Analysing My College Magazine Print

Analysing My College Magazine Print

After researching my target audience with a survey and studying the common conventions of magazine front covers and contents pages, I have created my own of these print media that I will now analyse.

I think the most relevant and professional-looking part of my front cover is the masthead. I used a fairly standard font and altered its characteristics to make it look more unique, then I used Stroke to give the thick, outlined effect, which made it stand out and look a bit like a cloud. This played with the connotations of the word “free” which I used as the name for my magazine, because it represents the freedom that students may be allowed through the adolescent years, free periods that sixth form students may have and also that the magazine is in fact free. I used a light blue colour with a grey stroke outline because the blue connotes the sky, which relates to the ‘free’ theme, and the grey stands out from the rest of the colour palette and just looks nice with the blue.

The main image of the cover is a medium close shot of a male student, sat on a stool, smiling. This draws the attention of males and females, and the happiness the model shows denotes a theme that would be expected to be kept to throughout the magazine, making it enjoyable to read and thus keeping the reader’s attention. I think that image is too dark and therefore clashes with the rest of the cover. This seems to be down to the clothing that the model is wearing, which couldn’t really be helped, but I will make sure the model and the rest of the cover are in sync is my main task. I think the lighting is good in this image, but it needs to be a bit brighter, possibly with some overhead lighting, so I will need to experiment with different lighting arrangements for my main task.

The background of my cover is a rainbow-coloured, radial pattern around the main image, which complements the happy tone I tried to create with the smiling in the main image, however, as said before, it clashes with the main image has a whole, and therefore I should have used some milder colours that clash less, which I will make sure I do with the main task.

With the taglines I have used, I tried to show the range of stories that would appear within the magazine, in an attempt to appeal to different social groups within the target audience. I have used the same font for all of the cover line however I have tried to make the cover look more interesting with boldness and italics. I have also used the same colour for all of the taglines; which stops the cover from looking too busy and overpowered with colour. Furthermore, I have included the date and issue of the magazine in the top right corner, which follows a common convention of magazines.

I have attempted to replicate a conventional layout in magazines with the masthead at the top, a main, central image, and taglines around the image. This makes the cover easy to read without making it look overcrowded which can be unappealing to look at.

On the contents page, I replicated the masthead used on the cover to create the title of the page, being ‘contents’, to show continuity within the magazine. I didn’t use the Stroke that I used on the masthead on this title because I wanted it to look different, and not overpower the page. This would appeal to the target audience because they would probably want to get straight into the magazine and therefore t does not draw their attention away form the actual contents.

The images I have used are not of the best quality, which will need to be improved for the main task. They are images of the sixth form in costume, which related to one of the main stories within the magazine and they display the colour palette of mostly primary colours, suggested in my audience research. To improve these I should learn more about the camera I am using and make sure that the images I take are all in full focus.

The information I have used is obviously almost the same as on the cover, with a few more stories shown in order to give the reader the entire list of stories that would be included in the magazine, with the page number written clearly next to each one. I have used black for the general text and I have used colours from the images to colour the ‘page …’ headings, so they stand out and it doesn’t add new colour to confuse the palette used.

I used a very simple layout that perhaps doesn’t follow any common conventions, but does convey clarity. For the main task I will make sure I study a range of music magazine contents pages so I know exactly the kind of conventions I will have to follow to make my main task successful.

The primary target audience for my magazine is students aged 11-19, the secondary target audience is teachers and the tertiary audience is parents. I don’t believe that the print I have produced is completely relevant to the entire target audience, probably not even the whole of the primary audience, due to the colours I have used and also the layout of the contents page. To improve I think the colour palette should not be as primary and bright, even though this followed the feedback I received in my survey, or at least just used milder shades of the colours, and keep the palette very specific. As before mentioned, I will also need to study the layouts of music magazine covers and contents pages to follow as many conventions as possible in my print to make them seem as professional and successful as possible.

I think the print I produced could be distributed by an institution aimed at children, but the colours and the layout are not really appropriate to the target audience I aimed at. The stories within the magazine however I think are more appropriate to the context so if the print looked more professional and appealing to the target audience then I think it could work as a college magazine.

Whilst completing my prelim task I have used Photoshop to create my print. Although I had previous experience using Photoshop, I felt I was very beginner with it before I started the task, but I now feel a lot more confident with some of the different tools such as Stroke, gradient filling, Bevelling and Embossing, Blurring and cutting images out. I will use Photoshop to produce the print in my main task and will experiment with different tools and effects and further my knowledge of the programme.