Final design and Evaluation

To conclude and sum up the whole of my magazine front cover design, I feel that in the end the final design didn’t come out as successful as I would have hoped and does not exactly attract the target audience I was looking for. The use of the slang for the masthead of my magazine worked well and I found was effective for the target audience, aiming at children, as it suited the purpose and the use of slang is associated with young people/teenagers and it reflects in their socialect outside of school with other friends and peers. It gives off a ‘cool’ effect for pupils and it looks attractive for the students. Although the masthead is effective for my target audience, the choice of images on the front cover I feel maybe didn’t work as well as they could as they do not attract younger children. The pictures placed on my front cover were of students at the school either working, looking bored or they were pictures of views of the school. If I was to make this more successful for my target audience, I would have to include pictures of students around the school looking more interested, or images of students being active around the school. This would attract students to read the magazine more and draw them into the magazine making them want to read on as the pictures will interest them and could also inspire them to try new things within the school (depending on what the pictures are of and what the students are doing). Another thing which didn’t quite pull off and attract my target was the colour of the background and also the text featured on the page. The background wasn’t as effective as although I tried to keep to a house style, keeping to the school colours and considering the colours of the new school uniform, it just didn’t come off as effective as it hardly attracts the target audience once again and it makes the front cover look rather dull. It also adds an element which looks as though I’ve targeted my  audience at parents of students (internal and external) when really it was meant for the opposite (being students from the school). Furthermore the text also doesn’t work well as it looks very dull and the headlines are not very, interesting not attracting teenagers and students. I feel that for a student targeted audience the headlines need to be sharp, and powerful attracting the students immediately, rather than having headlines which are not so interesting and boring which may not attract students. The text isn’t very bold and also doesn’t stand out very well; this means that when students glance at the magazine they take no interest into the text at all and miss reading it as it hardly stands out and catches their eyes. For me to improve this aspect of the magazine I would need to have clear, bright, catchy headlines standing out immediately and drawing the reader in which could include giving off a dramatic effect to the readers. Having a dramatic effect on the text draws readers immediately and shows interest to the magazine almost straight away.

        My magazine wasn’t all bad. Some aspects did work and were effective on the front cover for my target audience. Like the norms of a typical school magazine I placed my headline at the top of the page with the logo directly next to it; however it overlaps over the ‘Z’ in ‘MIZ’. This was effective on the front cover of my magazine as this was a norm of school magazines and it was immediately readable, stands out clearly and also immediately associated with the school. As already mentioned the ‘MIZ’ headline was effective for the target audience due to the slang used but the logo was also effective as it stood out clearly overlapping the Z and making it clearer for the reader to link the magazine straight to the school. The logo being clear means that anyone looking at the magazine can immediately see that the magazine belongs to ‘The Misbourne School’ as this is their school logo and it is obvious to the reader that it links clearly. Also sticking to the norms of a school magazine I stuck to a house colour. This meant that I stuck to the school colours and gave the magazine a house style sticking to the school colours throughout the magazine. Using both colours of the uniform reinforces the change in school uniform as they have changed the colour of the school shirts to light blue rather than navy blue. Using the red for the backgrounds of the masthead and footer helps to show that half of the school still wear the old school uniform and the background of the whole magazine being light blue shows that the other half of the school are wearing the new uniform. The house style used in my magazine I feel is quite effective as it helps to show the two sides of the school at the moment. However the background being blue isn’t as effective as my target audience would not find this interesting and would be turned away by the dullness. It is effective in some ways but not as effective in other ways.  

    In part of my design I went against the norms and defied convention in my school magazine by placing a footer at the bottom of the page. Although I went against the norms but applying this aspect to my magazine, I feel that it worked well as it includes the school slogan (once again reminding the reader that the magazine belongs to the school) and also the date and issue number. Although the slogan may work by connecting the magazine to the school, the issue number isn’t as effective as school magazines don’t usually produce issues and the typical school magazine does not include this on the front page. I also defied the norms by not having one massive main image which fills the page and then a few small photos. However I did have a larger image than the smaller ones, I just used lots of little images instead of a large one with a few small pictures. Having lots of smaller images didn’t work aswell as they didn’t stand out very well and didn’t draw the reader. Although having a larger image doesn’t have as much to look at, it stands out better and draws the reader in quicker as it is bolder and bigger for the reader to see. Lots of little images do not stand out well and it is hard for the reader to view each photo easily. Sometimes trying to defy conventions doesn’t always work well. 
 
   Overall I am quite pleased with my final design and feel some aspects of the magazine really work well for my target audience. However, whilst analyzing my magazine I have found feature which haven't worked so well for my target audience and overall haven't really had a huge effect in making my magazine successful. I gave used peer assessment and my own judgement to come up with these improvements and if i was to complete the task again then i would change these aspects and do them differently so that my magazine works well and would see well to students of the school.

Contents page mock up for school magazine

My contents mock up page for a school magazine: 

Magazine Design

Peer assessment

For my peer assessment of my deisng layouts, I got Sian to assess and feed back to me. This is what she came up with:

Design layout 1:
I like the fact that you have intergrated your formatting research wihtin your mast head, you looked at what worked on other school magazines and used it on yours.
The colours are great as they are not too overwhelming and represent the school colours as well, they also appeal to both parents and students because the school colours allow everyone to regonise the magazine and the Misbourne's.
However, i think as all the pictures are the same size, you cannot get a clear understanding of what is the most important picture and whether it is related to the articles inside your magazine. I think you need to have a variety of sizes for your pictures to keep your audience interested, it allows them to also have a knowledge on what is your most important mode of address.
The fact that you have a the school's logo at the top of your page give your audience a clear veiw of who the magazine is for.
The amount of text you have is minimalistic and suits its purpose, it is not too overcrowding so all the information within it will easily come across to the reader.

Design Layout 2:
I like how you have improved from your last design layout with the amount of pcitures used, from this we also now know that all the pictures used are important towards your magazine. It is good that you kept with the house style because it is simple yet effective. The mast head is bold and aesthetically pleasing, it is easily understood towards both parents and students. If your magazine is student based the mast head can suit this as it is quite fun and large. This publication is more well designed than the last one. The logo intergrated with the title work very effectively as it defies the stereotypes of a normal magazine yet it is still proffesional.

Self evaluation of layout design:

Layout 1:

The header of my magazine is an aspiration of the norms of a school magazine. I placed the header at the top of the page as this is what I found was normal for school magazines and it is placed boldly in large writing. I have also used bright colours as I found school magazines which aim their audiences at students ofthe school, they use bright colours to attract the children encouraging them to read the magazine.

   On my magazine I used a variety of images include a large main image on the front of the magazine. The use of large images and a variety of images shows that I have targeted my audience to students of the school attracting them with the large images and engaging them wanting them to read on as the pictures engage the students as it is pictures from their school and they want to find out more about the pictures and what is going on in the school. 

     From our research I could collect information from the general school magazines and realise and analyse which aspects are part of the norms for a school magazine. In my progression to planning my school magazine I took aspects from what I had analysed and used these in my magazine, such as house style, placement of images and headers and placement of text. Also the amount of text used on the front page and what kind of things written about on the front page.

Layout 2:

Like layout 1, I have placed the header at the top of the page as this I found was a norm of general school magazines. I have also placed the logo next to the header as I found this was also a norm, and it helped the audience to recognize the school clearly and see which school the magazine belongs to. The Masthead of the school being next to the logo makes it effective as it is easily noticeable for others to acknowledge the school. I have also made sure that I have kept to a house style making sure that the colours stick to the colours of the school making it all flow nicely and link with the school. With my magazine I kind of went against the conventions of a school magazine ad I placed many pictures on the front cover in rows of 2 and columns of 3. This went against the norms as I used lots of little pictures whereas on the typical school magazine it showed a large image and then some small images around the front page. However I felt that this would come off effective for the target audience as I is aimed at students of the school and having a variety of images would draw their attention quickly wanting to view the pictures closer up and continue to read about the images. 

  To attract my audience I felt I neede lots of colours and exciting pictures on the front of the magazine to keep the students interested and want them to read on. I used colours of the school to link with the magazine, however I made sure that these were bright enough to draw attention to to magazine for children. The use of lots of images also helps to draw in students attention as the variety of images makes the reader want to view these images closer and to also read on about what the images show. However the images must be interesting and eye catching to attract the reader and keep them engaged.

   From the research that we did I discovered using a house style on magazines was effective as it helps to link the school to the magazine itself. I also found that the use of images for a student audience was important as this is what kept them engaged more and more likely to read on. The lack of text on the ground cover and around images was a common thing as it was noticeable that children and students did not like reading lots of writing on the front page of a magazine unless it is really interesting and catches their eye immediately. I used this aspect on my magazine as I want to keep the reader interested and not get bored easily. 

Layout designs 23/09/13

For today's lesson we had to make 2 basic layout designs for our school magazine on the programme of InDesign. The layouts are very basic and with no great detail on so it is easy to see how the layout is going to be set up. One of my designs is slightly better and improved than the other. I evaluated and used peer assessment to make my first layout design better. My next post will explain my self assessment of my work and show the feedback that I got back off of others. 

Layout design 1:

Layout design 2:

Evaluation of Format Research

From looking at other school magazines and analyzing each one and picking out effective devices, we learnt which aspects were found on the stereotypical  school magazine. Here are some of the things i found for the different subheadings:

Colour- I found that from the format research that all of the magazines that I analysed linked their colours with the colours of the school uniform. This stuck to the house style of the school linking the colours of the magazine to the school. I found that this was a stereotypical aspect that most schools used for their magazines as it helps the audience to realize what school the magazine is actually for.

Masthead- I found that the masthead on all of the school magazines, except one, had it at the top of the page and out of the way of the rest of the magazine. Having the masthead at the top of the page means that they can include more information on the rest of the front cover as if it is in the middle. It also makes it look more professional and suits its purpose well. Some magazines, without the masthead at the top of the page, broke the norms of the stereotypical magazine and defied convention by placing the masthead in the middle of the page or somewhere else. As long as this works well for the magazine, then it will be effective overall. However it doesn't also work to fit the purpose of the magazine and it doesn't also work for the target audience.

Main image- I found that on most of the magazines, the main image was of direct mode of address with a person (usually a child of the school) facing the camera. A few magazines had the main image facing side on with the turn of the head towards the camera. This, I found, was a norm of stereotypical magazine and it works well as there is direct mode of address facing straight at the camera and directing at the audience.

Text- I found that the norm of a school magazine with text is that there is a lack of it, and hardly any text on the front cover. If there was any text, it was usually about results or good things within the school promoting it well to the audience and children/parents at the school. The text seemed to be basic and very straight forward, with short simple sentences being easy to read for the audience.

Tuesday's Media lesson with Miss Gingles

In Tuesday's media lesson we used In Design for the first time and we started to get used to the programme. To get used to using the programme we started to design the front of out magazine but it was only a rough copy and a plan to help us to get used to the programme. We are not actually using this plan for our pleminary task.

Monday's Media Lessons

On Monday we had two media lessons, one first period and one last period. In the first lesson we started our second piece of research for the magazines and got onto work filling out the rest of the boxes. Then in the last lesson we started to plan our own school magazine and took our research of whioch aspects were found in the normal school magazine and applied these aspects to our own plans. We worked in pairs and I worked with Katie to design our magazine. We didnt include any pictures on the plan as we haven't yet decided what out pictures are going to be of. We also didnt write any text as we are unsure of what text we are going to include for the moment, however we did place lines where we will put text on the magazine.

Format research 3

This is my last format research for magazines. For this magazine I picked a primary school magazine to compare the different types of magazines. This helps me to have a range of ideas for my school magazine and which aspects are suited for the different audiences.

Audience: The target audience for this magazine looks as though it may be for parents of the students at the school as the magazine looks as though it is written for a primary school with younger children. Children of a young age would not be reading the school magazine as they may not be able to and it looks to formal to catch their eye.

   The target audience for this magazine is shown through the main image, using a picture of innocent, young children showing that children of the school would not be interested in reading the magazine. If they were going to aim the magazine at children at the school they may use brighter colours catching their attention and giving dramatic effect. They would also use simpler words in the text, and they wouldn’t write as much, with simple short sentences. 

Text: The use of text is not used as much on this magazine. However the text that is used on the magazine at the bottom explains to the reader what the children should be doing outside of the classroom. The use of white writing, once again, stand out to the reader and the placing is effective as it is at the bottom of the page, meaning the picture is still read easily.

  I think that on this magazine the writing was very effective and well placed and so in my own magazine I will take ideas from the text on this magazine. However I will include more writing with more information about the school and what the children are doing at the moment.

 

 

Main image: The main image used of the young children at the school is effective as it shows them being innocent and young, in their prime and enjoying school. It shows that they are happy at the school and shows the audience that the school has a happy atmosphere. It is also effective as it helps to stick to the target audience being adults as it shows that children would not be reading the magazine as they are so young. The colour of the door in the picture reflects with the colours of the children's uniform and helps to stick to the schools colour theme of red, grey and white.

   Although the image is effective in the way that the children look happy in the premises, it also looks as though the children have been set up in the picture. Children of their  age would not naturally be doing this, they would usually be playing and doing their own thing.

   If I was to do a magazine for children at a primary school my main image would include children doing their own thing instead of having a direct mode of address with the children staring at the camera and set up for the magazine.

 

 

Masthead: The masthead used on this magazine is effective as it sticks to the colour themes of the school. The schools school uniform is white, red and grey. The colour use of white and red in the title helps to link with the school as it sticks to it’s themes. The colours of white and red are also associated to primary schools so using these colours help to remind the reader that it is a primary school. The use of red background with white writing helps the title to stand out well and add dramatic effect.

Format Research 2

This is my second piece of format reserach for 'St Mary's School'. I chose this magazine to do reserach on as it had a different taget audience to my other magazine that I reserached and did it so that I have a range of different magazines with different target audiences and purposes.

Audience: The target audience presented for this magazine are parents of students of the school. This is shown through the formality of the front cover of the magazine and the use of khaki green used for the main colour and background of the front page. The use of Khaki green shows that it is aimed at parents of students as it is quite a dull colour not catching the attention of younger students and not standing out for children. This gives it formality and a posh aspects revealing that the school may be for more privileged children with wealthy families.

  The use of header picture is formal and aimed at older people as it includes older people in the picture and standing around something which looks quite important. The people in the picture show important people within the school and the background of the image looks as though they are in a posh place either within the school or out of the school. This once again shows that the magazine is aimed at more wealthy families as it conveys an upper class image.

Text: On the front of this school magazine there isn't any text giving information about inside the magazine and it is very plain with only the schools logo on the front cover and name of the school. This relates to the audience of the magazine as it makes it more formal and keeps the target audience theme to parents of students. Although this is effective in the way that it keeps it to the formality of the magazine, it is also not as effective as it doesn’t give any insight of the magazine and so people may be less likely to buy the magazine as it gives no information about what is inside and it may not appeal to them.

 

 

Image: The school magazine presents a variety of images across the top and the bottom of the magazine. The top of the magazine shows a picture of older people standing around something which look important and like an achievement. Like previously mentioned in the audience, the picture looks as though it is placed in an upper class building representing that the school is well off and for wealthy families. The four bottom pictures show children interacting at the school and taking part in activities. This helps to show to the audience that the children can take part in lots of different things at the school and what looks like extra curricular activities.

 

 

Masthead: The masthead of the magazine for the school is simply just the school logo. Having the school logo as the masthead with its school symbol above the masthead shows clearly to the audience that the magazine is for ‘St Mary’s School’. The parents from the school are immediately shown that the magazine is specifically for the school and it is obvious for the reader that information inside the magazine will be about the school.

Thursday 12/09/13

In Thursdays media lesson we were taught some more terminology helping us to analyse different magazines and give us a wider range or words to use which will get us the marks we need for the exam. We then looked at an example magazine and how someone had analysed the different aspects of the magazine and what they had written for each terminology e.g masthead, strapline, mode of address, barcode, main cover line ect.
    After we reviewed this as a class and looked at the example, we looked at 'heat' magazine and in pairs we analysed each of the terminology mentioned and took the magazine apart explaining why each different aspect was used. We then shared what we came up with to the rest of the class and discussed the things that were used most and the reasons for using them.

Analysis of a front cover of a school magazine

Our task today was to analyse the front cover of a schools magazine and pick out the elements which were effective and which were not so effective so that when we come to make our own magazine for the preliminary task we will know which aspect to include.

'Chosenhill' magazine is the school magazine i chose to analyse. I found that there were quite a lot of negatives about the magazine and elements which weren't very professional and effective so this made it easier for me to write about as I could pick out things which were negative and these things I will choose not to include in my own magazine.
This is what i came up with analysis wise:

Audience: The target audience conveyed for this magazine are students attending the school. This is shown through the use of the main image being the young boy in the school uniform showing that he attends the school. I could also be aimed at music students within the school. The sub-headline used advertising ‘The rock band house music’ presents music events within the school and advertises activities for the children to attend at school. It also offers house choir for other music students. The constant use of music advertisements reveals an element of ‘Chosenhill’ being a school talented in music, or music specialised school.

Text: There is quite a lot of text used on the front cover, on the right hand side. This includes brief information about music information for students at the school. There are different sizes of fonts used, however the subtitle of ‘Head Boy’ is in larger and bolder writing making it stand out for the reader more and catching their eye. It looks as though the designer of this magazine has tried to stick with the colour themes of the school and the uniform using whites and blue for the writing. However this doesn’t work very well for the writing and isn't as effective as they don’t stand out very well and make it hard for the reader to view. The use of the colour yellow helps to stand out more with one section of text and they should have used the yellow more often in the text to make it stand out more and easier to read.

Masthead: The use of the headline ‘Chosenhill’ being in white reflects on the colour of the uniform and sticks with the colour theme of the school with the constant use of white. The letter ‘I’ being dotted with yellow and the letter ‘O’ being filled in with red doesn’t look as professional as the rest of the magazine as it looks like what a child may do with their headline if they were making a magazine. It doesn’t look very professional and it doesn’t fit in with colour theme of the rest of the school. The colours are quite random and look out of place.

Image: The main image is the head boy posing in his uniform in front of which looks like part of the school building. Using an image of the head boy on the front of the magazine, gives the magazine a main headline and makes it seem more interesting. It can also show that the because this boy is head boy and on the front page, it shows that he is willing to work and is helpful around the school. However, the boy used in the picture seems to looks uninterested in school, posing with attitude and his uniform being untidy. This contrasts with the slight information given in subtitles on the cover as they describe his as being head boy; connoting to a hard working student willing to help out. Whereas in the image, the boy looks the complete opposite and as if he is trying to impress other students as the school being ‘cool’.

The image used does not work for the magazine as the student looks uncomfortable standing like this. It is although the school has set him up to represent that the students within the school are laid back and friendly, however the image doesn’t work as he looks uncomfortable and out of place. I think that they should have used an image of students naturally working at the school, looking comfortable and doing what they normally do rather than what the school wants them to do. This would come off more effective for the audience as it would look more realistic for the school and will show the audience what the school actually does, rather than putting up a fake photo. It would be more realistic and believable for the reader. 

Monday's media lessons

09/09/2012

On Monday we had 2 media lessons in which we studied different school magazines online and discussed with others the aspects and different things which were included. We discussed which aspects of the magazines were successful and which were not as successful. In our second media lesson we then discussed with others in the class what are the typical elements that different magazines include and the typical format of a schools magazine.

My Preliminary Task

My preliminary task for AS media uis to create a front cover for a school magazine. Before we begin making our magazine we will me analysing different magazines to figure out what is common in successful magazines and analyse the different fonts, layouts, colours, audience and appropriate images used in each and apply these to our magazine to try and make ours as successful and professional as possible. This means that we will be looking at the negative and less successful aspects of other magazines and choose not to use these in our magazine as they will not be as professional. I am working in a pair with Katie to create my preliminary task and we will take different qualities of each magazine looked at and apply these our own if appropriate.