Evaluation

My magazine was called ‘Student Social’ as it is primarily aimed at students who are very social and wants to know what is happening in and around Worcester. The fact that it has the word social in the name of the magazine instantly attracts people who are social people drawing them into the magazine and as it has student in it as well it shows that the magazine is aimed at students, targeting my main audience of social students. The font and style of the masthead isn’t amazingly attractive to the audience as it is quite subtle in the way that it is in quite a regular font, this is because it is quite an easy title so its not the only thing that catches the audiences eye on the cover of the magazine as I wanted the stories about what was in the magazine to appeal to the audience more as then they would feel more obliged to open it and read on, however the background of the masthead changes from the background of the picture to black squares; and as the writing is bold and white the occasional blackness makes the ‘social’ stand out a lot more;  the black and white feel almost gives a strobe light affect which then attracts people who like to party as it’s like an on-off colouring thing, again linking it to a strobe light, or some other sort of disco lighting. This technique is followed through to the rest of the magazine as a lot of the magazine has different colour squares giving the magazine an edgy feel to it, appealing more to the more edgy people, who are hedonists and just want to have a good time.

The cover star on the front of the magazine is a usual every day student which instantly draws other students in as she isn’t somebody who has been made up to look ‘perfect’ like some celebrities are on other magazines such a vogue, which makes a relationship with the audience as it makes them feel like they can relate to her. She is smiling in the picture which also makes her more welcoming; the sun is lit specifically onto one of her eyes and her forehead and as she is looking directly at the camera this brings a sense of welcoming to the audience as she look very friendly.

She is wearing a red clip on broche which relates to the colour theme of red black and white which links her to the theme of the magazine much more, and makes the magazine look quite smooth as everything flows quite nicely; maybe making it easier and more enjoyable to look at. The colour red itself brings a sense of danger and excitement to the magazine cover and so this colour suggests the magazine will be an exciting read, it also shouts out to my audience as they want to have a good time, being dangerous or outrageous; and as it’s a social magazine it will tell people what there is to do around the area in order to be dangerous and outrageous. The contrast of the white and black and red is also quite effective as it jumps from one colour to the other quite quickly, this could suggest that my audience are young and free as the different blocks of colour are quite big and bold, maybe suggesting my audience are big and bold characters, relating them more to the magazine, hence will make the magazine more linked to them, jumping from different colours can also represent the disco lights theme again, which makes the reader think of parties which is initially what the magazine is about; and for people who like to party, so this is linked more towards my audience there as well.

Throughout the magazine cover as a whole, the main colour theme is orange, black, red and white, I chose these colours as although you could say that black and white are very standard colours, I think that with the bright colours of red and orange it contrasts very well to add a very modern feel to the magazine cover. Furthermore, the orange and red contrasts in itself as these two colours are very similar, yet contrast quite well. The aim of the modern feel to the magazine is so that it appeals to the audience and is quite eye catching, which will then mean they then go on to read the stories, selling more copies of the magazine, which is initially the aim of the game in the industry.

The stories I used for my magazine cover are much like most other student magazines in that they are related to students very well, for example one of the stories is about learning how to drive,  as seen in the image to the right, it is highlighted by the fact that there is a ‘L’ plate to start the sentence, which instantly makes people think of driving, and as the age that you can start driving is 17 many 17 year olds are thinking a lot about this and it will appeal to a lot of students; as it is also a competition, this makes the reader want to apply for it as they can get some free lessons, meaning the magazine will help them in some way, financially.

Other stories include ‘what’s on in Worcester’ I think this is one of the most effective pieces of the magazine cover as the different colour outlines make the writing stand out very well; and the red and black together make the reader think of excitement, yet danger and thrill at the same, they are also slanted in different directions which can suggest that there is information all around Worcester about different things, from the good clubs to go to, to the nearest theatre, again attracting the audience to know what’s going on in the city.

In the stories the fonts vary quite a lot so that the cover never gets boring to look at and it makes it quite interesting for the viewer who will hopefully then go on to buy the magazine. There are some bold words, such as ‘win now!’ and this along with the exclamation mark adds a sense of urgency to the competition, making the customer more excited to sign up. Some of the other stories are written in a more italic style writing, for example the ‘Laugh out LOUD’ I did this because ‘LOL’ is what people usually say in a more slang sort of speech, and as this is a student magazine and students speech includes a lot of slang, so if you look closely the laugh out LOUD, when looking at it downwards, says ‘loL’ which then enhances the Loud at the end, encouraging people to read on as they are really funny jokes, making them laugh a lot, or as said: loud.

Technology

To make my cover, firstly I used the internet to do my research about what other students magazines have in and on them, such as stories, features and designs. I then used my own digit camera and put the pictures onto the computer using the memory card; I then uploaded the photos into Photoshop and started designing the cover of my magazine. All the types of technology I used were very useful, for example putting the pictures onto the computer by putting the memory card into the memory card drive in the computer, and then saving them onto the computer took about five minutes and so the whole process was very quick and efficient. Photoshop was also very good to use, as I have used it before in my Media classes at school so I already knew the background of the programme, and inserting writing, cropping and editing are all very easy to do, in a very effective way.

Photoshop was used in many ways while making my cover magazine, the most effective and helpful thing that it offered was all the different layers as it enables you to change things that are maybe underneath something else, yet to be able to keep the thing on top. Especially after naming my layers it was a very easy way to get around all the tools and things that happen in Photoshop.

Blogging helped me keep track of the work I did easily and quickly, and I enjoyed working on there; the only problems where when uploading things to the blog, is that whereas I do a lot of work in word and you need to upload things onto the blog in a JPEG (well this is the easiest way to upload things) and so sometimes it was confusing print screening and then cropping and then saving just to get the writing into the format that could be saved onto the blog. However, when the work was finally uploaded, it was presented in a clear way, and the research and the work that I’d done was easily accessible and easy to change or add on.

The technology used didn’t confuse me as I’m quite familiar with most of it, although I wasn’t with blogger, however it’s not overly complicated and so it was easy enough to catch on quite quickly.