Contents Page

Contents Page
Originally uploaded by lewis_hooley

College Magazine Cover

College Magazine Cover
Originally uploaded by lewis_hooley

Analysis of Questionnaire

Analysis of Questionnaire

From carrying out the first question of my questionnaire, I gathered that not many people actually read the college magazine. This was reflected that 95% of people asked, didn’t read it. This means that the college magazine isn’t meeting the needs of its target audience; Students. When asked whether they would pay for the magazine, 70% of people said they would pay 50p for it; they also wanted subject matter that wasn’t to do with college such as fashion, jobs and news/events. The major encouragement for people to purchase the magazine would be colours and ‘free stuff’, such as posters, vouchers and stickers etc. With the preferred pricing of the magazine around 50p, they also stated they wanted the magazine to be published, once a month. Finally the key thing that people would specifically like to see in the college magazine is a ‘what’s on’ guide. This is so that the students would feel in the know; this is proven because 85% said they wanted one.

Enorf: College magazine front cover

Front Page:

The title of my college magazine is ‘enorf’ and this is the finished front cover. The reason behind the name of the magazine is due to this is a nickname that the college gets given by students and staff. This then makes the magazine loyal and easily correlated to by its target audience; Students of ‘East Norfolk Sixth Form’. The picture I used for the front cover is of two students socialising, they both happen to be male but by the types of clothing they’re wearing shows diversity in the college’s students and also cancels out stereotyping as they are both talking to each other yet they are displayed as from different sub-cultures. Capturing the ‘East Norfolk Sixth Form’ sign gives the reader something they can relate to at first glance if the title doesn’t do its intended objective. The colour scheme I have chosen to use is the original colours of the college. These are the colours you’ll see on the college logo, student handbook and college website alongside other college things. The colours are consistently kept throughout; orange, navy and white. The specific fonts are also kept throughout. This gives the magazine a theme. Themes are important on magazine front covers as this is what grabs your attention the next time you buy it, as it’s easily picked out from other competitors. As from the feedback I received from the questionnaire I clearly included the ‘what’s on’ guide on the front cover, as this is what the target audience would find attractive. In majority I believe my front cover does well to meet its target audience but the only let down is that due to the colour scheme for the college, it gives the magazine a very masculine perspective. This is something that I can pick up on and not make this mistake when completing my music magazine.

Contents Page:

With my contents page I kept a linear layout. This is because naturally older teens don’t like to be patronised by child like designs and patterns. It was also kept linear due to the fact the contents page is majorly a page to display information, this making it easier to comprehend. The same colour scheme runs through the magazine. Also the fonts are kept the same. The picture I chose to use was again trying to include the social side of college but this time adding the folder, that the two students were revising from makes it clear it’s still a learning environment, and a college magazine. This time around the contents page as you can clearly see has two females on. This gives it a more feminine outlook which contrasts to the colour scheme. To conclude I believe the contents page does what it should do. This is proven as it follows a clear theme, looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye and finally it tells the reader what’s in the magazine. The only negative I believe the contents page has is that the photo could be lightened using Photoshop. This gives me a good learning curve to not let this happen in my music magazine.

My Magazine Photos

‘NME’ & ‘Kerrang’ Cover analysis

NME on the whole follows typical magazine normalities but conversely does differ in some ways from those such as Kerrang. Kerrang aims at a more of a punk target audience and NME hosts a more varied target audience because the subject material of NME is much broader. Although NME isn’t an unknown magazine, one which it would be necessary to see the whole masthead for the magazine to be recognized, they have chosen to go against the mainstream view for the masthead to be behind the image. This is shown in the other magazine that I am choosing to analyse, Kerrang, as in this case the masthead is partially compromised by the image. The way NME have chosen to present their masthead is to ensure the name is in full view of the audience and easily seen. Although Kerrang have compromised the masthead they keep the masthead consistently in the middle across the whole width of the cover, this is to ensure the reader can easily recognise it.

With the two of the magazines having different target audiences, the colour schemes are different. With Kerrang it has an easily noticeable colour scheme of dark background colours, such as navy blue and black, contrasting to the bright splash of colour of the fonts that are yellow and white. This colour scheme ensures that it stands out and is easily read.

As I have stated earlier, both of the magazine covers follow basic magazine traits. This is as NME and Kerrang both advertise bands that the target audience would like. Also another aspect that you’d expect on music magazine front covers is posters.

‘NME’ & ‘Kerrang’ Contents analysis

The contents page of a magazine is a page to notify the reader of what the magazine has in the issue. In order to create a good contents page, it must be displayed well, therefore having a good layout suited to the magazine, and thus making it suited to the target audience. Other aspects of the contents page consist of it being aesthetically pleasing to the eye and easy to comprehend at a glance.

The contents page of Kerrang is separated into segments, with images covering most of the page, then having the information shown around them. This means the way the layout is the reader is instantaneously drawn to the images, allowing them to feel more involved within the magazine, and be more entertained. The colours that were used on the front cover, which were yellow, black and dark blue (navy) are also used in the contents page, thus giving the magazine a colour scheme. Two images stand out in particular, a large dark image, and a large white and yellow image. These colours contrast against the white background and each other, meaning the images stand out and catch the reader’s attention. This contrasts to NME where it has a more of a linear layout with a thin black line separating each piece of information. Although the way in which the page numbers are set out do not follow a linear layout as they’re scattered over the page in no order. A black and white colour scheme adds to the professional aspect of the magazine and makes it clear to understand.

The use of exclamation marks in the text of Kerrang embodies heavy music and the attitude of the reader. This is the indication of the style of the magazine through the contents.

Institutional data ‘Music Magazine’

The Magazine(NME)

Price/Cost	£2.20
Launch Date	1952
Frequency	Weekly
Target Market	Men 17-30
Circulation	56,284

The Reader

Social Class of A, B, C1	73%
Average Reader Age	25
Ratio of Male to Female Readers	73%/27%
Average Working Status	34% full time, 18% part time and 26% full time students: 93%
Amount of Readers That Own a Computer	93%
Amount Of Readers With Internet Access	96%
Amount of Issues Read	62% read at least 3 out of 4 issues
Reading Time	Almost half (49%) have been reading NME for at least 3 years
Length of Time to Read an Issue	84% think the magazine gives them what they want spending an average of 46 minutes reading each issue

Breakdown of cast, props, setting, location report for magazine

I will need a group of four teen boys to create a fictional boyband. They will need to be wearing a similar shade of clothing that's smart and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I will also need a fictional artist with a guitar and a leather jacket for a rock look. Furthermore, the cast will include two girls with a vintage look that are appealing to the target audience. The location for the boyband will be somewhere low lit and outside. This will also be the place for the single rock look cast member. The two girls location will be somewhere bright with a plain background.

These are the initial layout ideas for the Contents and the Front Page

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 7

From completing my preliminary task I feel I learnt valuable skills to utilize in the progression onto my full magazine product. Firstly my ability to produce my product on Photoshop increased. This was shown when I used techniques such as: text alignment, blending options (stroke and drop shadow), image manipulations, text box sizing, using Photoshop rulers, colour picking, quick selection tool, feathering edges, changing the opacity and correctly using the layers feature. I would most certainly say that the most effective tool I used in the creation of my products was the blending options. This enabled me to soften edges of images and give things a professional finish, furthermore, Photoshop has a “copy layer style” feature which was convenient if I wanted to have the same blending options on another image or object. Using the contrast and black and white tools for images enabled me to give my own magazine its own style. This is due to my magazine have a black white and red theme/colour scheme. This also enhanced my photographs and additionally gave the picture a broader target audience as stereotypically a black and white image of a male is more appealing to the male heterosexual reader than a full colour image. Another method I used to make my magazine look professional by using Photoshop was keeping continuous fonts and colours throughout the finished products. All of these techniques helped me create my products’ own theme.

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 6

I have learnt about a few technologies that were on offer from the process of constructing my products. These were Photoshop, Blogger and Flickr. The most influential software for constructing my front cover, contents page and double page spread was Photoshop. This program enabled me to manipulate and create the aesthetics for the magazine I wanted. Blogger was the technology that was chosen to upload and submit all of my work. Flickr was an extension onto blogger to upload pictures and add tags to them. Photoshop allowed me to change the page size so for example from A4(front cover or contents page) to A3(double page spread). Photoshop also taught me that the angle I took my photographs at was also important to be able to change the contrast and add effects. Also using the rulers to line up and make the text boxes precisely in the correct position. All of the images I chose to turn black and white corresponded well with the red that I chose to use a lot. Finally I used the internet as a resource to gain information about magazines and to look for images. Blogger and Flickr are also an online service so the internet was utilized effectively.