Prelim: Evaluation

Evaluation 

Before beginning work on my front cover and contents page I looked at similar magazines to see any common conventions that I should use in my magazine. This gave me a better understanding of what my magazine should look like and include. Firstly I looked at the original college magazine to see anything good about it now that should be kept in my new one. I also looked at what didn't work well and  decided not to include this in mine. The original college magazine did not follow many common conventions of a magazine and overall looked too busy and unprofessional. I also looked at similar magazines that were more professional to get any more ideas of what to include. These seemed to follow the general conventions and looked more appealing. I created a survey to see what the target audience would like to see on the cover as these would be the people who would buy the magazine. Following their preferences and the general magazine conventions I started creation of my magazine. I chose to have the title at a size of 1/8 of the page as this was common on most magazines and made the title stand out. I include a single photo on the front as this made the magazine look less busy and confusing while also giving a professional look. The model on the cover is meant to represent the target audience so they can see that the magazine is aimed at them. I stuck to using only a small amount of colours to make the cover less confusing and give the magazine a concordant theme. The colours I chose represent the school as they are the same as the ones used on the logo. This made the purpose and aim of the magazine more obvious and showed that it was specific to the school, attracting students from the school who may be interested in the stories and news inside. 

My product is aimed at the particular social group of students ages 11-19 as these are the ages of students at the college and therefore should be the ones who read it as the topics should interest them. From my survey I found that the most popular ages to read the magazine is ages 17-19 so I wanted to mainly target this audience. However I still wanted the younger audience to be attracted to the magazine as some still would read it. I have included some features with the main audience in mind to try and attract them to it. I include a similarly aged model to show the type of reader that would enjoy the magazine the most.

I think overall my magazine front cover and contents page look fairly good and match my aims for this task. I feel that my magazine would be better suited for students than the current magazine as I have designed it to be appealing to the age group that would read it. I have done this by looking at what the target audience is interested in and looking at what is used in other magazines to find what conventions I should follow. I still could improve my magazine cover and contents page. One way would be keeping a more concordant design throughout. My current pages do not have concordant colours or font. Changing this would make the magazine look more professional and give it a more complete look.

Prelim: Contents page

Prelim: Cover

Prelim: Photo shoot evaluation

Analysing my photographic practice 

The first part of the prelim task involved the creation of a college magazine front cover. The prelim task stated the the front cover of the magazine should include a medium shot as this is a common convention in magazines.  This shot was taken on location in a hallway using natural light. I chose a model who represented my target audience as it as it could show who the target audience of the magazine is and give an idea of what it's about. In terms of mode of address I have asked the model to stand casually. This connotes Hebdige's idea of 'Youth as fun. Youth as trouble" (1979). I chose to use this image to use on my final cover as the lighting on the model is very nice and it is in focus. When I put the picture on the cover I removed the sides so the images is portrait and the door is removed.

The next part of the prelim task was to create a contents page. I wanted a shot of a student having fun while in school. I chose to take this photo as it is very colourful and shows a student having fun. However the images has a busy background and the colours in the background distract from the action. The colours of the balls also match the colours of the school logo. I still decided to use this in my contents page but removed the background in photoshop before adding it to the contents page. I used a white background instead so the contents  could stand out and the image  is not so busy in the background making the main focus back on the student and the pool table.

This images was going to be on my contents page but I decided it was too out of focus and it is too busy. If I did get a correctly focus image I would still not use it as it would be hard to read any writing that I place on top due to the many colours of the picture. The image is not very interesting and all the colours are very dull. The sky in the background is very cloudy and removes from the idea of "Youth as fun".

This images is fairly in focus but the lighting isn't very good so the it is too dark. The image has many colours and the main subject is one of the darkest so it doesn't stand out. This image is not suitable for use in the final magazine.

This image is focus on this image is not too bad as it only has the pool table and model in focus. However the background is very busy and includes a lot of colour. This may make adding the contents over the top hard to see. The overall photo is not too bad but the other similar photo is much better.

This images is nicely focused and everything looks nicely coloured and not too busy. But the subject of the image isn't very interesting and would not appeal to the target audience. The image is not very eye-catching or interesting either so would not attract the reader to the magazine. The contents page may be suitable for this image but it doesn't represent the college very well as it looks old and is quite hard to read.

Prelim: Flat plan

Cover

Contents

Prelim: Audience research

Who is my primary target audience? 

My primary target audience for the magazine is students of the college who will be of ages 11-19. The magazine will be aimed at both genders with no preference of either. I have chosen this target audience as the magazine would include stories and news about the college and this audience would be interested in this. The magazine would also include photos of school trips and the students may be interested in seeing the photos of themselves or their friends. The magazine target audience will also include the parents of these students. The parents may be interested in the changes to the school curriculum and also like to see the photos of their child's trip. They would like to know about any upcoming events that they could attend and these events could be advertised in the magazine to provide a greater attendance of parents. 

Prelim: Analysis of contents pages

Masthead
The masthead is big and bold so you instantly know what the page is about. The font and colour is the same as the one on the cover. This helps keep the design concordant so the magazine looks complete.

Layout
The main body of text is on the right side of the page and a large picture is on the left. This keeps the page more interesting without having lots of writing that makes it look boring. There is only small amounts of writing to summarise each topic, making finding a select topic easier.

Colour
The contents page only includes 3 colours. This follows the design of the front cover. This makes the page less confusing and makes it easier for the reader to find the topic they want to read about.

Images
The page has one large image of the left which seems to be a representative of the magazines target audience.

Typography

The pages includes little writing. It only has small amounts of information which summarise each topic.

Masthead
The masthead is not very big. This may be because it is easy enough to understand what is on the page without a title.
Layout
The main body of text is on the left side of the page and a large picture is on the right. Each section has a subtitle and a body of text explaining more detail. This allows the reader to briefly see what's in the magazine or allow more detail on a topic before they decide to read the full article.

Colour
The contents page only includes 3 colours. This makes the page less confusing and makes it easier for the reader to find the topic they want to read about.
Images
The page has one large image of the left which seems to be a representative of the magazines target audience. He seems to follow the stereotype of "Youth is fun" as he is smiling and enjoying himself. This may show the reader that he is interested in the magazine so they also may enjoy it.

Typography

The pages includes little writing. There are short subtitles of each topic which give a brief description of each page and a large text giving more details. It only has small amounts of information which summarise each topic.

My AS Coursework

My AS Coursework

I have chosen to do the print brief as I have an interest in the music industry and music magazines so would like to research into it more. I also feel that I could develop my skills in print which would be useful in the future and in other aspects in media. I also enjoy making magazines and feel that I would like to improve my skills so I can create better ones in the future.