other information about what else the magazine features.

Analysis of Contents Page 

It is difficult to evaluate Bodmin Colleges magazine content page alongside the front cover because it doesn't have a contents page, so i selected an appropriate college related one from the internet. The bright bold text and images immediately attract your attention, which will make the audience interested in what the magazine has to offer. This contents page is appropriate to its primary target audience because it is relatable to them - it shows them students of a similar age who may or may not be interested in the same sort of things. This would be influenced in certain articles. This also shows that the primary target audience is students (aged 16-18) who also attend this college.  The layout follows a neat, organised structure, and the articles appeal to their audience because it is relevant to them. It also uses direct address to make the audience feel more involved. For example, 'dates for your diary' and '10 ways to help you revise' will make the audience feel like the magazine is targeting their needs and interests.

Target Audience: The primary target audience for this magazine are young adults of both genders (18-21/22), as this is the average age that almost all the students who are attending the college will be. The magazines secondary primary target audience is anyone out of this age range, but mainly parents/carers of the students or anyone else attending the college outside of the primary age range.

Layout: The layout of the magazine is significantly contrasting to the layout of the Bodmin College magazine. This magazine does not follow common conventions, as there are no images present on the front page. The layout looks very organised, which connotes professionalism and sophistication.

Images: This magazine cover uses no images, so it is difficult to analyse and interpret how effective the magazine is.

Masthead: The masthead is very bold and effective at standing out, as the large white text against the black background makes a powerful impact on both the primary and secondary audience. The cover lines are located above the masthead, which makes them effectively noticeable for the audience.
As the cover lines are the same colour and font as the masthead, they also stand out effectively.

Colour: The magazine uses common conventions to attract their audience. The bright, bold colours stand out effectively against the black background and attract attention.

Typography: The magazine uses a wide range of fonts and sizes to make certain words stand out against others. For example, the word 'student' is bigger than the word 'future'. The different sizes of specific words represents how important each of these things are. Some of these words are capitalised for dramatic effect. In comparison to the Bodmin College magazine cover, there are more types of font used, which might make the audience become more interested in the magazine because of the neater, more sophisticated presentation.

Analysis of Contents Page 

The contents page for Imperial Magazine looks very professional, and follows a similar colour scheme to the one used for the magazines front cover. The layout is very organised, which connotes professionalism and sophistication. The contents page has included teaser images to give the audience a preview of what the article will feature.  The two images featured are very different from each other, which shows that there is diversity throughout this magazine. The white text on the black background (and vice versa) stands out effectively, and the bold subheadings gives the audience more of an informative understanding on what the articles are about. 

AS G321: Print Brief

Preliminary exercise: Produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the programme.
Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine