When I began research for my magazine, I started by gaining an understanding of magazine conventions. I did this by looking at past magazine covers of many different genres but mainly existing college magazines. After understanding the conventions I did a LIIAR analysis of a magazine cover, contents page and two page spread of my choice, for this I chose Vogue. Writing this analysis helped me gain ideas and an understanding of magazine layouts, which became useful in creating my final product. During research I also made a spider diagram and mood board with general ideas and plans for my college magazine, which included font types, images and topics of interest to college students. After completing all my research and thinking about my audience, which is college students ages between 16 and 18, I had a general plan for my College magazine. This lead to me making my page Layout drafts, which simply show the positioning of conventions on the pages, I used my front cover plan to guide me whilst creating my final product although I made some changes.
I wanted my cover layout to look as professional as possible, and relate to the audience as well as different social groups. The cover had to appeal to both male and female teenagers, to do this I should think about the use of colour and my choice of stories that will be featured. From my research I saw that on all magazines the mast head is either in the top left corner or goes across the top of the page. The main story of the issue will be placed in the bottom right in a larger font to the other stories, this will make it stand out and hopefully draw attention to the audience. I will also place the other stories in a list form with is very conventional and easy to locate and read. All the writing on the page will be outlined too, which will make it clear and visible to read on any background or colour.
In order to make the magazine gender neutral I had to think about my use of colour, fonts and images. My final image was modelled by a girl, so I had to make sure the over conventions made it clear the magazine is not just aimed towards girls. I chose what I would class as a basic font that would apply to both genders, and used stories that would appeal to all students. I decided to use just two colours for on the cover, those colours being purple and black. Purple as it is the colour of the Wyke College logo, and black because its simple, bold and appeals to everyone. These colours in my opinion are not aimed towards one specific gender or social group, and this continuous colour scheme would be the same throughout the full issue. Deciding on the name of my magazine was quite easy in my opinion, I needed something that was simple and straight to the point to explain the purpose of the contents. I thought it should include the college name too, and that's how I came up with "Wyke Life". I believe this name would appeal to the audience as it would include information on the college they attend and their student lifestyle.
The main story of my college magazine was the new students attending, which I wrote as "Welcome, to the class of 2015" this would hopefully gain attention from all of the new students. I also think the other stories I chose to include would appeal to the students, especially "New student offers inside" as this would allow the readers to gain knowledge of offers they are eligible for as a college student. I also believe the story "Freshers party tickets now on sale" would gain interest as it is a chance for the new students to get to know one another and feel more comfortable at college and therefore improve their learning in lessons. These stories all related to the student lifestyle and therefore suggest that college will be a happy environment that everyone will enjoy attending.
During my research process I had taken many different images whilst learning about different camera shots. Although many I took for usable, I decided on choosing a mid-shot image. A mind-shot image is the most common shot type used for magazine covers so I thought this would work well. When taking the photos I used sensible areas within the college as backgrounds that would be good choices for a front covers main image. The picture I chose in the end was took in front of the college lockers, which immediately gives the correct impression for the magazine, this being education. I also had the model hold a folder, once again a way to give the correct impression that she is at college and ready to learn. I also made sure she was smiling happily, to show she is enjoying the student life at Wyke and is happy to be there. I chose this image over my other ones for many reasons, The main ones being that the background was not too busy and therefore drew most of the attention to the student, and that there was plenty of clear space around her to add text.
I used the program Photoshop to edit my image and create my final product, which is a sensible choice as Photoshop is a professional photo manipulation program and therefore keeps the professional approach of my magazine I was going for. I actually did little editing on the main image, only slightly changing the brightness and contrast to improve the clarity. For the text on the page I looked for a basic serif font that would be easy to read and not to different from the original Wyke logo, for the normal stories I used a different font to the mast head and main story font as a way to make those stand out. I used layers to add the text and conventions onto the image, and different tools available on the program to add effects. For example, after adding all my text I decided to outline it in black to make it more clear to read, I did this by using the "stroke" tool in Photoshop. Whilst editing as well as adding text I also added a bar code and a plug in the right corner stating it is the magazines "debut issue".
Overall I am pleased with my final college magazine front cover, I think it applies to the target audience well and I have kept the colour scheme consistent. One thing I would change if I were to for this task again, is that I would use the flash on the camera whilst taking my photos. By doing this I believe it would improve the quality of the image and make the models face stand out more, this would also mean I would not have to edit the brightness in Photoshop. I would also possibly add one or two more stories onto the page, or a more varied amount of conventions, as this would result in the page space being used to its fullest. I believe I have met the criteria of this task well and have worked at the height of my ability during this project.
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