Contents Page

This is the first step to my contents page. I have gone for a colourful apprach and catchy headlines. Good pictures are to come next.

Questionnaire

I asked a friend a few questions about what kind of things they look for in a (music) magazine:

1) What is the main thing that attracts you when you purchase a magazine?

The magazine needs to have outstanding colours so it catches my eye.

2) How important do you feel the headline is?

An interesting headline is essential! I need to know that this weeks episode is going to be worth buying and that I will enjoy and be interested when i dive inside.

3) Have you had any experience of purchasing a magazine or newspaper purely on one feature? 

Yes! My sister bought a paper the other day just for the Twiligiht poster inside; freebies attract people. She didn’t read the paper she just saw “Free Twilight Poster Inside!” and it worked a treat.

4) Does a magazine need a picture so you can identify it?

In my opinion along with colour a picture is the most important thing on the fornt cover of any magazine. It identifies it as that specific magazine and if it is a picture out of the ordinary its seperated it form all the other magazines, drawing your eye to it more and im sure selling more.

5) Finally the name of the magazine is surely important?

Yes, most definately! A short catchy name is important. It needs to be something that will stick in the mind. The most obvious example I can think is the “Virgin” frachise. Its an odd name but no one will forget it. Something snappy wich roles off the tounge I think is key to sales. A long, hard to say title will put people off.

The information I have gained from my friend has been valuable. I will continue to do more research but keep everything that was said today in mind.

 

 

Target Audience

I have decided to make the audience for my magazine people of my age. I have decided this because I know what kind of things atrract teeenagers and most of the music magazines out at the moment are aimed at this group of people. For this I will need to use good, trendy pictures of things going on and bright words with “cool” words. Slang or abreviated words are also popular as teenagers feel they can relate more to them.

Evaluation of a Contents Page

The next task is to research contents pages. Here is an evaluation of the contents page from Drummer magazine.

2nd Cover Design

Evaluation

I attempted to make this magazine look as real as possible and as much like a childs magazine as possible. Again, rather like my last design I didnt use one specific idea for my front cover; instead i gathered a range of ideas from all over the place. The theme of my cover depended on what the theme for the original magazine design was. As mine was reasonably formal I decided this one needed to be more fun. I decided I wanted to make people smile so immediately thought of a saying that puts an automatic sile on your face….”Have a Laugh!”. The title is the first thing most people look at so i thought if I make noticable people will be more inclined to pick it up. Also linked with the title is a pitcture of Hana and Eden laughing, it was iportnat for me to have that their to back the title up. From evidence I got from magazine covers such as “Match” is that right colours and fun pictures are the way to go. I did this with the picture of Jack and Alysha doing strange poses and Mr Robbins helping Gina.

It is important to show boys and girls enjoying themselves. This is crucial because it shows that people that may be from differnt backgrounds and sex can get along and enjoy life at school. This would be a major plus point for any year sevens who were worried about the older students. I know when i first came to this school the thing i was most skeptikal about were the older kids. I wanted to make my magazine cover fun to try and show them that we are nice really and tat to be honest we aren’t actually that much older in the way we behave sometimes. We can still “Have a Laugh” and enjoy ourselves.So people who are perhaps worried about how they will be treated at our school neddn’t worry because that wont be a problem here. The relationship between student and teacher is also important. Year sevens will be able to see that they are the only one who doesn’t like a certain teacher etc. it will also help to show that at our school teachers are actually very good and very nice so will do their best to help you. The main messge I am trying to get across in this cover is that whether your sixth form or year seven we all go to Chosen Hill and we can all learn and have fun together.

The target audience for this magazie is new year sevens. These kids do not yet know what the school is about so the hopefully the magazine will go someway to giving them more of an idea of what goes on nd what can be done. It is important for them not to tkae our school for granted. They need to realise as soon as possible what a good school they are at and how lucky they are to be here. I am trying to get them to embrace this and realise what our school has to offer. I belive it is crucial for them to feel part of the school as soon as possible and this magazine which adresses the reasder directly i would hope could go some way towards doing that.

I attempted to attract my audience by using colourful and comical headlines; aswell as funny pictures. The use of comical font is also key. I have attempted to create funny headlines with puns or common phrases. These headlines are done in differnet colours to draw the eye to get them read straight away so the audience knows what the magazine is about. Use of funny pictures is important aswell to show what kind of fun we have at this school. The picture of Jack and Alysha and the one of Mr Robbins and Ginawill hopefully put a smile on peoples faces. I used a smiley face symbol to put over Mr Robbins face. This is to disguise his identity and make people want to know who he was. I wanted to get people intrigued as to who it was. The questions as headlines will hopefully work in the same way. People will think to themselves what they think the answer is but to get the definitive answer will purchase the magazine.

In the process of making this magazine I learnt how important it is to use specific ideas and designs which would influence the target audience. Things like attractive fonts, headlines and funny pictures would hopefully attract young year seven students even if they didnt attract older senior teachers. I also learnt more about using photoshop and as i progress in the course these skills will benfit me when we get to bigger and more important projects.

Evaluation

I did try to make my magzine as real as possible but with my own ideas. I didnt have one specific design that I copied but rather used a few ideas from different sources. For example at first the “THE” and the “CHOSEN” were different fonts to emphasise the play on words. I took this from “Birmingham Life”. However after advice from poeple that it didnt look as good as it could have been so i decided to change it to a more formal font and the same for both words.

The other technique that I used which has been successful in other magazines is the main picture in the middle with words and other smaller images around it. This makes it the main focus and I thought it was important for the first and main thing for people to see being students having fun and getting along with each other.

I realised that I had too much on the front cover and it was too crowded so decided to remove the smaller pictures. This makes it look better and I am pleased I did it. I have also add barcodes and the date to make it look more real.

My main picture shows two boys and two girls enjoying themselves. This is imporant because it shows that people from differnt backgrounds and sex can get along and enjoy life at school. This will hopefully encourage people who are perhaps worried about how they will be recieved or treated to come to our school because that wont be a problem here. It shows everyone gets on and we are effectively one big family at Chosen Hill.

My magazine has been made especially for the sixth form of our school. At the end of each year we would have people looking around our school deciding where to continue their education so we would want to promote Chosen. Every prospective student would get one of these magazines and hopefully it would tip the balance and make them come to our sixth form. So my magazine is targetting students but also we realise parents would also be reading this so we would ned to impress them aswell.

I adressed the audience with pictures of students and catchy headlines. The magazine itself would show poeple what kind of things we can do at our school aswell as the pictures on the front. Hopefully this will impress people and make them eager to get involved.

I have really enjoyed using photoshop and have learned more about it the more I use it. I am now confident with it but with my next design I will be keen to discover more, new things I could do with it.

Since my prelimary task I have found out about the smudge tool and learnt how to use shapes more effectively. I also think I now have a better as to what look good on a front cover. With my prelimary task I was very knew to the whole subject so wasnt really sure what to do. Now, however I am more confident and look forward to my next task.

Extra Touches

To make it look like a magazine I decided to add a  bar code and date. I think this helps with the whole mood of the front cover. It makes it feel more real and professional.

My Final Magazine Cover

Overall I am happy with my magazine. The main things I am happy with are the main picture and the wording of the headlines.

The things I found the hardest were deciding where and what colour I should have my writing, I also had to be wary of not cramming too much into it.

I attmepted to get the main things that have happened or will happen with the school. I also tried to get pictures which will show what our school is like. I believe I have done these things and I am happy with my first ever serious magazine cover.

After advice from various people I have decided to change the font of my title. I also made THE and CHOSEN the same font.

I also removed th epictures which went across the top. I agreed with others that it ooked to crouded so now am happy with it.

Taster Pics

At the top of my magazine I have fitted  some pictures of school life at Chosen Hill. It features poeple working hard at computers or in the common room ;library facilities and teachers helping. You get all these things at Chosen to the highest quality. The pictures are slanted to be informal and so all the pictures can fit in neatly and be the same size. Underneathe the main pics there will some more pictures of sports, house music and tech aswell as some text.

Photos

In todays lesson i went around the school taking pictured of things i think would represent the school well. I still have to take photos of sport and tech . Already i have taken photos of teachers, library, common room, and class room aswell as house music.