My Final Contents Page Design

MY Final Front Cover Design

Evaluation

Tom Davies

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I found that a very typical part of a student magazine was plenty of images of young peole both in the mgazine and on the front cover and they all seemed to be ding activities which were stereotypical to young people. So on both the front cover and contents page of my magazine i inserted images of teenagers and young adults to represent it was advertised to students. Another very big part of a student mgazne are the topics which you talk about. So in my contents page i included storys of Music, Nights out, College Activities and Education which are all associated with the the majority of students.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I have aimed my magazine at teenagers, young adults and mainly students. I have done this by adding photos which are yound people people doing interesting activities as well as covering topics that young people are interested in and can relate to. I have used relaxed informal language to welcome the reader as it is more like what they are used to in their everyday life.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The main distribution of student magazines that is near me is the ludlow college mags which are called 'student ID'. I think that the college would be interested in publishing my design as my magazine includes alot of features which relate to the college itself so it will help its students keep informed to what is going on inside the college.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?
I have targetted a audience of both genders and then instead gone for a specific age range. I have gone for an audience of young people specifically students. I have also used music as quite a big part of my magazine as in my audience research alot of people answered to my topic question that would be interested in reading about music related articles.

• How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract my target audience of young people/students i used many photos which included young people doing young people activities. I decided to put this in as in my audience research alot of people answered that my images sould be of young people participating in activities such as partying, nights out and other activitie which include students. I also used articles which i thought would entice younf people such as, college events, local nights out and college events.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the process of creating this product i have used several programmes before that i have never used or are very inexperienced at using. One of these that i had nevr used before was blogger and i am now very aware of how to use blogger and what i can achieve with it. I also got alot more accustomed to publisher which i used to create both my final contents and front cover design and all the drafts before that.

Contents page analysis

I took this contents page from the music magazine 'Drummer'.

It takes alot of similarities from the front cover such as, the big masthead, similar colour scheme, one large graphic and then various other smaller graphics around the edges. However there are alot more cover lines listed and each of them has become much more detailed and they now also have page numbers adjacient to them so you can navigate yourself through the magazine simply. Although they are more detailed, this will just give you an idea of the story and will not take too much room or time to read. There are also page numbers with the images so if you are interested in what the image displays you can look into it in more detail without searching through the magaizne for it.

In respsonse to research using my questionnaire i received 6 responses. Alot of the answers i received were quite vague or didn't have much relation to the options that i gave. The age range that replied to my questions were all 16-17 with the gender range being equal at 3 girls and 3 boys. Out of all my responses only one answered that they read a student magazine and the words used were 'kinda' and it was only the colleges own one. Out of all responses the most popular name for a student magazine was 'ICON' and i think that this is the name that i am going to go ahead and use. The main topics that people thought i should include in my magazine were Sport, Music, FIlm, Fashion, Education, but mainly college related articales and information on collage ad local events. I think a good student magazine should involve aspects of all of these topics. When I asked how much i should charge for the magazine the responses i got was prices between 60p and a pound. Taking this into consideration i think that i will charge 70p as it's between those two prices and i think that this is a reasonable price. My final question was ' What sort of photos do you think would look good with the magazine?' the results from this were alll very similar and suggested that i should use photo's of college events and nights out, aswel as photos of around the college itself.

I really like the layout of this design with the text sloping down from the feature box into the masthead of my cover. I also think the feature box is a good addition to the page as it adds another image and is the second main focus point of the front cover other than the background. I like the basic colours i have used for the title and cover lines as they all link in together and don't clash with anything in the background.

This was my second design. I like this one alot more and probably the most out of all of my designs. I like how the masthead sits around the top of the image well and i also like how the masthead is more original and unusual than the first one. I also lik the poster feature at the bottom of the page. I feel that i could of used a more interesting font for the coverlines and the rest of the test on the cover. I do like the colour scheme of it as it all fits into each other, however i feel that it might not get noticed as much as others as the colours are quite dull and don't stand out very well.

This was my first attempt at designing and creating a front cover for my magazine. I didn't like much about this design, i thought the photo was too cheesey and everything else just seemed to basic and uninteresting. If i saw this on a shelf in a shop i doubt i would even pick it up to have a look at it.

Questionnaire

Are you male or female?

How old are you?

Do you read any student magazines at the moment?

If so, which ones?

What do you think would be a good name for a student magazine?
Student Times
National Student
Icon
graduate
Other... suggest

What stories do you think a student magazine should cover?
Sport
Music
Education
World News
Other... suggest

How much would you be willing to pay for the magazine?
50p
70p
85p
£1
Other... suggest

What sort of photos do you think would look good with the magazine?
Nights out photos
Sporting photos
Educational photos
Other...suggest

Analysing front cover of student magazine number 2

Once again it is very obvious that is is a student magazine pointed out mainly by two facts. The masthead at the top of the page reads 'STUDENT ID' so thats a big indication. The second are the pictures of the students to the right of the page, they picture young people having fun which advertises to that age range. It features cover lines going down the left of the page which indicate the main features of the magazine. The layout of the page is based around the graphics down the right side. The masthead dominates the top part of the page as it's circled in a bright yellow colour which grabs your attention, and then cover lines take up the rest of the page to the left. The colour scheme of the cover gives off a summery feel as a light blue and yellow are the main colours that are on view.

Analysing of the first student magazine

Ludlow student magazine

The first thing i notice when i look at the front cover of the magazine is the bright pink pattern that covers the background of the front. It immediately gives a christmasy festive feel to the page, which is suitable as it was released around the christmas period. You can tell that it's a student magazine though by the three photo's that appear on the front, on top of the pattern. These photo's are images of students partying and havin a good time, this is how you can tell that the magazine is directed to teenagers aged 16-19.

Towards the top of the page there is a masthead which reads 'Student iD' which identifies the magazine, this also tells you that it is a magazine for students as it features the word 'student' i the name of the product. At the bottom left of the page there are cover lines which are informing you of the main features of the magazine and encouraging you to open it up and read the content. There is a banner slanted across the front of the cover reading 'Bash Photos' this is in much larger font than anything else and grabs your attention when you are viewing the front cover. This would attract the type of people that went to the bash as they might be excited to see if they have had their picture taken and it's in the magazine.

The font styles that have been used go with he style of the cover banground as they are swirley and the majority are lower case. This fits in with the style as they give it an extra festive feel as well as a sort of girly look along with the pink glittery background.

Action Plan

1st week
1. Set up my blog
2. Research on current student magazines
3. Decide on target age, gender, type
4. Start audience research by constructing a questionnaire

2nd week
1. Continue with audience research
2. Design, by hand, scan and upload the feedback from audience
3. Begin design on computer
4. Plan photos

3rd week
1. Continue designing
2. Complete first draft of pages
4. Collect audience feedback on first drafts

4th week
1. Finish pages and evaluate
2. Check quality of finished product.