Preliminary Task

School/College magazine analysis

Front Cover

Large Masthead across the top of the magazine. Bold and bright colour to make it stand out from the background.

Large image of a college students looking into the camera holding books. The student is in medium close up. The image overlaps the masthead.

Flash which stands out to the reader. The bright colour and the coloured text jumps out of the page. And the splat adds to the effect.

Barcode tilted at the side of the pages to make more room for the image and text.

Cell lines at the side of the page to get the audience interested in the magazine by telling them about the content of the magazine.

Plain black background so that it brings attention to the bright text. The image has a light coloured shadow to make the background seem a bit more interesting.

Some text highlighted in a bright yellow colour to bring more attention to it.

Sky line at the top of the magazine so that it gets attention first from the readers.

Large red masthead at the top of the page. It’s very bold and stands out very well against the background so it should attract the audience.

Barcode in the bottom right corner so that it is out of the way of the more important things such as the image and the text.

Cell Lines either side of the page so that it gives an insight to the magazines content and so the readers should be drawn in.

Large image in the center of the page and takes up most of the page. The red top that the student is wearing matching the masthead so that it shows a consistent colour scheme.

The background is the image but the main object is the student who is in focus while the background is blurred so that the texts stands out.

Highlighted text in blue so that there is more focus on that part of the text.

Contents Page

Masthead at the top of the page with its own background colour to make it stand out.

Large images at the top half of the page with reference from the page numbers by the side of them.

The text have their own subheadings saying what that page is about. Then smaller text underneath to explain the subheading.

Page numbers to the left of the text.

Plain White Background so that the text and images stand out.

Masthead at the top of the page in a very unique font. The masthead overlaps one of the images on the page.

Images what have been edited by tilting then a bit and adding a shadow so make it look unique. Page number on the image so that readers can go straight to that page from looking at an interesting image.

Main large image at the bottom of the page.

The block of text is separated with subheadings so that it is easier to read. The subheadings are purple and much larger than the main body text so that it stands out. The main body text underneath the subheadings is white and much smaller. The text tells the readers about what is on that particular page in more detail.

Plain background makes images and text stand out more.

Front Cover Drafts

Contents Page drafts

Audience Feedback Audience aged between 14 and 20 yr olds

Front Cover

George Preston:

I prefer draft two as I think that the layout is much neater and well organised I think that I would be easy for the readers/audience to look at the information on the front cover due to the clear layout. I like the fact that he has used a lot of cell lines to get the audience interested in the magazine and so that it gives them an insight to the content of the product. I also like the fact that he has used a large image to attract a lot of attention. I also like how he has used a large masthead to draw the audience in although I don’t like the fact that the mast head is under the barcode and the issue, price and date section. I think that most people usually read from the top so readers would see the less important things first and not the main things such as the masthead.

Will Grimsey:

I prefer draft one as I think that the layout is very simple but I think it is a good way of attracting the audience. I like the fact that the masthead is at the top of the page so that it is read first. I also like the cell lines to give information to the audience so that they get interested in the content. I think the large image will defiantly attract the audience is a positive way. I like the idea of a flash to attract the audience and to get them to read the text inside the unique shape.

Amy Robb:

I think that draft two is the best as it is much more organised and neater. I think that this will be better as it means that you can read everything on the page more easily. I like how he has used a large image and I also like the large masthead as I think these two things will attract the readers. I think the fact that he has put the barcode and the top along with the price as I think that it is good for the readers to look at this information. I think that it is a good idea using cell lines as it gives an idea of what the information is about inside.

Contents Page

George Preston:

I think that draft one is the best draft as I like the fact that everything is spread out and that there is a lot of space on the page so that everything look clear and neat. I think that the contents is in a good location as I think that it is easy to see it and read it. I like the fact that he has used lots of images around the contents section so that it relates to the contents and so that it catches the reader’s attention. I like how he has used page numbers next to the images so that if readers don’t read the text they can locate there favourite interests by images.

Will Grimsey:

I like draft one the best as I think that the layout is overall better. The reason for this is because I like the fact that the contents is in a place that is used by a lot of magazines so it makes the page recognisable and doesn’t confuse the readers about where the contents is and if it is the contents. I like how there are a lot of images spread around the page giving reference by page numbers at the bottom of the image. This will make it easier for people to consume the information and will catch their attention. I think that he could improve the design by making the masthead bigger so that is stands out to me and other readers.

Amy Robb:

I think that draft one is the better draft out of the two as I think that it is more organised and I think the layout would be easier for readers to read and understand it. I like how the images are surrounding the content so that they relate together and so that readers get a visual insight to what the content of the magazine is about. I like how he has used page numbers next to the images to make it easier for the readers to locate the page when looking at the image. I like that a large area of the page is for the contents by text as it means he is using as much space as he can to get the content of the magazine across to the audience.

Evaluation

There are lots of ways of how I have produced a magazine using developed forms and conventions of real media products. I have you a bright bold mask heading just below the top of the page. In my research I found out that this was a good place to put the heading as it is proven that most people read from the top meaning that the heading would be first. I decided to place the barcode at the top of the magazine in the right hand corner as most real media products have the barcode at the bottom right corner or the top right corner. I chose the top corner as my image is at the bottom corner. I have used a large image to attract the audience to the magazine this is the common way of which any media product draws there audience in. From my research I found out that the best magazines were the ones with a plain background as they draw the attention away from the background and put the attention on the text and images. I chose a white background with a blue gradient. This gives the image a bit more of a flashy and cool look about it. Cell lines are used by real media products all the time and so I incorporated this in my product. Usually Cell lines are around the edges to bring less attention to them and more to the main text or images. I did just that by putting them at the left side of the page.

I think the font used in my media product represents particular social groups as it is a “Funky” font and not a boring font and the colour stands out against the background making it attract to people. The content of the magazine is aimed at young people so the magazine should represent young social groups as there is information like “7 easy steps to success in exams” and “student discounts”.

The kind of media institute that might want to distribute my media product is an institute that has experience distributing and producing teen magazine as they would know everything there is about that target audience. This would be perfect for my magazine as my product is aimed at teenagers, students in particular. An institute such as Conde Nast would be a good distributor as they have produced the popular teen magazine “Teen Vogue”. They have also produced other lifestyle magazine which makes them a popular institution.

The audience for my media product would be Teenagers (Students) as they would want to find out the content of the product as there life is evolved around the subjects, such as exams. The image of the teenager on the front cover suggests to the audience that it is aimed at teenagers. When researching other magazines, I found out that the image can tell a lot to the audience about who the target audience could be aimed at. I found out that the text was also an important factor of who the

magazine may b aimed at. My product uses a “funky” “cool” font to attract teenagers to it. The famous magazine “Billboard” also has bubbly text to attract the same kind of audience.

In my media product I added discount vouchers in it. I made this visual by writing it on the front cover and in the contents page. By adding this it can attract people into the product as they feel like that are getting something for free. I also used bright colours and interesting font to also draw in the audience. By having an image that makes eye contact with the audience, it can make it address the audience.

I have found out a lot about the technology that creates the front cover of media products. I have found out that by using Adobe Photoshop, you can choose whatever font you want and add shadows and colour outlines to make the font stand out. You can also choose and image off the internet and take away the background to show the image on my colour background. These clever things can really make a media product stand out and look very professional.