I
planned my magazine thoroughly before actually creating it. I researched
existing college magazines to take inspiration from the conventions they had
used to see what would be good to take into account when making my own. I then
analysed three front covers and evaluated how they had used conventions to make
their magazine engaging and interesting. I then created a mood board which
showed the things that I wanted to involve in my magazine. I used this to
decide what colours to use, where I would take my photo, what stories should
feature on the front and who my magazine would be aimed at. Eventually, I
decided that I wanted my magazine to be aimed at students aged 16-18 as this
the age when, usually, someone would be starting college for the first time.
I
followed the layouts of other magazines to make my magazine more conventional
and professional looking. I placed all of my feature stories in places which
not only made them more conventional but also easier to read. My barcode was
placed in the left hand corner as this is very conventional and makes the
magazine look more professional as that is where a lot of already existing
magazines would place it. Despite taking inspiration from existing magazines I
did want to add my own personal touch and did this by combining all of the
conventions which I thought were useful and worth applying to my own magazine.
I did not aim for
a particular social group but rather just at college students that were aged
16-18. When not focusing on a particular social group I had to make sure that
my magazine contained information about a variety of subjects and the models in
my photo were taking completely different courses (although I wish I had made
that clear on the cover). One of my features was about the sports tournament,
which would interest any pupils taking AS Sport, and the Halloween party, which
would aim at any student that is interested in parties. The colours I
eventually chose were the colours Wyke used in their logo: green and purple,
but I chose to also add white in certain places such as my skyline to make it
readable. As I chose the college’s logo colours, it helped to avoid aiming my
magazine at a certain gender and by sticking to a colour theme my magazine
appeared more professional. On my cover, I also mentioned competitions students
would be interested in. Students are usually on quite a tight budget so by
offering them the chance to win free tickets, they would be interested in the
offer as it allows them to save money. I mention how the students can follow
the college on two social networking sites (Twitter and Facebook) as the vast
majority of teenagers use social networking and will be interested as this is a
quick and fast way to hear upcoming news from the college and stay up to date.
The two models I used on the
front are smiling and look very happy; this is good as I wanted the reader to
believe that college is a very happy place and if they come to college, they
too will be happy. A lot of students worry about college and think it will be stressful
and as the girls look so happy, it allowed the reader to see that college is a
nice place and people enjoy coming here. This is useful to my audience as at
16-18 they will be just starting college and may be worrying about it. By using
two girls on the cover, it seems to be aimed at girls more but both girls are
holding folders which is using the ideology of education.
The image I chose for my front
cover was originally a long shot but, when editing, I chose to zoom in on the
models to allow the readers to see them more closely. As I wanted to give the
audience the impression that college is happy, it was hard to convey this when
the shot was further back. Zooming in allowed the audience to see their faces
more closely and see how happy they were/how much they are enjoying their
experience at college. Since the two girls featuring were already friends, they
look closer in the photo and you can tell that they enjoy each other’s presence.
This gives the audience the impression that they will make new friends at
college and as they’re both smiling, they appear friendly which can imply that
everyone at college is just as friendly as them. Students may worry about what
the other people at college will be like and this can reassure them that
college contains kind and friendly people.
I had to use the straightening
tool when editing my photo as my image appeared tilted and I did not want to
use an image like that as a tilted photo can be quite disorientating and I
wanted college to appear happy and a positive chapter in everyone’s life and a
disorientating image can make it appear quite hectic.
I am quite satisfied with my
product as I think it came out quite well for a first try. My main image is
relevant to college life and shows students that already attend and are happy
being here and enjoying their experience. I did not suffer too many
complications when creative my product. I found it easy to choose a colour
scheme which not only was easy to read against the main image but was also
relevant to college life, hence why I chose the colours used in the college’s
logo. I chose a basic text that would stand out but was also clear for the
audience to read. My only regret was not showing more of the college behind my
models. Had I shown more of the college behind the models, it would have shown
the audience more about college life as that would be the campus they would use
and it would have shown them where they would have been spending their time,
should they attend the college. However, I do believe my magazine would be
successful towards students aged 16-18 and would be relevant to their interests
and would appeal to them.
