Evaluation

Over the time given to me for this assessment I have spent it planning, researching and producing the final piece, a front cover for a college magazine. I had started to begin researching all of the different conventions of a few different magazines. I did this so I could incorporate the conventions used into my finished product. I also used this research to try and find the use of themes within magazines. The magazines I had looked at was mostly aimed towards student magazines. I analysed a British college magazine and an American college magazine. This was to determine any major differences between these two magazines.

After I had finished researching I then moved on to the planning. I began to plan for this by writing out a check-list of tasks. This was based on the tasks I must complete by the end of each day. I tried to evenly spread out all of the tasks around the three weeks given to provide some leeway for my other subjects. Once I had done this I then decided to create various pieces of work to help draft some ideas and ended up creating a mind map for thinking of a name and other aspects of this magazine.

I attempted to include as many different conventions used throughout other student magazines such as the style of the layout was mostly based on the layout of the magazines which I had analysed earlier. For example a both of the student magazines which I had analysed had a large masthead based at the top of the page. I intended to aim this magazine cover at the hard working majority of colleges as I feel that not only is this good for success but having an intelligent looking person on the front of the magazine may change opinions of some people on how they see college life and possibly may join them in there trek for knowledge.

When I began to put together my final cover for my magazine I decided to create each of the images elements individually in a image manipulation program. I started with the mast head however I did not use this particular masthead for the final product as it did not fit in with the rest of the image so as a replacement I created another by creating two layers text one slightly bigger than the other so as it could overlap the other. After this I complied the two together to create a white backdrop over the other text like this:

I had chosen the name “The Wyke College Magazine” for my magazine name by using the mind map I had created. The names I had produced were not up to the standard I was looking for or inappropriate for the task at hand, so I stuck with my first name for it was simple yet sensible. One could say that the name and presentation of the name in the masthead is the most important element due to it's possible ability to capture a persons attention.

If I had a lot more time then I would have done a lot more planning and research than have done for this exercise. I would have also attempted to create a more iconic cover with more original images. In short I think that my magazine cover is quite decent quality however I feel that everything can always be improved so I know that there is many flaws within my work. Such as the title is not as outstanding as I would like it to be however it is a drastic improvement over the last one I had created. I would incorporate more conventions and different techniques into my work than I'm sure that this work would turn out to be a much greater overall piece of text.

Final Products

Here are my final products and the process I did to create them:

 This is the final product which I have created as a front cover for a college magazine.

 This is my final design for my mock-up contents page.

 This was decided as my final design for my magazine cover. I think I followed this layout quite well.

 This bar-code I created by editing a real one, I changed the code and a few of the strips.

 This is the original image I had used for this coursework.

This is the original title I was going to use until I found out that it would not blend with the other content on my magazine cover.

Analysis of a contents page

Analysis of a contents page

I am now going to analyse a contents page for a magazine to find the conventions used within for my contents page mock-up.

This contents page uses media language such as a large masthead, images are darted all around the page and reference to the pages they are featured on. This particular contents page also provides a large masthead with the title “DRUMMER” which I'm assuming is the name of the magazine in this case.

This particular text is a music magazine which appears to focus on the rock genre. It seems to also have a heavy theme with drums which I'm assuming is the primary focus of the magazine. With that in mind I think that this magazine is focused towards the population of drummers. However this could also be a useful magazine for a normal person who listens to this genre of music.

This magazine seems to focus around two colours, red, white and black. This sets a general theme for the magazine which I would like to see through out this magazine.

Design Ideas

Here are all the mock up ideas and planning I have done for this assessment:

This is the first front cover design I did which I find was not as good as my second version which I created in my opinion.

This is the second front cover design I have made I the one of which I have decided to settle on. I have settled on this because I find that this design feels less compact and much more dynamic than my previous one which restricted everything to the left hand side rather than creating an even spread.

 This contents page mock-up is my personal favourite due to again the less compact feeling it generates plus the Gray coloured areas would feature a repeating pattern rather than a direct image, I have gone for this idea because I think that a large bright image within the center of the screen would create a distraction from the rest of the contents page creating a more difficult environment to read in.

This is the second draft or mock-up of the contents page I created. I did this because I wished to create different possibility's for my final design to be based on. This particular version however I did not like due to the more stuffy layout and the fact this text contained a main image for the background the idea I did not wish to follow.

This is the mind map I did to decide on a name for the magazine and for deciding on the cover lines which I will feature on the cover.

LIIAR Analysis of two collage magazines 2

The second magazine I will be analysing is the, “College Lifestyle magazine” I’m unsure when this was made.

This magazine uses language within it in different ways. For example the main image is in front masthead this is to create a strong emphasis on this image being the main attraction of this magazine. However the other elements of this magazine overlap this image creating a nice effect. This allows all the vital information in front.

This magazines institution appears to be from a American college who primarily wishes is to aim at the students of the college however this magazine appears to be made to entertain only. I find this because of the names of the headlines such as “Why We Love Blackberry”. This is suggesting the writers opinion on Blackberry’s.

I find the ideology of this magazine is to provide a way of the students to relax and indulge on such text as this. I think it is a way to provide the readers with a way of relaxing and see the easier way to live in a students life.

The audience for this magazine is the more relaxed population of the college. This magazine does not appear to be created for people who have not been allocated to the particular college.

This magazine represents a multi-cultural aspect of college life by showing an image of a black American within it’s cover.

LIIAR Analysis of two collage magazines 1

LIIAR Analysis of two collage magazines

The first magazine of which I wish to analyse is the, “east riding collage student life magazine” this was produced in 2010 spring.

This magazine uses a few different language ideas such as this magazine cover uses a large outstanding masthead. A think this is to get the readers or potential readers attention on the name of the magazine whilst due to this name also helping across the idea that this magazine is about student life. This magazine cover also contains the institutions logo and name which is east riding collage. This is so that the reader will know who produced this piece of text. This cover also contains an main image of a large group of children who appear to be from the age of 15 – 17 heavily dressed in thick clothing and standing in a snow filled landscape which appears to be a park. Last of all this magazine cover contains a date line and the a line displaying that this is a free magazine.

This magazines institution is the East Riding collage. This magazine appears to be primarily used by the students of this particular collage to inform and possibly entertain. I think this because this magazine is quite bland. It has very few colours mostly black and white. This gives the magazine a formal look however I think that this magazine may also be designed to entertain due to the nature of the image. This image contains a lot of young people in large coats standing in the snow.

The ideology behind this collage magazine in my opinion is mostly based around attempting to get a larger majority of people into education by advertising it as a place to meet new friends and to learn together with them. However this may not be the case this magazine may be using this image to draw in this population of people as a new way to enjoy the through new eyes.

I find the audience of this magazine is for is the population of people who are not currently students and the most logical audience, the students

This magazine repents youths of any gender, it shows a stereotypical image of a group of people know to most as "chav's" this population of  people have been stereotyped to be low life's who wear large clothes and live on benefits such as child support. However this is not the case with most of these people.

LIIAR interpretation of the brief

Language:

The form of media which is used is how a magazine designed for the use of students. The front cover has to include a masthead (headline), a selling line, cover lines, date line, cover line, main image and a bar-code. These are all conventions to a magazine cover.

Institution:

The institution involved in this piece of coursework is the owner of the magazine which would be me. This will influence the final piece by the way I design things such as the layout has to be very geometrical for my liking and will support the beneficial aspects of a students life at collage.

Ideology:

The values which are explicit to me are the life of the student must be given across to anyone that they are here to learn and to better themselves whilst here. The values which are inexplicit are the general work and determination required from most students who what to achieve.

Audience:

The audience for a student magazine is quite obvious, students use this magazine to inform them on future events the prospectus and so on. This magazine will fulfil the needs of the students by providing them with most of the information they need about certain topics in the area.

Representation:

This magazine will represent student life as a way forward, a good way of education. It will intend to look at the good and beneficial results of the student life. However it will exclude the negative aspects such as the amount of work the student must undertake in order to be successful.

Outline Of Brief

The Brief


Preliminary exercise : using DTP and an image manipulating software, produce the front page of a new school/collage magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Also I must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate my grasp of DTP.


Main task: the front page, contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be completely original, produced by me - with a minimum of four images in total.


Presentation of Work
The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation must be in the form of any of these:

• a presentation
• a blog
• a podcast