Magazine design

School magazine front page and contents page

School magazine evaluation

Our task was to create the front page and contents page for a school magazine. My target audience was 6 formers. To find out what they wanted in it in and to see if it would see, I created a questionnaire. This was so i could get ideas of what cover lines i would use and what articles i would use inside on the contents page. Now i knew what people would want to read about, i could start coming up with ideas for the front page and cover lines. I then had to come up with a name and I choose connect. I through this would be good because connect could mean that the magazine connects with the people in the 6 form and I didn’t sound too childish. I think I have attracted my target audience well but I think I should have used more adult like fonts and possibly have included more adult themes like safe sex.
I have leant that planning a task like this is very important as it helps you think about what you need to include and what features should be used. I have leant that when you design a magazine it is important to come up with a drawn version of it first so you can see what it may look like and then decide what changes you think it would make it look better. Doing this task, I have learnt allot about using programs such as macromedia fireworks. This means that when it comes to producing the main music magazine I know more about fireworks and how I can make it look better and get a better grade.
I think that my product is quite well designed because it doesn’t have more than three different colours on the front page or the contents page. I think that the colour of the writing over the picture of road runner could have been a different colour as it is quite hard to read what it says. I think putting the yellow writing over the black was a good decision as it is easy to see and quite pleasing on the eye. As my magazine was a Halloween special, I think that having the masthead designed like it was, was a good idea because the cob webs give it a scary feel and you can easily tell that it is a Halloween special. I think having a USP (unique selling point) was a good idea as it would make the magazine more attractive to readers ad people who are not sure if they would want to buy it. I think that if the front page had more pictures on it then it would look more attractive.
In the contents page, I have stilled stayed with the same colour scheme as this makes it look neater and more attractive. I think that I have got the right amount of pictures on the contents page because if I had to many then I wouldn’t be able to fit all of articles on and if there was any less then it wouldn’t look as good. I have stuck with the three colours scheme and still using the same scheme as the front page. I think that the picture of Miss Brookes in the bottom left hand of the page could of been bigger and more clearer.
In the main task I will make sure I do allot more planning and will make sure I ask a bigger sample size when it comes down to my questionnaire because then I know what more people want rather than just what I think looks good. I will also make sure that all the colours all blend in well and that everything is still easy to read.

Questionnaire Graphs

Questionnaire

Before I created my magazine, I needed to do a questionnaire so I could see what people wanted. The questions that I used were:

1. What gender are you?

Male___ Female____

2. do you think a six form magazine is a good idea?

Yes______ No_____

3. What would you like to see in the magazine?

_________________________________________

4. What magazines do you normally read?

________________________________________

5. Would you want it to come out...

Weekly_____ Fortnightly____ Monthly_____Every Half term____ Term_____

6. What regular features would you want to see?

_________________________________________

7. Would you pay for it?

Yes____ No____

8. Should it include competitions?

Yes___ No____ Maybe____

9. Should it include house events?

Yes_____ No____ Maybe___

10. Should it include a quiz page?

Yes____ No____ Maybe

I asked twenty people and i asked 11 boys and 9 girls as i wanted to make my sample size as non-bias as possible. Out of the 20 people I asked 86% said that they would like a six form magazine. When I asked what would you like see in the magazine the post popular answers was interviews with teachers and gossip. As I was creating a school magazine I thought that gossip wasn't approperat for a school magazine but thought that including interviews would be a good idea. I felt that gossip was to lower class when i was trying to aim my magazine at a higher class. When I asked if they wanted it to be weekly, fortnightly, monthly, every half term or every term most people said that they would want it to be every month and I also thought that this was the best way to do it. This way would also be the most cost effective as it would only have to be produced once a month.

Regular features that people wanted and kept coming up were, horoscopes and cringe stories. Once again I didn't think either of these topics were suitable for a school magazine and decided to leave them out. When I asked if people would pay for it, 100% said that they wouldn't so to make it more popular I made it free. When I asked if house events should be in there, no one said no but half the votes were yes and half were maybe. This meant that I decided to put in house events because I feel that they would be a popular feature.

Magazine Names

To create our school magazine, I needed to come up with a name that was exciting to read and stands out. My target audience was to six formers so i didn't want a name that was to kiddy. I came up with three possible name that were: Break Time, High Times and Connect.

I through Break Time would be a good idea because every school has a "break time" and in your break time, you could read "Break Time". Also it is quite simple and easy to remember. The reason why i didn't choose this name is because I thought that it was to formal and i wanted to relate more with the people in my six form.

Another name I was thinking about is High Times. this name would be good because in six form you need to aim "high" and you will be at the "highest time" in your education. Also the word "high" is related to drugs and if you read this magazine then you could get a natural "high". I decided not to go with this name either because i felt like it was to formal and once again, didn't relate to six formers enough.

The last name i thought of was "Connect". The reason why this would be a good name for a magazine is because it was short, catchy and easy to remember. I also has thought of a good strap line for it as well. this was "Connecting, with you". this would make people more involved in the magazine making them more likely to read it.

Magazine research

Our first task was to create a school magazine. This was our preliminary task. At first we looked at two diffrent magazines. The two magazines I compared was Men's Health and Health and Fitness. The reason we did this was so that we could tell what makes a good front cover and so we could get used to the types of terminology that we would be coming across in this AS course.

The first magazine that I will be talking to you about is ‘Men’s Health”. The main image on this magazine is of a mid twenties man who is wearing a plan t-shirt and some jeans. The shot is a mid shot as you can see his entire torso. the man’s head is over the masthead which also shows that he is the main focus point of this magazine. The motto for this magazine is “you. Improved”. This shows that you could be like the men in this magazine if you improved your life style. The main cover line is “Fight fat & win in just 3 days a week”. This shows that the main article is about how to get slimmer and possible look like the man on the front.

You can tell that this is a men’s health magazine because nearly all the cover lines are about how men can look better. Also the name of the magazine gives it away. Although this front cover brakes the rule of only three different colours it is still easy to read it all and still stands out. I think that the main reason this is still easy to see is because the background is white. As this is a plan colour, you tend to focus on the not so plan colours so although you can see four colours as the main colour is white it is not so obvious.

This magazine looks at similar issues as Men’s Health but this is aimed at women. This magazine is called “Health & Fitness”. The main image on this Health and Fitness is of a woman in her early twenties again. I think the main reason why health magazines are aimed at mid twenties to late thirties is because that is when your body is at its peak. The picture covers up a tiny bit of the masthead but it still means that you can see all the title. The main cover line is “Beach Body Blitz”. This show that it is a summer issue and that the magazine is going to tell you how to look good on the beach for summer.

This magazine has only got 3 main colours so it is another feature to show that it is well designed.