Final Post

I have finished my Student Magazine design and evalution and will now be concentrating on my music magazine. I will begin by doing several textual analysis' of existing music magazines.

Evaluation

-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My student magazine includes many features of real student magazines. When I analysing First Car I could see that the colour scheme was bold and eye catching and after some audience feedback, I used a similar colour scheme of white, yellow and black. I included an eye catching banner and a strap line along with text and images. I think there is a good balance between text and images, as seen in First Car. The magazine has an eye catching central image which would be the main reason someone would pick up a magazine. I made sure that the contents page was similar to the colour in colour scheme and the way the smaller images were laid out which is a convention of magazines. I have included many interesting articles in my contents page which would be attractive for a young, student audience and the content is age appropriate.

-Who would be the audience for your media product?

The age group for my student magazine would be young adults aged 16-19 who would most likely attend college. I think my target audience is more liekly to be female due to the nature of the articles e.g. Fashion, and the fact that the main image on the cover is of a girl. This mean that girls would be more likely to pick it up than boys. My audience would generally be interested in doing well in education as many of the articles are about coursework and relieving exam stress. They would also be interested in socialising out of college.

-How did you attract/address your audience?

The central, medium close-up image would attract potential buyers as the colours are bright and eye catching. The model also looks like she is looking at the pictures to the side which makes people pay attention to them. The images themselves are varied and feature students smiling and having a good time. This attracts a young audience as they can relate to the people in the images. The bright banner that stretches across the front cover is eye catching and the contrast of black against yellow makes people pay attention to the headline. The words in bold at the bottom e.g. Coursework, makes people notice the words almost immedietly and they know straight away what is featured in the magazine.

-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To design my magazine cover and contents page I used Microsoft Pulisher and to produce the images for the Magazine I used a Canon EOS 1000D. I also used Adobe Photoshop to edit my central image and change the brightness and the contrast. This made the image more interesting as I found from my audience feedback that this was very important in influencing choice of magazines. Using Blogger is also an example of technology that I used.

-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the sort of young adults who are interested in suceeding in education. They would be attracted by the idea of improving their coursework deadlines and similar tips on other aspects of education. It steers clear of any negative images of drinking or fast driving which could possibly have a negative effect and instead depicts students as hardworking but also able to take time off to relax. The amount of space taken by text and images are about the same but the text is larger which is more attractive to student audience as they do not have to spend time reading a lot of text to get a feel for the magazine.

-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My student magazine would be distributed by the college and most likely funded by the student council.

Final Contents Page

I have completed my contents page along with my front cover and am happy with the design. They both have a similar colour scheme and a good mix of images and text. Any feeback would be useful.

Contents Page

This is the first update of my contents page and I have used the same colour scheme as my cover page. The white spaces are to be filled with images and the actual contents of the magazine are to be down the right hand side.

Design

I'm a litte stuck on which cover to choose. One I think is quite cluttered whist the other is a bit bare. I am planning to put text into the white spaces of the second one. Which one do you think?

Magazine Design In Progress and Weekly Review

I have spent last week designing my student magazine cover and have come up with something that I think is attractive and suits my specifications. I organsised a photoshoot and carried it out to produce my main image and am planning on taking several more for the smaller images at the bottom. I have stuck to my weekly action plan and am ahead of schedule. I would appreciate some feedback about my design and for the following questions to be answered:

What is your favorite feature of my magazine?

What would you change?

Would you read this magazine if you saw it?

Thankyou x

Magazine Designs

I designed the basic outline of my student magazine without colour so I could decide on the best layout. I have decided to go with the second design as it looks the most interesting though I might make some minor changes.

Weekly Review

This week I have managed to stick to my action plan and surpass it. I created a questionnaire and received some feedback, completed a textual analysis for an existing student magazine and decided on the name and colour scheme. I have decided to call my magazine Inside College. I have also managed to start some computer designs for the front cover of Inside College which means that I am ahead of schedule.

Questionnaire

1. What attracts you to a magazine?

2. What sort of colour scheme of a magazine would have the greatest impact?

3. Do you prefer images to text?

4. What type of magazine do you prefer?

5. How much would you be prepared to pay for a student magazine?

Would be a great help if I could get several responses.

I began by looking a several existing student magazines to get an idea of what to include on my front cover. I decided to look at an edition of the magazine First Car, a magazine for young drivers. The most noticeable thing about the magazine cover is the contrast of the black, yellow and white text. This makes it stand out and catch the eye of the potential reader. The masthead is bold and eye catching, being the main white text on the page and the banner of 'Inbetweeners' is spread across the entire page, drawing the eye. All of the text is in capitals which make is stand out. The colour scheme is also similar to that of crime scene or accident scene tape which relates to the field of cars and drivers. The image of the actors from The Inbetweeners is eye catching as the characters are recognisable to a youth audience. The mid shot of the central character is one of the first things you see on the cover and the red of the car door in the long shot of the other characters draws secondary attention to them. High impact words such as 'Killer' are surrounded by a black background. This word is a trigger stimulus and is instantly a focus point due to the danger associated with the word. The strap line at the top of the magazine gives the reader the general outline of the contents of the magazine.

Action Plan

We have been given 4 weeks to produce the
cover page of a new student magazine. It needs to be eye catching and appealing to my target audience. It also must include a medium close up photo of a student. I must also create a mock up of the layout of the contents page of my magazine. I have drawn up an action plan that covers my 4 weeks deadline.

Week 1:
-Questionnaire to target audience
-Textual analysis of existing magazines.
-Consider colour, style, name etc.

Week 2:
-Organise and carry out photo shoot(organise props, models, scenery etc.)
-Begin designing on computer

Week 3:
-Finish design and insert photos
-Audience feedback- questionnaire

Week 4:
-Tweak magazine design
-Evaluation of magazine
-Evaluation questions

My action plan may change depending on how quickly I work or any ideas I have along the way.