Evaluation of Magazine Front Cover

I have made a front cover of a college magazine called Diva @ Wyke College. I called It Diva because it will appeal to my target audience of female college students. I have chosen female college students as my target audience because 65% of the students at Wyke are females. If I was to make another issue I would then alternate and aim it at the male students but I picked females to do first as over half of Wyke Students are female. I think the name will appeal to the target audience because most teenage students like to think they have a side of them that acts like a diva where they can get what they want.
Before I started making my front cover and contents page I did some researched. I looked at three different college magazines which were the East Riding Magazine, Grimbsy Institution and Secondary Teachers magazine. These magazines showed me what worked well on a front cover and what didn't. They also showed me about the conventions of a magazine like a masthead and a house style for my front page. After this is I started to plan what I was going to put onto my front cover. I thought about different house styles that I could use and these would be the same on my front cover and my contents page because it looks more professional and shows it is still the same magazine, I then did a draft of my layout on publisher to give me an image of what the layout of my front cover will look like. After this I thought about what theme my main picture would be based on, I came up with the themes photography and dance. This is because they are female related subjects which relates to my target audience. I then came up with five different names for my magazine and in the end I chose the name Diva. Next I came up with five feature headings to put around my main image, I chose feature headings that had different subjects, I made some with an academic story behind them and some with a fashion theme behind them so that there was a balance between college magazine and 'gossip' magazine. I then did my first attempts at taking a photo for my main image on my front cover, but once I had posted them I realised that they were not medium close up as the brief stated so I had to re take them. I took several different photos related to a dance theme and to a photography theme. The final photo I chose was in the photography theme. This was because it fitted in with my headline that I had chosen. I chose this headline because a lot of girls at this age like to read and watch about models.
When I was making my front cover it took me a while to figure out how to use photoshop. The first thing I did was interpret my house style of purple, green and white into magazine. I decided to use these colours because these are the college colours. I decided I would have a purple background with a green strip along the bottom and white writing.  I made the purple background but it didn't stand out so I added an effect to it to give it a textured look, and I did the same to the green banner at the bottom. I then put a green glow around my writing to that it tied in more with the green part of my house style. Once I had done this I added my masthead which is Diva @ Wyke College. Once I had done this and got the font right and the size right I thought that it looked too plain so I added the diamond on the top of the I to make it look a bit more like a Diva and outlined it in black so that it stood out more, I used the Wyke logo in my title so that students knew it was a magazine for Wyke College. Next I cut out my picture and put it on my magazine. I decided to have the picture in the middle as it is the main story and make it look like she is taking a photo of the audience and look like she is leaning on the headline of the story. I also outlined this main headline in black so that it stood out and grabbed the audiences' attention. I then added the feature headings to fit around the main image. I used Puff on my magazine by putting a headline about the NUS card on the green banner at the bottom of the page. This would run throughout the magazine because a lot of students have or want one of these cards as it helps with financial problems that a lot of students have.

If I was to change anything about my magazine front cover and contents page then I think I would have spaced out my time better so that I had more time on the construction of my front cover and contents page because I feel that it was slightly rushed. Also I think that I could have done my contents page better, this is because I did not understand what was meant by a mock up of a contents page so I did a draft on publisher and then did a more advance draft on photoshop which showed the house style of the contents page, the font and size of the writing and some of the stories and pictures that would be included on it.

Mock Up Of Contents Page

This is a mock up of my contents page for my magazine. I have chosen to keep the same colour scheme as the front page which is a purple and green background with white writing. This is because the audience will know that it is still part of the same magazine. I think that if I had used a completely different colour scheme and font to my front cover then it would not look right, it would look like it belonged to a different magazine. I have also decided to keep the NUS card advert on the bottom and this will run throughout the magazine. This is because a lot of students at college have these cards and it is a god way to advertise to the people that have not yet got one. I will have pictures at the side that are relevant to the stories inside because pictures catch people's attention and they will want to read the article if it is an interesting picture. I decided to put a green border around the images and the stories because it needed something else that was green on it apart from the bottom of the page

Front Cover Final Design

This was my final magazine front cover but then I decided to add a green outline to the headlines to tie it in with my house style and I put a blakc outline on the Masthead and the main storyline.

This is my final front cover





Final Ideas

Masthead- Diva@ Wyke College
Feature Headings- This Season's fashion fix, Winter Wonderland- 5 top hair and makeup looks, Lucky Wyke Student's trip to Los Angeles, Top 10 Revision Tips to relieve the stress of exams and Wyke's 3rd legendary Halloween party Sneek Peek
Colour scheme- Purple background, white font and green stripe at the bottom
Font Style- Rockwell Condensed and Rage Italic
Final Photo-


                        

Photos for Front Cover

 These are the medium close up photos I took for my front cover. I chose to do photos related to dance and photography.

<< I have chosen this photo as my final photo

Story Headlines

I have thought of four headlines. Two headlines for the dance picture and two headlines for the photography picture.
Dance

• Students Dances her way to Broadway
• Wyke Student and her path to stardom

Photography

• Student Snaps Up Top Model
•  Undercover Student Paps A List Celebrity

Unused Photos

 I took several different pictures for a photography theme and a dance theme. I decided to go with a photography theme because I think that there was a wider range of photos to chose from to use as my final picture. I then re read the brief and realised that the photo had to be a medium close up and none of these pictures are medium close ups so I will have to take some new ones.

 

 

Feature Headings Draft

I have thought of five different feature headings that will be on the front cover of the magazine. I will choose three or four of these to appear on the final draft of my front cover.

• Top 10 Revision Tips to Relieve the Stress of Exams
• Wyke's 3rd Legendary Halloween Party Sneek Peak
• Lucky Student's trip to Los Angeles
• This Season's fashion fix
• Winter Wonderland- 5 top hair and makeup looks

I have come up with two academical feature headings and three social headings. This is because I want it to attract to a wide range of females and not just a specific range.

Masthead Ideas

I have come up with five ideas for my magazine.

• Hush
• Wyke College
• WC
• Flashback
• Diva

Out of these five ideas I have decided that I am going to call my magazine Diva and I will put the Wyke Logo underneath it so that is it still associated with Wyke College. I chose this name because some girls like to be treat like they are a diva and that they deserve the best. I did not chose Wyke College as a main title because I did not think it was very catchy and would not attract the attention of girls. Also I did not think WC would make a good name either because it can also stand for water closet which will not attract the right audience. I did not chose Flashback or Hush because they also did not fit in with the style of my magazine.

Ideas for the main picture

I have decided to go for a theme related to a subject at Wyke. I will take a picture related to photography and dance. This is because these subjects are more female related compared to subjects like sport and ICT and there are more females in college than they are males. I will take several pictures of a pupil who does photography and dance and then I will then decide which picture will attract my target audience and then decide on a story headine to fit in with the picture.

1ST Draft of Layout

I have done a rough draft on the Publisher to show how the layout of my magazine will be.
This shows how the layout of my magazine may look.

House Style

Possible Background colour scheme- red, yellow, blue, purple, green
Possible Font colour scheme- green, yellow, purple, white
Possible Font Style- Rosewood Std, Arial, Candara, Forte, Poplar Std
Possible Font size for feature headings- 60pt, 48pt, 32pt,
Possible Extras- borders, underlining texts,

Target Audience

My target audience are pupils aged 16-19. This is because they are the age range that go to Wyke College and will be the one that will read the magazine. I will have to design my magazine to attract this target audience by using appropriate pictures and an eye catching layout.

Liiar Analysis of the Brief

Language- Target audience, masthead, slogan, puff, synergy, feature heading, photographs, banner headline
Insitution - Wyke 6th Form College, 65% female,
Ideology -  Education, Sport, Art, Dance, Photography
Audience - Students aged 16- 19, aimed more at girls
Represenation- students- hardworking, enthusiastic

Design Ideas

After looking at the three different college magazines I have found out that I will have to use the conventions of a magazine to make it appeal to the target audience of college students. These conventions are a masthead, house colour scheme, issue number, date of issue, price, feature headings, puff, synergy, website and an appropriate picture.

Grimsby Institution Magazine Analysis

http://www.grimsby.ac.uk/documents/GX_mag/GX1.pdf
I then looked at a third magazine for Grimsby Institution. This magazine also has a target audience of students. The front cover of this magazine stands out and will draw the attention of the target audience. It has eye catching colours of light blue against a dark grey and white. It uses conventions of a magazine, it has a website, feature headings and a slogan But it does not use the conventions of synergy, puff, and issue number or a price of the magazine. The style of the front page is eye catching because it is done in a cartoon style, the picture is animated. However the grey in the masthead does not look right. Also the feature headings are very small and unclear against the light grey background. Another downside of this front cover is that the picture in the right hand corner is not animated which does not fit in with the style of the rest of the page. The contents page follows the same colour scheme as the front page. It also stands out because the different stories are all in different colours but they are still readable, also they have the page number next to them. However the information at the bottom of the contents page is not really necessary and could have been put onto a different page.

East Riding College Magazine Analysis

http://www.eastridingcollege.ac.uk/retrieve/d2343bc1358b3983a89d916f6a988935
I looked at the magazine for East Riding College to give me more ideas about what conventions need to go on a magazine and how they layed it out. It had a masthead on it called 'Student Life' This appeals to the target audience because it is directly telling you who the magazine is aimed at. It has a consistent font for each feauture heading on the front page. However the feature headings are very small and do not really make sense. The picture on the front page is of the trip to Berlin that the students went on which is relevant to the story inside. However the picture does not fit in with the issue which is the spring issue because the picture is a winter setting and it also has the page number on it which is very unusual. The background of the front page is very simple as it is a plain black background with white writing on. If you look through the rest of the magazine it has green on the pages so the front cover should have had green on it aswell. Another downside of this magazine is that it does not use synergy or puff and it does not have a website or a slogan. Overall I think that this front cover is not a very good one because it does not really appeal to it's target audience. I then analysed the contents page to help me with my mock up contents page. It was not layed out very well because it had pictures with different sized boreds which were only there to use up some more space. The colour scheme was different to the front page as it had green on it but the font was still the same. A good point was that the pages were clearly numbered.

Analysis of Secondary Teachers magazine

I was given a magazine called secondary teachers which is aimed at teachers that teach the age group 14-19. The magazine appeals to it's target audience by using relevant pictures and feature headings. I analysed the front cover of the magazine and the contents page to find out the conventions of a magazine and to give me an idea about what I would need to include in my magazine. On this magazine it uses most of the conventions that are on a magazine. It used the same font on the different feature headings, it had a relevant main image of two children with football shirts behind then which fits in with the main story of how sport helps children with english and maths, it has the date of the issue on it,  it uses puff because it is advertising the department for children, school and families, it also uses synergy because it is advertising Aresenal Football Club through the shirts in the background of the main image. It also did not follow all conventions because it did not have an issue number on and it did not have the price of magazine on it. The contents page has the same colour scheme and font as the front page, it also carries on using puff by advertising recycling, apa and cib. Analysing this magazine showed me what conventions needed to go onto my college magazine cover.

The Brief- Preliminary exercise

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close up plus some appropiately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you muat produce a mock up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP