Contents Page

Front Cover Evaluation

The main task was to create a magazine front cover for a college  magazine. The magazine name I made is called 'Focus magazine' because that is what students have to do when they get to college.

The audience research i did helped me to create my magazine because my audience asked for a  magazine that is based more around education so i had my masthead, coverlines, main image and other  images based around education.  My audience also asked for a more traditional modern magazine which is what i went for with the masthead font and other fonts i used on my magazine.
The font i used for the mast head is very bold and stands out alot i think which is good when competing with other magazines.

The denotation of my magazine is that it features in the main image a student with a text book and either side of  her are coverlines talking about education and topics that will effect her for example 'info on the governments plans for higher  tuition fees and EMA'. I used the word 'info' because it is more modern and takes up less room than the actual word information. I picked that certain story because both  EMA and higher tuition fees relate to alot of college students.

The coverline 'have your say' was also used in my draft because the student council needs people to contribute there ideas and i thought that would be a good coverline for a college magazine. This is the kind of thing my audience is looking for in a college magazine.

What the second image on the bottom right hand side of the magazine connotes is that students are over worked and don't no how to revise which is why the coverline on the bottom is about giving help to new students by previous students. The background of the second photo is alot of mathematical sums that are meant to look confusing to show how difficult she is finding the work.

The colours i used were red, white and black i stuck to these colours because they are modern colours and it matches the main image of the student. The colours of the magazine match her outfit and hair. When i took the picture of the main image the weather made the lighting kind of low key so i changed some of the contrast to make it look like a warmer and more brighter picture.
The colour of the coverlines are white because using dark colours would  be bad  because they would fade into the background because in the main image the student is wearing dark colours.
The selling line on my magazine says 'Excellence is in the details. FOCUS on the details and excellence will come!' what this connotes is that students need to focus because when you focus you  notice small  details that you wouldn't notice  before and to get good grades students have to focus to get what they want.

College Magazine

Photos Used For College Magazine

After I took the photo I then edited it on photoshop to make it look more professional. 

I used a Canon EOS 400D 10.1 megapixel camera to take my pictures. This was my first time using this camera for the first magazine I made it took sometime getting use to the camera as I needed to take in focus photographs it was very hard. The weather made it even more difficult to take the kind of photos I wanted because there was not much  natural light that day. It was also cold so  it was difficult to keep the camera still. To take in focus photos I had to make sure the red light was on my models eye and take the photo at the right time. I was only able to take one photo on that day because I did not have alot of time with the camera.

I used my Samsung Galaxy S with a 5 mega-pixel camera to take these three photos. I was going to wait for my next chance with canon camera but the quality of these photos turned out as well as I hoped and any faults with them I could sort out in  photoshop.

Drafts

click on drafts to make them bigger.

Audience Research

 Question 1 what is your gender?

I asked this question to know the genders of the peple and to see if there was any correlation between gender and the answers. I think this because both genders have different interests and to find out what a certain gender likes I would have more information on who likes what and what kind of audience I would attract if I add a certain feature to my magazine.

Out of 20 the majority of people I asked were female but the amount of males I asked is roughly equal to the amount of females I asked so the amount of questions answered by females doesn’t make the ones answered my males redundant.

Question 2 how old are you?

I asked this question to know the ages of people and to see if there are any differences with there age and how they would answer the question. This is important to me because I need to no my target audience and the differences they have because they are all such similar ages any difference in the way one age group answers a question could be a big asset to how I would lay out my magazine.

Out of the 20 people I asked the majority of them were 17 years old. I asked three eighteen year olds, eight sixteen year olds and nine seventeen year olds. Again I asked around randomly so my results were not dominated by any factor.

Question 3 Do you read magazines outside of college?

I asked this question because I would want to no how many people already buy a magazine which means they would be willing to buy a college magazine if they are already interested in reading one outside of college.

Out of 20 people I asked the majority of people said no this could mean that most people from this college might no be interested in reading a college magazine if they don’t feel like buying one of there choice outside of  the grounds.

Question 4 what type of articles would you take a interest in reading in a college magazine (you can tick more than one box)?

1. Music
2. News/ School news
3. Fashion
4. Sports
5. Celebrity Gossip
6. Entertainment
7. Culture
8. Games
9. Film reviews
10. Exclusive articles from employers and job vacancies

I asked this question to find out what type of articles the audience would like to see in the college magazine and it also gives me an insite on the people who read magazines and what type of articles they may feel is missing from the magazines they need. I also did it for the people that don’t read magazines because they could now know what types of articles are in magazines and they would be more interested in it because they know.

Out of 20 people I asked the majority of them ticked 10 which is exclusive articles from employers and job vacancies I believe this was the most popular because the need for jobs so people can save for university or things they want to buy and having information from employers and a listing from jobs can give the readers information on what to do in an interview or in a work environment. The least favourite was 5 which is celebrity gossip this is interesting information because the majority of people that filled out this questionnaire were females this could mean that the audience thinks we wouldn’t be able to diliver celebrity gossip as well as other gossip magazines because it is a college magazine and we couldn’t get interviews with celebrities to get the inside story.

Question 5 how much would you pay for a college magazine?

I asked this question to know how much money they will be willing to spend on a college magazine. This information is needed because it allows us to see how much we should charge for the magazine because this is a college magazine and not a lot of students earn there own money so I would need an insight on how much money they would be willing to give up. The quality of the magazine depends on how much people are willing to pay for it because if they want to pay nothing then the magazine would have fewer pages. Magazines that are brought outside of school get money from advertisement aswell as price but the school does not have advertisement to help pay for the magazine the college has to do it so what ever money comes from the magazine needs to go to buying materials to produce it.

Question 6 would you pay more for a magazine if there was gift included?

I wanted to no this because I wanted to see if people would pay a higher price if there was something that came with the magazine.

Out of the 20 people I asked 13 said yes and 7 said no this shows the importance of a gift inside of a magazine because more people said yes  this data backs up the fact that people would buy a magazine if it had a free gift in it because the question 3 asked do you buy a magazine outside of college and only 6 said yes and only 14 said no and now 13 said yes and 7 said no so if you put a free gift inside a magazine then more people are most likely to buy it and pay more for it.

Question 7 how often would you like the magazine to come out?

I wanted to know this because it tells me how long people are willing to wait for a magazine because some people want a magazine as soon as they can get it.

Out of 20 people 16 said monthly which shows that people are willing to wait for a college magazine.

Question 8 would you like the magazine to be more image or text based?

I asked this question to back up what I thought college students would want in a magazine because not much people like to read a lot when it comes to magazines and news papers. I believe this because people 16-19 don’t seem to buy broad sheets they buy tabloids because they have less text and more images.

Out of 20 people 8 would want an image magazine and 5 would want a more text based magazine and 7 wanted both.

Question 9

Would you like the majority of the magazine to be based around education?

I asked this question because it tells me if people want to be reading more about college than entertainment. It is important to figure out what the audience want from there magazine and especially if your making a magazine in a college because what the magazine should be about is implied in the name and college life is based around education and for more people to say yes shows they want to be  reading more about education.

Question 10 should there to be a special edition of the magazine for example Christmas?

I wanted to know if people would want to read a special edition magazine themed after a special season.

Out of 20 only 18 people said yes and 2 people said no which means people would want to see a themed magazine after a special season.

Question 11 should the magazine be more creative/artistic or modern/traditional?

I asked this question because it tells me what kind of magazine that would attract them. My results show that students are looking for a more modern and traditional magazine than a creative and artistic magazine which is a very common type of magazine i think they would like this type of magazine because it is the type of magazine the audience are use to reading.

Question 12 would you now be interested in buying a college magazine?

I have decided to ask this question last because this questionnaire might have changed some peoples views on magazines and the magazine that the college will be making. I wanted to ask this question to see how much people would actually buy a college magazine and if the audience is interested with the ideas I have come up with. My results show that they are and that only 3 people out of 20 wouldn’t buy a college magazine.

Textual Magazine Analysis

The magazine I chose to do is called college magazine. The denotation of this magazine is that it features a typical looking student holding his books to study with the subjects that he is doing on them.  The student is standing in the middle of the page so attension is drawn directly to him. The student is also infront of the masshead which is an important part of the magazine but because we know it is a magazine given out in a college we can tell the word behind him says ‘college’. From the coverlines I can tell its an American magazine because it uses words like spring break which we do not use here in England.

The majority of these articles are about what young college students like to do and what relates to them. The model is a black male so this could be realted to the black students in the college some coverlines make it seem as if that is true for example the coverline that talks about ‘negril gone wild’ and the spring break coverline is above that so students will obviously spend there spring break in negril. Negril is a large beach resort town located across two parts of Jamaica and Jamiaca is usually represented with black people which backs up the idea that this magazine could be more for black students.  The colour of the magazine makes it seem like a magazine more for male students because of the dark colours also none of the stories are necessarily related to females.

The colour of the magazines background is black and the text is yellow and white the black background makes the masthead and coverlines stand out more because the black is completely different to the two other colours. The main coverline ‘dance halls bright future’ is very bold and bigger than the other cover lines which means it is the main coverline.

Often magazines make the mistake of overlapping the coverlines with the main image which makes the words more difficult to read this college magazine has done just that the  ‘the ultimate spring break escape’ overlaps the models coat which is bad because this image has very high key lighting which is reflecting of the coat this is bad because the coverline is white which makes some part of the letters appear invisible.

There is also a pink splat on the magazine which looks odd and doesn’t really go with the theme of the magazine because pink is related to a femine colour but I think it goes well with it because it makes the magazine look fun. It might clash because the magazine looks formal but relates because college students in America also want to have fun during there studies.

This magazines main target audience is obviously aimed at students because of the name of the masshead, the main coverline, the other coverlines, also the main image makes me think the audience is aimed at students. The magazine is also probably only given out on campus.  When I look at the books he is carrying I think this magazine is for more academic students because he is carrying books which say law and business on it. If the magazine was less acdemic students like drama and art students the front cover of the magazine would be more creative and colourful to repusent the talent of the students.

The magazine uses asymmetrical compostion which works for the magazine because it allows the modle to draw more attension to his books because he is slightly turned to the right which allows the light to bounce of his coat and this is good because his coat is black and the colour would fade into the background if the light was not there. I think the models experession and his body language gives us this relaxed atomosphere.

This magazine uses a lot of coverlines which fills out a lot of space which makes the magazine look interesting. Magazines that don’t have a lot of coverlines runs the risk of making the magazine look boring and not a lot going on. Magazines that use to much coverlines runs the risk of making the magazine look cluttered and confusing.

The top of the magazine has  a very small selling line not very bold like they usually are, the selling line says ‘your exclusive guide to everything that is hot new and happening’ tells us abit about college in America and how to be cool and that people who go to that college are probably put in to percific social groups.

Textual Analysis Magazine Cover

Introduction

My names Myles Greyson, i am a media student and i am going to be useing this blog for my media course.