School/College Magazine Conventions
To make our school or college magazine first we had to analyse some previous magazines and work out what the conventions are of a typical school or college magazine.
School/College Magazine Analysis
First of all we analysed some school magazines that we found on the Internet.
To make our school or college magazine first we had to analyse some previous magazines and work out what the conventions are of a typical school or college magazine.
School/College Magazine Analysis
First of all we analysed some school magazines that we found on the Internet.
The audience for all of these magazines is teenagers who attend school or colleges, they are both unisex magazines which will appeal to both boys and girls. The age gap is dependant on whether they are at school or college but all of them are in their teens.
How do they appeal to their audience?
They appeal to their audience by using a lot of bold colours and no dull shades and they use a lot of puffs so that you can see the main cover lines. All of the cover stars are people who attend college or school or people that would appeal to this audience, all of them feature people who they can relate to.
They appeal to their audience by using a lot of bold colours and no dull shades and they use a lot of puffs so that you can see the main cover lines. All of the cover stars are people who attend college or school or people that would appeal to this audience, all of them feature people who they can relate to.
What types of stories do they cover?
With stories, all of them will relate to someone at their school or college so immediately people will be interested in the issue and want to read what's inside the magazine.
With stories, all of them will relate to someone at their school or college so immediately people will be interested in the issue and want to read what's inside the magazine.
What typical names?
All of the names are something related to college or schools, they are all something that relate to the audience and something that they can embrace.
What layout and colour conventions do they follow?
They all use bright, bold colour schemes with a puffs and bold, eye-catching cover lines. The main focus in all of the covers is the main image and also the main cover lines.
Initial Ideas
Some of the things I would like to feature in my school/college magazine are:
- I will use bright bold colours to appeal to a young audience.
- I will feature a young school/college student to appeal to other people who attend the school/college.
- I will include a large masthead with a catchy, short name.
- I will include cover lines that will appeal to people at the school/college, stories and interviews with teachers and students.
- I will make sure that there is a reoccurring theme throughout the cover and contents page, using the same font, colours and layout.
Planning
In order of what I have to do and when I will have to do it, I will:
- Create drawings of my initial ideas.
- Develop my ideas and use all of the typical conventions of school/college magazines.
- Take photos for my cover photo and contents page.
- Crop and edit main cover image.
- Add title and cover lines onto the background image.
- Create contents page background and add list of content.
Final Product
Cover Page
Evaluation
How closely did you stick to your planning? What were the challenges in doing this?
I didn't stick to my planning very closely as there was a few problems along the way that I didn't expect which meant that I was behind on time along the way with all of my actual making of the magazine. I stuck to my plan in terms of ideas for the magazine and what I wanted my outcome to look like but my timing was off due to problems with my photos.
Did you find the planning helpful? Why?
Yes I found the planning helpful because I knew what I wanted to do, how I was going to do it and when I wanted to have it done by. I would have found the planning much more helpful if I had planned my time better in case of problems along the way but without the planning, my magazine cover and contents page wouldn't have been as successful.
How did you find the process of finding and cropping your original image?
I didn't find cropping the original image difficult as I have had experience with Photoshop before and I knew how to crop the image, it was the editing I found more difficult.
How easy was it to manipulate your image using photo shop?
I found it difficult to manipulate my image on Photoshop as I hadn't had much experience in doing it before. I wanted to crop the model out of the image which I found easy but I wanted to change the size and position of the image which became confusing because of layering. The overall process wasn't too difficult but would have been better had I had more experience with Photoshop.
What have you learnt from the process about creating covers and contents pages?
I now know how to use Photoshop more efficiently and I have learnt what a school or college magazine needs to attract the correct audience. I know all of the magazine terminology and what the conventions are of a school/college magazine.
What would you do differently next time?
If I could do the magazine again I would have a better understanding of Photoshop first so that I could stick to my plan more efficiently and have less time for other things. Also I would make a more detailed plan and stick to it so I knew exactly what had to be done, when it had to be done by and how I would go about doing it.
