Evaluation

Before creating my magazine cover and contents page, I did research into the use of certain devices in creating a real magazine cover and contents page. I found that other student magazines included information about the college so I decided to include revision tips and latest news in and around the college. I also found that my front cover should have a large image of something relevant to college so decided to use a student from my college to model in a basic manner for my cover. I thought the basic pose would make the magazine seem informal, friendly and quite laidback/casual.

I tried to focus very specifically on the target audience of students. I understand that within students, there are many different social groups so I tried to keep it broad in that sense. Taking this into consideration, my aim was to make the magazine seem light and friendly, young yet serious enough to appeal to the age group. I also included items that would attract to all students and relevant to their current lifestyles, no matter what social group they belong to. Being a student myself, I thought to make a magazine that would appeal to me and my friend group and others that I knew.

A local media institution would distribute my magazine as it has specific articles to one specific college. I chose to do it in this way so that the magazine would appeal more to those students as it is personal and relevant to their lifestyles. Therefore, they are more likely to want to buy it. However, I think that the magazine could be distributed nationally as long as the content is adapted appropriately to each college.

My audience would be college students aged 16-19. I think the magazine is mostly unisex but by the nature of some of the items with mainly females in the articles, it may appeal slightly more to females. Items such as, ‘exclusive interview and photo shoot’ with someone are often seen in women magazines such as Closer.  

My front cover attracts the audience by using colours and the main image. The masthead is very bold and the name will hopefully become very well-known so the masthead will be the first thing that is noticed. I also responded to my questionnaire research and aimed to make my colour scheme sophisticated and respond to what my peers had said they would like on their magazine. Also, the image is informal and friendly which would make students want to read the magazine.

I have used new technologies that I have not used before such as InDesign. I found InDesign very easy to use for this project and it made the planning and making of the cover and contents very easy. I found it easy to navigate around the software once I got used to it and it was perfect for the tasks that I needed to do.