Evaluation

I have learnt alot whilst producing my High Life magazine.
I think the overall look of my magazine was successful, I liked the continuity of the house style and the use of photographs. I thought doing a questionairre to students was very effective and helped alot with issues such as pricing.
If I was to do this task again I would not use Microsoft Powerpoint, I found the programme easy to use and quick but when my front cover and double page spread were printed the quality was not as I wanted it. I would also do more research of student magazines too see what kind of articles they feauture.

High Life Content's Page

Construction of High Life Content's Page

High Life Front Cover

Construction of High Life Front Cover

Colour Testing

Evaluation of Data

Looking at my questionnaire and my results I have found...

• 12/ 30 people would like their school magazine to be a music/ entertainment magazine.
• They would like the magazine to be published weekly. 
• My peers are willing to pay £3+ for my school magazine. 
• My audience want competitions to enter for possible prizes in my school magazine. 
• People favoured lots of pictures in a school magazine
• They would like to read about upcoming events in school in the magazine. 
• Students are interested in an 'Agony Aunt' style letters page.

Following this research I have decided to create a weekly magazine, costing £2. I am aware my audience were prepared to pay £3+ but offering the magazine £1 cheaper creates competition with magazines they may buy outside of school. The genre of my magazine will be music/ entertainment, I will include both inside and outside school entertainment. I will include competitions such as crosswords and quizzes to win prizes to be presented around school. Including information on upcoming events around my school will as well as local quizzes, letters from students etc. will keep the student magazine personal and close to the subject of the school. I think this is something students will be really interested in, it also offers new opportunities for teachers to advertise revision classes, prom meetings etc. in the student magazine which I think will be appealing for both staff and students. 

Student Magazine Questionnaire

1) What is your favourite type of music magazine to read?

Music/entertainment                 Gossip                         Lifestyle

2) How often do you read magazines?

Everyday                                Weekly                          Monthly

3) How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine? 

50p - £1                                £1-£2                           £3+

4) How often would you like the magazine to be released? 

Weekly                             Monthly                            Seasonal

5) Would you like the magazine to have competitions that you are able to enter? 

6) What attracts you to buy a magazine?

Pictures                Titles                                 other

7) What do you least like about magazines?

8) What is your favorite part of a magazine? 

9) Do you like they're to be lots of pictures in the magazine? 

10) Would you like there to be a page where you can write in letters? 

11) Would you like the magazine to display up coming events?

12) If the magazine were to display upcoming events would you like their to be reviews on them?

Font Testing

Example – This is a font called School House, I like this font for a school magazine because it reminds me of writing using this format as a young child, yet this may be an issue as it may be too childish. I think it is also quite hard to read, especially with a lot of text written this way. To conclude, I may consider using this font for large writing e.g. title’s because it is fun and has connotations of school life.

Example – This is a font named MonaLisa Solid, this is an old fashioned font but could be quite interesting to use as it is quite different to the everyday Times New Roman or Arial. I like this font as it is stylized yet it does not make a huge impact so would not be appropriate for title’s but would work well for large blocks of text.

Example  – This is a font named Rosewood, it is modern and eye-catching font which is reminiscent of the circus. I think this font is too dark to use on my student magazine and it also bears no relevance to school life.

Example- This is a font found on the iMac’s named Monaco. It is a font similar to Comic Sans yet it has a modern twist. I understand it is not very eye- catching but with it’s modern edge I can see it working for large amounts of text in my magazine.    

Vogue Front Cover Analysis

This is an example of a September issue of British Vogue. Vogue is a magazine marketed at a largely female audience who are prepared to pay into one of the largest fashion magazines in the world, to learn about new high- end fashion.

Everything on this front cover is colour co-ordinated from the eye- catching pinks of the subtitles, to the title of the issue and down to the net of the models dress. The colour palette used for this front cover is black, white and pink. I really love the simplicity of the colour co-ordination, it looks professional and stylish (surely everything that this magazine wishes to promote.)

The title 'VOGUE' takes up a large proportion of the front page and the same editing technique is used on this September issue as Vogue use a lot. This is to cover up the 'G' of Vogue with the model's head. Because Vogue is such a largely recognisable name, they can get away with this- without confusing people!

The text/ subtitles on this front cover, frame the model. This makes the model the most important element of this front page. Vogue is a fashion magazine and I think they are trying to show the importance of the clothes using methods such as: framing the model and clothing and colour co-ordinating text with the clothing. The text alternates from pink to black which again makes it look stylish and proffesional.

NME Front Cover Analysis

This front cover is from the New Musical Express magazine, or NME. This is a magazine targetted at teenage+ audiences with an interest in a certain type of music. It is aimed at a different target audience than other music magazines eg. Kerrang because of the type of music it supports and holds articles on.

We see the main colour palette chosen for this weeks edition of NME is white, pink and black, everything in white,pink and black has relevance to the main cover story '10 YEARS OF THE STROKES' Contrasting with the black and white photograph, the text really stands out and is eye-catching.

The use of simplistic font and large bold text allows the reader to easily scan the page and immediatly judge the magazine. Everything on this front cover is outlined by simple, shapes eg. the black outline around the image, the exact circles with text in them. The simplicity of all of these things lets us concentrate on the much more detailed photograph and the surrounding text does not detract from the photograph and the main focus of the magazine.

We get more of an insight into the magazine with the banner along the bottom reading:

'PLUS INSIDE: THE KILLERS * KLAXONS * VAMPIRE WEEKEND'

If you see this on a stand in a shop and you are interesting in the bands on the lower banner, you will be intrigued to read on/ flick through the NME to find out what the magazine is saying about them. While flicking through the magazine you might see another article about a band you have also heard of, this will lead to a sale of the magazine, and is a very clever advertising technique.

I really like the use of a black and white image on the front of the NME as I think it makes the text stand out and for the layout to look simplistic and stylish rather than overcrowded and garish. It is something I would definitly consider when creating my own front cover. I like the small colour variation also, but I think the use of pink, no matter how stereotypical, would possibly put off male readers. I also like how only one image to represent one article has been used as the 'cover story' (again something I would consider.) But, if you see this in a shop and you have no interest in The Strokes you may not even consider picking it up and looking at the other article's inside, this is a risky marketing technique.

Preliminary Task Introduction

I have now recieved my AS Media preliminary task which requires me to produce a front page of a new school/ college magazine and produce a mock up layout of the contents page.

Firstly I will need to consider the following criteria:

• Who is my audience? I have decided to target my magazine to Sixth Form students who are mainly aged 16- 19. 
• How will I attract my audience? The image I use on my front page will be crucial to the impact of my final design, it must be strong to promote a professionally edited final outcome. Elements such as colour and text choices will also be carefully chosen to be appealing to a young adult. The language on my front cover will have to be chosen appropriately for the age range, it must be eye-catching and interest people from the offset.
• Will my magazine be gender specific? With a magazine, that if produced would only be circulated to a small demographic, I think it would be foolish to ignore half of the consumers by making my magazine gender specific.

Shortly I will have to consider:

• The contents of my magazine- What is my magazine going to be about?
• My cover photo- This image must sum up the entire contents of my magazine simply.
• My house style- What colours, shapes and fonts will remain constant?
• Text for front cover- How will the text accompany the image? Minimal or maximum text? What type of language will I use: informal, colloquial, slang etc?