Evaluation
For a student magazine there are key aspects which are important to include, with the front cover the main key ingredient is a photo or photos, the photo is going to be the first thing the audience look at, it sets the whole magazine. If the photo on the front doesn’t seem fun or gripping to the audience then they won’t even bother looking at the rest of the magazine. In my magazine I included a large photo of two teenage girls, smiling and giggling, having fun which when the audience picks the magazine up they will see that it is a teenage magazine but also be hooked because the girls are smiling. One of the girls is also looking at the camera, she is smiling so it is very warm and welcoming to the audience, they will feel like they know this girl, she is friendly and they will want to look at the rest of the magazine. With the audience feedback I have received, some said this image looked fun and lively; it went with the targeted audience.
Also on the front cover is the Masthead (name or title), the masthead is just as important as the photo, the magazine has to have a name which fits the audience, so in this case it has to relate to teenagers, with my Masthead I used the word ‘Teenage’ but split it so it spelled, ‘Teen-age’ as in the Teen Age, the young generation matters, this is their time and so on. The Masthead has to be short and snappy, but again this depends on the audience. Another aspect of the front cover is the coverlines, they lure the audience to read more, it also gives the audience a chance to scan the featured articles and see what they like, with my magazine I included a range of coverlines, however one thing which I didn’t include with the coverlines was the page numbers, I have seen this being done on a few magazines but the contents page does feature the page numbers so I saw no point in having them on the cover.
The Strapline/s is something which you may or may not include on the cover, they are not a major necessity but they can be used to show what issue it is or if there is a competition inside the magazine. For my magazine, I featured two Straplines, one at the top and one at the bottom, the top shows the issue (First issue: Giving something back to the teenagers) and the bottom featured a competition (Win Canon 10MP Camera). Looking at my front cover I didn’t put in a banner, I felt there was no need for one and also no room, sometimes when magazines include a large banner there is hardly any room for the coverlines, they have to be pushed up and so they cover most of the photo.
Colour is important on the front cover, especially with a teenage/student magazine, bright, bold and intense colours catch the audience’s eye more than dull, dark colours. On my front cover the photo contained a few colours but I added in my own bold colour which I featured on the coverlines and the Strapline backgrounds which was a deep dark red. This just added some flare to the design, it made it less boring, more able to stand out, and the intensity of the colour caught my eye. With the coverlines it was mainly about what colour would stand out more against the photo, the first colour I could think of was a red but this turned out to be too bright, the photo was bright and so they conflicted. I decided to boost the contrast up and also darken the colour of the coverlines; this made them stand out more.
With my contents page I wanted it not to be as busy as the Front Cover, the background was plain white so the main focus was on the pictures and the articles listed. With most contents pages such as the Media magazine they list their articles with pictures, no funny designs just very simple which was what I wanted, I wanted my contents page to be very simple and direct to the audience, they could easily find which article and page number they wanted. Photos are also again important in the contents page, they don’t have to be included but I see them as a help to the page, it splits the page up so it all isn’t just lines of writing, it also gives some colour to the page (reason for why I never put a coloured background in, would be too much and too distracting). Small headings for each article is important, bolding the writing too can make it easier to see, with the contents page I was going for a simple design, the font was simple (apart from title of page), I didn’t want to confuse the audience, I just wanted them to scan through the page, find the article they wanted and flick to it. For the title of the page, most magazine which I have seen do feature a ‘pretty’ font and design for the title of the contents page, nothing too over the top so it distracts the audience from the main focus (articles and pictures) but just enough to make the page seem more interesting and appealing to the audience.
At the start of the student magazine project my targeted audience was both gender, I wanted to include articles which appealed to both males and females. However, as the progression of the magazine went on, I discovered that I was concentrating more on the female side of the magazine. One big thing which screamed female audience was the front cover, the photo was of two female teenagers and not many male teenagers would pick up a magazine which featured a teenage girl on the front cover. Male teenagers would usually go for magazines which featured cars, music, film and games, things which appealed to them in particular. On the other hand, I didn’t want to get rid of all the articles which went more for males just because I felt that the magazine could still pass for females, some females do like sports, games and such. The general targeted age of the audience would be around ages 13 to 18 years old, this is a large age gap but I have tried to feature articles which appeal to all ages in the age gap.
With my magazine the targeted social group was teenagers and so I had to make the magazine represent and appeal to them, it had to be cheap but packed with tons of interesting and entertaining features. The cost of the magazine which after having feedback from my Audience Questionnaire I decided to have the magazine priced at £1 which I saw as fair but also cheap for those teenagers who hated to spend £3 on a magazine. In my magazine I represented the students by having two teenage girls smiling on the front, automatically the audience would be able to tell that this was a teenage student magazine by the front cover. Also, the Masthead, it stated ‘Teen-Age’ which obviously showed that this was a teenage magazine, I wanted a name which would relate to them, show them that this was a magazine for them. For the contents and the coverlines of the magazine, I featured articles which teenagers/students would find appealing and useful, such as updates on Ludlow College (any information on events or meetings, activities, etc) or for a more fun side to the magazine, game, film, product reviews, quizzes for the females and sports updates for the males.
With the photo I used I wanted to represent the young generation (teenagers) , in the photo the girls are smiling, they are their youth and they can socialize, have fun, etc. It is always best to have a smiling teenager or even just a smiling person on the cover can give the magazine a welcoming and fun feeling, it invites the audience in. With the language I used in the magazine, I wasn’t going for the text language that some teenagers use (I am not very familiar with the text chat), so instead I decided to use a more mature language which all teenagers could read, no complicated words, simple to read for all teenagers. With the ratio of text and picture in the magazine, I didn’t want too much text to be presented in big chunks, this would look dull and possibly confusing for the audience, so especially in the contents page I had 7 pictures which divided up the text to make it look less and more simple to read. With the front cover the ratio of pictures to text was more for the text but the photo which I used was large and so it sort of balanced the text out just enough, the text didn’t overpower the front cover and make it look crammed.
My magazine isn’t like other teenage magazines, for one it does feature females on the front but the contents is directed at both genders, unlike some magazines such as ‘Teen’ and ‘Seventeen’ which are directed mostly at females (they contains make up tips, relationship advice, etc). I haven’t yet come across an institution which has a gap which my magazine could fill but with my magazine it isn’t like most teenage magazines. Like I said, it has a mixture of different features which appeal to both male and females, it is directed at students, it doesn’t go into much detail on universities and such but it could if there was a next issue, in this issue it states updates on the college and the holiday coming up. With my magazine, it offers something new for teenagers to read, something which they can pick up and be entertained with, but also gain some news. Not many newspapers appeal to me and probably not many teenagers because of the very mature language (the language I use is mature but not over complicated) and boring political issues which can bore and confuse teenagers. With this magazine is allows teenagers to have something for themselves, just for them which they can talk to their friends about and go on the website to talk to others in the forum. At the college there is already a student magazine called the Student ID, but I believe my magazine is better than this, with the past issues of the Student Ids they aren’t very colourful or eye catching on the front cover, they do contain some images which may attract some attention but I really think the best way to catch the audience’s attention is to feature a large image which appeals to them (two teenage girls smiling, one looking at camera). The contents of the Student ID is similar to the contents of my magazine but I offer more for both genders, in the Student ID it features more for males such as with games and film reviews, with my magazine I feature quizzes for females, product (make up and perfume) reviews and so on.
When making the magazine I needed to make sure that the magazine would appeal to the audience, that they would want to buy the magazine. Most people buy a magazine, book, film, etc by the front cover, so the front cover has to attract them, they usually buy the magazine on a spur of the moment and so they usually go more for looks than contents. With the font cover the photo was the main focus, I had the girls smiling to make it seem fun and youthful but also one of the girls looking at the camera, connecting with the audience, almost speaking to them in way, very welcoming. Most teenage girls buy magazines which feature a female on the front cover, it appeals more to them because they are female and so they relate more. Also a female on the front cover usually means that some or most of the contents in the magazine relates to females as well.
I had previous experience with most of the technology which I used whilst making my magazine. The first piece of technology was a digital camera, which I had used in other lessons so I knew how to use them, I didn’t need any help in taking the photos (most of them were of objects so it was pretty easy to take them). Editing the photos wasn’t hard at all, I used programs such as Coral Paint Shop Pro X which I had much experience with. I found using Coral Paint Shop Pro X to be easier than using GIMP, which I hadn’t had any experience working with before and so the process of editing my photos was slow when using this. The main program which I used was Publisher, here I created the layouts of my contents page, my front cover, where I worked most of the process of the magazine out, it helped me out a lot and with past experience with this program it was easy to complete the project. Other programs which I used were, Paint which I used to transfer my finished layout designs from Publish onto paint so I could crop them and then transfer these onto my blog. Using online programs too helped greatly with the progress of my magazine, the program I used was Photobucket, here I was able to upload any images I needed to transfer onto my blog, first if I couldn’t use Coral Paint Shop Pro X (if I could use it I would use this instead) I would edit the photos using Photobucket which features many fantastic tools which helped me greatly.
With this project it has taught me just how difficult a magazine is to put together but this was just the front cover and the contents page, normal magazine companies would have to do the whole contents of the magazines, plus include advertisements and such. However, it has given my knowledge of what to do next in the Music magazine project, I will be able to create the contents and front cover much quicker, due to the knowledge I have taken in from this project. The most difficult part of this project was the front cover, it is the first thing the audience will see, it has to be burst from the page, appeal to them and attract them.
