Research & Planning: Preliminary Task

Initial Ideas

For my college magazine I want to target it at adolescents aged 16-20 years old who would be interested in the latest news, gossip and upcoming events that are happening around the college. I want the magazine to be very interesting and intriguing with the sort of topics that a younger audience would actually want to read and that would useful for them. Some ideas for the magazine titles are on campus, student life, college life and college campus.

Proposal

The magazine cover that I am going to create will be quite formal with a Serif Font to represent the formality and intellect that is necessary for college life an idea I have for the actual font is Minion Pro. I will title the magazine 'On Campus' as it's a simple and easy title to remember and is a pretty good summary of what the magazines purpose actually is, I discarded other ideas because I felt as if they were too direct and boring. The magazine will be aimed at adolescents aged 16-20 years old who would be interested in the latest news, gossip and upcoming events that are happening around the college, as briefly mentioned before. The contents of the magazine will be very relatable to student issues therefore can help them out, I would also like to entice my audience by giving away certain deals and vouchers as I know that the target audience would be very attracted to that. In addition, the contents will include a lot of general information about the college like any ongoing news and upcoming events, as well as this, gossip will also be briefly mentioned as this is also a very attracting subject to this target age. Coverline ideas that I currently have include things such as fashion trends, beginners help, exam information and tips, issues with students like bullying and money, free discount codes and vouchers for around the college, trip plans and general information. I will plan the magazine to be published in October 2013in A4 so that it can include seasonal events for winter as well as beginners tips, the magazine will be monthly so that it can change for the events during the month. For the image on the front cover I want to show a student happy and on campus to again link the with the title of the magazine as it's a clear representation of the students life and the college itself, the colour scheme of the front cover should be linked to the photograph I end up using and match the colours well.

My Magazine Cover 

This is the photograph that I chose to use for my front cover; I chose this for my front cover because I like the composition of the photograph as it will allow me to include the coverlines on the right with a lot of space as well as having overhead space which will allow me to place the masthead there. I also think this image is very representative of my magazine as it is based in college and features a student looking particularly happy with a smile on her face which is something I particularly wanted to show the atmosphere and positivity of students and the college as a whole therefore it will be a lot more appealing to the audience as a student which is relatable to them is featured in a positive light. The only thing I dislike about this image is the colours going through as pink is a very bold colour and I didn't want the magazine to aim towards females more than males as I wanted the magazine to be equally appealing to both genders.                                    





This is the start of my magazine I used the font Minion Pro Bold for the masthead to make it stand out as this text was quite thick, I also made it white to contrast with the background so it stands out more, I like the font I used because I think it's quite formal and reflective of the seriousness and maturity that students obtain when going to college and is also reflective of the lifestyle and atmosphere at college as it is an environment which is to be taken seriously as it carries you onto further education and career paths.  I also added a puff to the corner to attract the audience as the lack of money in a students lifestyle would appeal them to this puff as it offers something relatable to the audience as money is a problem that students face therefore by adding this puff it will attract students to pick up the magazine as it is something they would want to read. I also added a barcode and issue date as I felt this was appropriate for it to be a magazine, I decided on monthly issues as there is a lot to talk about and a lot of information to get across as well as the magazine being able to alter itself to fit certain months.


I decided to change the colour of the puff to stand out more against the background and make it more attracting to the eye so it is drawn to it and more likely to read it and want to pick up the magazine. I also made the masthead bigger as I felt it wasn't big enough and I wanted it to be more prominent and easier to read. I also created another coverline to go with my other one, the newer one appealing to those who have issues with money, which is a lot of students therefore relating to my audience and covering articles that would appeal to them and are relevant just like my other coverline relating to revision tips, with which I added a number in a bold orange/red shade to make it appear as if I am offering a lot of information to the audience.

I then decided to make a selling line for my magazine to give an overview of the purpose of the magazine and to cut to the chase for the short attention span of many teenagers which I have put in a bold colour as well as outlining to make it easier to read against the background. I also then finished the coverlines which I have related to college gossip relating the 'Coffee House' which I thought would appeal to this audience and specifically the female audience which are big gossipers therefore will most likely want to read the article, as well as this teenagers as a whole being really nosey may want to know what is going on in the college. I also added another one relating to clothes because I know that students struggle with this therefore it's another coverline that would appeal to a wide audience as they would be interested in these subjects as they are quite interesting compared to being quite boring and dull just dishing out information. I ended up outlining a lot of words throughout the coverlines so that it was easier to read and more likely to be read.

This is the finished product after all my changes and edits that I have done to the cover. I finalised it by adding another puff with the price on it implying that the magazine is incredibly cheap (which it is) and enticing the audience even further.
I think that the finalised cover for my college magazine ended up with something that I am actually pleased with, the magazine does look quite busy yet in a way that isn't too tacky or overcrowded so that you don't know where to look and the puffs are appropriate sized in which both of them are seen quite well and aren't too obnoxious. The only thing that I wish I could change is possibly the colours running through the background picture as they limited the colours that I could use throughout my text as I didn't want to match them with the pink clothing too often as this would have made the magazine look way too towards the female audience and I wanted it to apply to both genders, because of this factor a lot of the outlines of the text in my coverlines clash a bit and make the magazine look a little less organized however on the plus side the variation in colours relate to the audience as it is quite 'hip' and 'cool' as it is very colourful, and also with all of the colours it makes the magazine appear that it is not aimed towards any gender and makes the audience quite broader.

Contents Page

This is the start of my contents page, I have included features relating to main articles which relate to the coverlines that I put onto the cover as I used these as main articles and wanted to publicise them further as I feel they would spark up an interest. The contents page will be mainly pictures which I haven't put on as I didn't have this available to me, however the outlines shouw that overall the pictures cover the majority of the space and will be the attraction to the contents page. I made the colour of the number text blue because even though this could be interpreted as more masculine I wanted this to contrast with the pinkness on the front cover and make the magazine appear more unisex and not aimed at one particular gender.

I ended up extending the image behind the contents title because I think eventually this will look better and more organised as the page will then flow a little bit better as the layout looks a lot neater and matched. I also added a banner at the bottom to appeal to the audience again and added a line to briefly sum up the page too to save the laziness of the audience. I also spaced out the numbers more as I didn't want the main features to get tideous to the point where my audience would lose interest and not read features further along the list.
I like the look of my contents page, even though there is no images I think that it is easily to visualise what it would like. If there were to be images on the page I would have the ones that are numbered relating to each particular article and clearly reflecting the topic of the subject that is mentioned as again I feel this would clearly identify the topic and it is easily recognisable what the article will be about. For the image behind the 'Contents' title I would have a long landscape of the college which would make a good background for an ongoing background for the contents page for the article as it is clearly reflecting the magazine. I like the layout of text and number as I think this will be really easy to read and I like the simplicity making it easy to scan. I think the only thing I am not happy with is that I was unable to collect images for this which would relate to articles without it looking really mis matched as I would have only been able to collect a few photographs however the boxes do make it easy to visualise. I think I would also have a background, even though the pictures take up the majority of the space I think it will make the contents page look more eye catching, but other than that I am really happy with the page.