Main Task - Research and planning - genre and magazine research.

This is the original draft for my powerpoint of my Genre Research for R&B music magazines.

Prelim - evaluation

Preliminary college magazine task - Evaluation

I found this task enjoying overall, because it gave me experience in making of a magazine, which allowed me to experiment with Photoshop and the use of a camera. It has helped me to recognise the conventions of a magazine, for example the cover lines, issue number, barcode, pug and so on. Also it has helped me understand the thought process behind the magazine making process, for example the connotations behind things, in order to be relevant to the target audience and what your trying to portray. For example, in my magazine, the model has bags under her eye on one side, to connote the stressful life of a teenager doing their studies and the other side of which looked healthy as her skin was glowing, which shows an organised student with less worries.

 When constructing my magazine ideas through the sketching process I thought it would be easy to take the image, however I made the mistake of taking a picture of them not behind a plain background, which made it hard to erase the background around her hair, therefore it looks obviously photoshopped, which is hard for it to be taken seriously. Although in the end I learnt what to do and what not to do when taking the photograph of my model.

The colours on the magazine that I used were red, black, blue and white. Therefore showing they are gender neutral colours, meaning it is suitable for both genders because they both attend school.

To conclude the task helped me prepare for the main task as I can now be aware of potential errors if I repeat how I have made this college magazine.

Prelim - Feedback for College Magazine

After showing my magazine to the class, this is the feedback i got


Student 1- Said that they liked the way i cut the face into half, one of being a healthy glowing side (stress free) and one being the opposite with bags under her eye (exhausted and stressed). This gave a good representation of students lives, therefore making the magazine relatable.


Student 2- Stated that they liked how i incorporated a textbook like background with the lined paper for my contents page, therefore made it clear that it was suitable for my target audience (students). Also this design looks original and creative, which links to the name of the magazine "Aspire".


Student 3- Claimed that the colour scheme wasn't included throughout the front cover and contents, therefore making it look unprofessional and not following the conventions of a magazine. Also the use of photoshop made the image look unbelievable because it was cut obvious around the models hair. So in future i should use a green screen or a colour similar to the background i am choosing in order to avoid this.

College magazine contents page analyses

college magazine front cover analyses

Prelim - student magazine photoshoot

Questionnaire for college magazine

Questionnaire for college magazine

Q1:Do you prefer information on…

1.   Social activities you and friends can do

=2

2.   Benefiting your education, e.g. revision tips.

=4

3.   Benefiting your health

=4

This response has made me choose two main topics to include in my magazine. I will demonstrate this by having two sections in my contents page, on of being “thinking of you” of which will have topics, such as how to stop smoking because this relates to health, and at this age teenagers start to experiment with smoking and their parents may not agree with it. Also by having a section called “thinking of your education”, which will include topics such as how to write a great UCAS personal statement, which will benefit their education.

Q2: How many times do you read magazines?

1.   Weekly =8

2.   Once/twice a year=2

3.   Never

This response is good because now I know that magazines are popular amongst my target audience, therefore they are going to feel more inclined to read it.

Q3: Which gender do you think stereotypically prefers doing schoolwork?

1.   Male=2

2.   Female=8

This is useful, because the model for my front cover needs to be a role model for the perfect student, so its important for my target audience (students) to recognize someone who is more likely to be enthusiastic towards school, so the magazine is believable and relatable.

Q4: How many times do you revise a week?

1.   1-3 times  =7

2.   5+ =1

3.   Never =2

This is useful because it shows that some people aren’t sure on how to revise efficiently, therefore need help to find a suitable strategy, this means I can add stuff into my magazine to help this, such as revision tips proven to work, e.g. writing things in different coloured pens to help memorization.

Q5: How many times a week would you like to revise?

1.   1-3    =3

2.   5+     =7

3.   Never

This means that a lot of students would like to do well, therefore they have the capability, but just need the right help. This is useful as it helps to get a average view of a students mindset, because its not that they don’t want to do well, but just don’t know how to, therefore it will be most useful to use lots of tips within my magazine.

Q6: Does having the right equipment give you more motivation, i.e. at the beginning of the school year are you excited to start and do well, because you feel prepared?

1.Yes=10

2. No

This is useful because It has given me an idea, that to encourage students to do well, I can include a Whsmiths £10 voucher to spend when receiving a magazine, this is also suitable as students are always trying to save money and work on a budget.

Q7: Do you ever feel stressed about college?

1.   Yes =10

2.   No

This response has shown that school impacts mental health, which can restrict students from doing their best. Therefore I can include ways of de-stressing students, which may help them improve their grades and mental well-being.

Q8: Do you smoke?

1.   Yes =4

2.   No =6

This high number has shown that teenagers may be turning to smoking because of their stressful lifes of peer pressure.

Q9: Would you like to quit smoking?

1.   Yes =4

2.   No

This has made me think to include a how to stop smoking guide in my magazine, to help vulnerable students quit this bad habit.

Q10: What do you want to do when you leave college…

1.   Get a full time job

2.   Apprenticeship  =5

3.   University  =5

This is useful to know, because now I no to include help on how to write a great personal statement for UCAS. As these students will need to do this and can find it helpful as students struggle.

designs and sketches for student magazine

Today i will be becoming familiar with photoshop, by experimenting on a face i found on Google, in order to make the girl look more tired/stressed through her appearence.

In order to gain this look i used tools such as the burn tool, as this comes off with a slight dark tone, therefore i used this to make her look tired under the eyes, because students stereotypically are tired due to the long days waking up early and going to bed late because they are studying. 

Before                      After

This is the idea i have in mind for my magazine cover, however I'm going to create this in real life using makeup on a model to make one side look tired/stressed and the other side looking radiant and healthy, this connotes that students can changed there stressed tired lifes by informing them on tips to do so, throughout my magazine. This relates to the magazine name 'inspire' because my student magazine is there to help the students become better mentally and physically so they have a positive mindset through college.






This is the masthead for my magazine, i used this simple yet sophisticated clear font because it connotes that the magazine has easy tips to achieve a better college life.

Preliminary task print .

Today i will be planning my layout of my contents page, i will be doing things such as looking at other schools magazines contents pages, to gain inspiration.

I'll be looking at this kind of content page layout and the way they combine their colours.




I'm interested in the fact that the magazine shout have used the same colour for the font of magazine name, numbers of the pages and as a border for the images. I think this is important to create a theme/identity for the magazine so people recognise the company, therefore i will also do this for my magazine.

Inaddition i like the colour white for the background colour, as it looks clean and not busy. Which is important because this is where lots of relevant information is placed, therefore this doesn't put people off reading because there is to much going on or hard to read, due to the colour fonts on the white background because it makes it stand out within the contrast.

Preliminary task - 4 college magazines annotations