Preliminary Task

Research -other school/college magazines

This magazine cover features a predominant image of a student who seems to be involved in some sort of school activity. The mast head is large and although quite a pale colour still stands out and looks professional even for a school magazine. It shows the school logo on the cover which assures the magazine is specifically for this particular school. There are also several articles advertised, as well as a ‘Free’ section which entices the reader.

This is clearly an American college magazine, but still conforms to conventional magazine style. The mast head is large and bright making it really stand out even though it is partially covered by the cover image, which is of a happy young person looking straight ahead (engaging with the audience), also in bright clothes making the cover seem very cheerful. There are 3-4 titles on the cover as well as specific words that really stand out, this grabs the readers attention as it makes what is written seem important.

This contents page has a very simple layout and design, it uses two shades of the same colour and just white and grey as additional colours. The contents are in an orderly list form, making it easy for the reader to understand what can be found at what point in the magazine. There are two images featured at the bottom of the page, these are well placed as they do not interfere with the information or overcrowd the page.

Plan

Mast head

Puff

Puff

Image

Teaser

Buzz words

CENTRAL IMAGE

Mast head(CONTENTS)

Image associated with cover

story

Teaser

Information/contents

FRONT COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

EvaluationMy media product uses forms of conventions of real media products as it shows a conventional lay out, with one large cover image, a mast head and smaller article headlines around the page. In this task I did not aim to challenge conventions of existing media products as it is supposed to be a school/college magazine, so for its purpose and audience was aimed to be simple and straight forward.This product represents its target audience (those being students) as first of all, the cover image conveys a stressed out teenager or student of a similar age to the targeted audience. This gives readers reassurance that the magazine is aimed at them and the things they are currently experiencing. The contents page is also bright, with an image of a beach party which relates to one of the stories on the cover. This represents the student audience as it is portraying the future for them, after all the stress of exams (as described in another article of the magazine). This magazine would attract the particular student audience as it is brightly coloured and features stories/articles about experiences or topics that they can relate to! While constructing this product, I have used Adobe Photoshop to edit the image, this is very useful as you can brighten, crop and change the picture to suit the style and genre of magazine, I have also used Microsoft Publisher to bring together the two pages.

For the cover, I have used a scheme of three colours: blue, purple and pink, these contrast well and also match with the outfit of the model in the cover image, as well as the Henley College logo. I have used one other colour (Red) for both the teaser at the bottom and the additional image on the right hand side, I chose this as it stands out and catches the readers eye.