Evaluation

to contruct my front cover, first of all i had to edit the raw photograph, i had to get rid of any blemishes and make the skin even where the light was hitting it.
then i had to start to put my title and sub titles on top of my photgraph, i had to make sure that i made new layers each time i wrote on my front cover as they would be easyer to edit if i made a mistake.
i played about with the colours to see which colours looked the best and i changed my font size and font style using the tool bar.
for my contents page i did the same.
i used adobe illustrator to draw the box around the list of points explaining what was on each page.
i then brought my design back to photoshop and added in the photos and extra details.
i thnk that overall i did quite well, i think that my photograph on my front cover was good and it was what i wanted, i think that my editing of the photograph was good and i think that i was good at taking thnking of the suitable sub titles for my front page, however, there was some things that i could have improved on, i think that if i spent more time on my front cover of the magaizne i could have made it look more professional, i think that i should have paid more attention to detail. i also think i could have chose better photographs for my contents page, i would have preferd to have more photographs with more students in them.
overall i think i done a good job on designing and making my front cover and contents page, howver i think that i should have been better at time manageing so that i would get a batter outcome.

contents design

this was my first desighn for my contents page, i thought that it was an ok desighn but it wasnt quite what i wanted for my magazine.

i thought that this design for my contents page was quite interesting, however i thought that i needed somthing a bit more simple.

this was my third desighn. i like the desighn howver i thought that again my desighn needed to be more simple and easy to follow.

this is the desighn that i chose for my contesnt page i thought that it was simple and easy to follow. it would be easy for the students to find the page that they wanted but would be interesting to look at, at the same time.

Front cover page

this was my finished front cover page, i tryed to make it fun and attractive, i also wanted to make it suitable so that parents could also read and see whats happening throughout the scool.

photographs

to take my photgrpahs i used....
a 'Cannon eos 400d digital camera'
'Bowens Gemini Flash unit with softbox'
Radio trigger'
these imags were saved on a compact flash card. i then transeferd them to my computer.



these are my two photographs, i firstly had to choose a model. i wanted the model on my front cover to look plain, and young, but not too young. i wanted the audience to look at someone on my front cover and look upto the model. i stood my model jane behind the lockers to make it look as if she was in school and i then handed her a folder with some school documents in them. i asked her to smile in my photograph so that she would look happy and welcoming. i didnt need to take alot of photographs because i knew already what i wanted my picture to come out like.
i intend to use photograph two because it was a bit further away from the camera, and i think that the lighting and the poze alltogether in photograph 2 was better that the first.

Ideas for front cover.

This was one of my first simple desighns, i thought that it wa quite plain and needed some more detail. i also thought that the amount of people in the main photograph was uneccary, i decided to use less people in my front cover after looking at this desighn.
this was my second magazine front cover desighn. i thought that it mainly looked as if it was a sports magazine for boys. so it would not be suitable to use this desighn as my front cover because it may not attract the right audience.


Then i desighned this front page, i thought that it was better then the one i had previously done, however it was a bit plain for me and i had to develop my ideas further if i wanted to achieve a good outcome.
i thought that this was a good desighn, however i didnt like the layout of the text, so i moved onto my next idea.
for this desighn i thought that the desighn was a bit too simple and a bit too formal...i decided that i would move on to the next desighn of my front cover.
i think that overall this was a good desighn for a school magazine however i belive that it would mainly attract the parents of those who are sending their children to school, i think that it will attract some students to read this magazine but it will leave a vast majority of people who dont want to read the college magazine. i decided to move on to my next idea.



this is the desighn i chose for the front cover of my magazine. i chose this desighn because i thought that overall it would attract my intended audience and that it wasnt bias to one paticular gender. it had 'Sports' and 'Fashion' headers on the front page so that both genders would be interested in reading this magaizine. it also brings up points about exams and how to make use of ur free time wich will relate to both boys and girls who decide to read the college magazine.

Audience Research Results;

Queistion 1-

Here this graph displays the ages of the people who filled in the questioners. It was important that every age shown above was involved in taking part in the questionnaire. This is so the results can be more accurate and fair. Generally, different age groups will have a slightly different opinion to other age groups. For example somebody in the 20+ range will want the magazine to be published formally, and somebody in the 10-14 age group will want a magazine written informally.

Queistion 2-

Gender can also affect what the students may want in a college magazine, for example a boy generally wouldn’t want to read about fashion, and a girl wouldn’t want to read about sport. Therefore it was important for me to ask a fair ratio of boys against girls to make sure we don’t get a bias opinion. We can see by the graph this was achieved and therefore will have a set of more effective results.

Queistion 3-

Nationality could also affect somebody’s likes and dislikes in a magazine because certain ethnic groups may not like the same music as another for example. It is important that we get a range of different opinions in order to make sure that we get a set of fair results. Therefore the magazine will be a popular with all different kinds of ethnicities and music.

Queistion 4-

We ask this question to see how much understanding people have of previous magazines and what they would like to see. Even if they haven’t read a magazine, their opinion of what somebody would like to see in a magazine is also very important for a popular college magazine.

Queistion 5-

This question can be very important, do we make a college magazine informal, for the college students themselves, or do we make a college magazine for students and parent whom are looking to attend the college. From the questionnaire we can see that the very large majority of people would like to see the college magazine. However to be successful, it is important that we listen to everybody’s opinion, therefore we could think of maybe 2 or 3 pages of formal information also relevant to the students, as well as the parents.

Queistion 6-

The large majority have said they would like the magazine to talk about sports. However there are still some people who would rather the magazine didn’t contain nay sports pages. I think that because the number of people who would like to read about sports is a great deal bigger than people who wouldn’t. I think that sports should be put in the magazine however I believe that it should be kept to 2 or 3 pages so everybody is happy

Queistion 7-

Just like question 6 a lot more people would want to read about fashion than those who don’t. I think the same solution above should be used so that everybody can have parts of that magazine they are interested in.

Queistion 8-

As we can see here, everybody who was asked in the questionnaire would like to have a student’s problem page. I think this is popular as it is something all the students can get involved in and read. It interested everybody therefore would be an important aspect to the magazine

Queistion 9-



Here we can see that more than half the people asked would prefer to have the magazine published every month. However there are also quite a lot of people who would like the college magazine to be published every week. We could compromise this by maybe releasing a 1-2 page newsletter updating the students on what’s been going on in the college every week.



Queistion 10-




As we can see here most of the students said that they would prefer not to pay for a college magazine. The people who are likely to have said yes are probably parents and students who are thinking about coming to the college in the near future. Most students don’t have a lot of money so it would be convenient for them to have the college magazine published and given to them for free.





Queistion 11-




In this graph we can see that everybody would like the students to get involved in the making of the college magazine. This is obviously important to the students that they get involved in their own magazine. I think that it is essential that we involve students in their own magazine as they know what themselves and their peers will enjoy reading, it will add a personal stamp to the college magazine itself.

Audience Research

Questionnaire; what would you like to see in a school/college magazine?

Please tick one of the correct boxes for each of the following questions

1. How old are you?

10-14 15-19 20+


Gender?

Male Female


Nationality ?

Caucasian/white black Asian Indian Mixed



Other please specify


2. Do you read college / school magazines ?

Yes No



3. Would you prefer the magazine to be formal or informal?

Formal Informal


4. Would you prefer to have the students involved in the magazine?

Yes No



5.Would you like the magazine to talk about sports ?

Yes No


6.Would you like the magazine to talk about fashion ?

Yes No

7.Would you like the magazine to have a student’s problem page ?

Yes No



8.Could you fund yourself writing to a problems page?

Yes No Maybe


9.How often would you like the next issue to be published ?

Weekly Monthly Yearly


10.Would you be willing to pay for a college/school magazine?

Yes No

textual anlysis

Denotation; the magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of three girls, supposedly students at the college also they are all looking straight at the camera. It is a mid shot revealing from the head to the waist. They are all standing up, it is a symmetrical photograph. The girl in the middle of the shot had her arms around the girl on the left, and she is leaning back on towards her. The girl on the right has her hand on the girl standing in the middle. This makes the three girls all look connected. All three girls have a big smile on their faces where there are all showing their teeth. The girl in the middle of the picture is wearing red and the girls to the left and the right are both wearing white.

Behind the three girls is a building with lots of ivy growing over it and you can see the girls are standing on grass. The masthead is directly above the photo, the selling line and date line directly underneath. There are then 6 different cover lines dotted around the page. They are all in bright bold colours which is funky and attractive.

Masthead; freeze is written in Edwardian script which is a son serif font. It is pink and has a snowflake curving from the letter ‘e’ the writing is all in lower case letters and is in a light pink colour, which matches the main picture of the magazine. It seems to be really inviting. I think that the title of the magazine ‘freeze’ was chosen carefully. It’s almost as if the magazine is suggesting the college student to freeze, forget about college and relax, read the magazine and have fun. Its about things college students want to read about. Not just another boring essay or article. I think it was a very smart title to use for the magazine of a college. It shows that college students don’t always have to be tied down to their school work they can also have time for themselves and forget about the troubles and stresses of college.

The cover photograph of the cover definitely promotes the title and what the magazine is going to be about. There are three young college students, all connected, slightly posed to the side. It looks like they have been caught in a moment of laughter. You can tell the picture isn’t too over posed; this can be very welcoming to the reader as a lot of young teenage girls may feel self contious about the airbrushed women they see all day in magazines. This photo can be a real comfort to them showing them that not every girl is a size 0 with perfect features. I think the photo is really down to earth and will definitely attract those girls who feel it is important not only to study. But to have fun too.

There is a big difference to magazine like this, compared with Vogue; this magazine is for a much younger generation. While magazines like vogue can influence girls to grow up too fast, freeze magazine is directly aimed at young girls who are in the college, its promoting them to just enjoy themselves and be happy.

The cover line exactly under the masthead is ‘ seize the season…make your summer count even if you’re still clueless’ again this directly tires in with the cover picture, its fun and girly also matching the masthead. It’s really promoting the message of having fun with your friends and enjoys your youth. I think it is cleverly linked in to draw more readers into the magazine.

There are also different cover lines dotted around the page. There include ‘fairytales can come true’, which can encourage the college girls to work hard to pursuer their dreams. ‘To bottle or not to bottle’ giving girls ideas for fun games in summer nights. ‘Hot buys for the hot season’ fashion and fun with friends. And ‘HIV’ not only does this magazine promote having fun and college life it also focuses n being determined to fulfil your dreams. It also brings up the issue of HIV which is important for young people to be aware of; this college magazine also shows there is a serious side to it.

By looking at all of the points from above I suggest that the most likely target audience if for girls aged around 16-19 who are likely to still be studying. Girls who think that a girly sleepover is better than a rowdy house party, its all about having safe fun and being round your friends. Fashion trends and the summer. It has a friendly approach and definitely captures the target audience. You can also tell the magazine was made by students which can make the readers relate to the magazine more.

intro

my name is shannon ayres and i go christ the king sixth form college,my brief is to create a school magzine front cover and the inside contents page. I will use this blog to show progress in my coursework