Evaluation Of College Magazine:

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.