evaluation of college magazine

As media college magazine
Michaela Marson

By analysing and researching college and main stream magazines, I have managed to make a front cover of a college magazine, and a mock up on a contents page.
I will be explaining my techniques and reasons behind them.
The main conventions of a college magazine are; There is always a main image in the centre of the magazine. There is always subheadings letting the target audience know what the magazine is about and contains. I have both the main image and the subheadings around the magazine. I have related my magazine to the genre. E.g I have article-subheadings that relate to my college magazine. Magazines also have a big bold title, usually situated at the top of the magazine. This is so when it is on the magazine rack you can see the name. I have “Wyke” as my title in bold at the top left of my magazine. The colour is yellow so that it stands out. I later added a strip of yellow to the bottom this was because the title was yellow and at the top. The name is Wyke so the buyers clearly know what college this magazine is for. I have used different types of fonts and colours, this is to highlight some more important articles and break up the colours across the magazine. I also put the website www.wyke.ac.uk because most magazines have a website as well on their magazines.
For my front page I have used a variety of different styles and techniques and equipment. I used a digital camera to take all my photo’s, some of which I didn’t use for various reasons. Such as they were at the wrong angle, or the wrong scenery. For my background I used the Ash building in wyke college. I made the photo brighter by using brighten and contrast. This gave it a more focused picture. For the main title I used yellow and made it bright and bold. I used drop shadow to make sure it doesn’t blend in with the background. For the subheadings I used different fonts and mad some italic and some bold. This is to make them stand out more. I didn’t add the photo of me on until abit later, I used brightness and contrast and cut out the photo using Photoshop. To make it look more realistic I blurred the background of Ash building so it was slightly out of focus. On the mock up of the contents page I used a picture of “Wilson” building. I realised this was to bright for a background of a contents so I used the washout tool to make it less harsh. I then used an orange border, this was the same as my front page.
To make my magazine I used Photoshop to edit my photo’s and then imported them into Microsoft publisher. This is were I did the mock up of the contents and set it out into a magazine. I first used a camera to take the pictures and a blog to record everything I did. I researched using magazines from google and anylising them.
I thought it was easy to use Photoshop once I was used to were everything was. I think I used my time well in making my blog and doing work on paper as well. I looked and made various plans of my magazine and analysed before I made my magazine.

pictures i took for the magazine

my college magazine

stages of my layout

This was my first front cover, but i hadto use a person so i used the picture above.

plan magazine

these are the plans i did on paper of what i wanted my magazine to contain.

plan "splash" layout

This is a breif layout of what my magazine could look like when it finished. I did this quickly in paint, i will be doing my magazine in photoshop, using the photoshop video to help me.

photoshop magazine

This youtube video will help me make the front cover of a magazine.
I will use photoshop to help me edit my photo and then transer it onto publication were i will edit therest of my magazine.

target audience

all magazines need target audience. their advert also has to appeal to there target audience. If a magazine does not define their target audience they will have huge problems designing & promoting their magazine.

The target audience for a college magazine
- Teachers
- Students
- possible future students who might want to have a look at what thec ollege offers
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advertisements for magazines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvbVNv7i2qY

This is an advert for heat magazine.



This is an advert for sky sports magazine.

High street compared to college magazine.

'Heat magazine'

This magazine (heat) is high street market. It's full of low brow celebrity news aimed at 15-25 ish. The layout is different to the one below wich is a college magazine. You can see by the busy front layout that its there to grab your attention. "publicity stunt" is written in yellow with a bright red background to grab the readers attention when this magazine is on the shelf.

The name "heat" fits the type of magazine. Its like saying we have hot gossip. A big picture of Petre Andre and Katie Price is slightly off centre but the main image, because the magazine knows they are the main attraction in that particular week. The "publicity stunt" clearly referring to them.

'My College' Magazine

This magazine is very less busy than "heat" in the one above. Its more simple and organised. Representing what students would want in college life, to be organised. Its showing a relaxed aproach to the magazine with the girl listening to her ipod and resting on some books. The books signify college work.

The way "my college" is written is asif someone has written it neatly on the magazine. There is very few colours and the background are very suttle blends and tones. Wereas in Heat the colours are very bright and chaotic. "My College" have used orange as a bit of bright to attract attention to the magazine but kept it still quite suttle. "class of 2009" indicates that the magazine is very modern.