The brief 2

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

Evaluation of my final product

As part of my planning process for my own college magazine front cover I analysed many other existing products including Vogue and specific college magazines therefore I could easily take in their similar conventions and apply them to my own front cover to make it look as professional as possible. I created mock ups of a magazine front cover, a contents page and a double page spread so that I got a basic idea of how things should look and where the conventions should be placed. I made an initial ideas spider diagram and a mood board to help review different options and I also took pictures of different shot types to find the best option. I also followed the brief closely as to make sure I didn’t complete any tasks incorrectly. As a result of research I came to the conclusion that my magazine should be aimed at college students and their parents.

I used the typical layout of any other magazine and it’s very similar as I used real magazines as a main base for my research so that it would fit with the correct conventions and not look out of place.

I used a photo of a college student in front of a college building to fit the whole criteria and added a feature about her which said ‘Top student goes to Oxford’ which not only explains the reason she is on the front cover but also makes the college look good. ‘Fresher’s party images inside!’ and ‘New York trip’s success’ are also featured on the front as they would be two of the main stories inside the magazine. The masthead covers a small amount of the top of the front cover and is in a large, bold font so it is visible. The colours used are purple which fits the whole colour scheme and makes it recognisable. The date and issue number are placed underneath the masthead and to the left in a much smaller font because they don’t need as much attention. I also added a barcode and price to the bottom right as it’s a main convention to any magazine and can be crucial.

My front cover needed to appeal to all social groups in a college so I tried to add points which each student/parent would be interested in. The colour scheme was selected carefully as it needed to appeal to both genders whereas if I chose pink it’s likely people would have associated it with girls and if it was blue people would associate it with boys. The font is also bold and plain therefore appealing to all social groups/genders.

As I have mentioned briefly I decided the audience for my magazine is college students and their parents as I believe it would be more appealing to those as opposed to anyone else. The features and the fact it’s a college magazine would appeal more to those people rather than anyone else as I designed the whole project on what their preference towards certain aspects would be and what they would be more interested in.

To attract and address my audience I added points that they would find appealing. As many students are involved in the Fresher’s party I added ‘Fresher’s party images inside!’ to attract their attention and make them feel the magazine is appealing towards them. ‘Top student goes to Oxford’ makes people feel ambitious and want to succeed throughout college as many students also have an ambition of going to a successful university therefore using this feature would appeal to those people.

The shot I chose for my front cover was a medium close up as it not only shows the expression clearly on the model’s face but also shows a large amount of her surroundings and her body language. Medium close ups are often used on magazine front covers as they show a clear image of the model and usually if a long shot is used it would be in a fashion magazine so the clothing is visible. I learnt that putting the model in an appropriate place for the photo can add a good effect and link the conventions together therefore my model was put in front of the college building as it’s for a college magazine. The model is smiling which creates the feeling that the college has a good/happy atmosphere and therefore makes it more appealing to other people. I barely edited the actual photo; I only made the model’s face look clearer and changed the folder colour to purple so that it fit the colour scheme. To make the features and masthead stand out and readable I added a white glow around the colours and as a result they didn’t blend into the background too much. Using Photoshop has made editing photos a lot easier and makes them look more professional. The original photo that I planned to use wasn’t appropriate for this specific task as the college sign was visible at the top and therefore made it too difficult to add a masthead and so I decided that taking another photo and using that would be much easier and would fit the task’s criteria a lot more.

As a whole I believe that doing the perfume task made this task much easier as I managed to get practice in Photoshop beforehand and I feel I know how to make a product look more professional. The perfume task helped me understand what is expected of the tasks throughout media studies, what conventions apply to specific aspects of tasks and how to apply them correctly.

If I could make my front cover differently I would maybe add a photo that looked more professional and possibly edit it to make it look a better quality but overall I am happy with my final result. The research put into the product definitely helped a lot as without viewing other examples of conventions I wouldn't have been able to make my own front cover in a realistic way.

Final front cover

Contents page mock-up

LIIAR analysis of a front cover, contents page and double page spread

Language:

Alexa Chung is featured as the main image on this front cover, the shot is a medium shot of her posing which links with her role as a model. This would appeal to many women as Alexa is a fashion icon who is very successful, clever and attractive. Alexa Chung is staring into the camera which makes us think she's addressing us personally and it can give off different ways of how she is presenting herself. The main sell line is 'Alexa Chung's couture adventure' so this makes it obvious her feature in the magazine will be based on fashion. The bold font on the cover all fit the same colour scheme and show the more important parts as opposed to the different font size/coloured font. The reason this is done is because the bold sections are to attract attention and appeal to people more. 'Vogue' is written in the largest font and the 'g' has been covered by the main image, the reason this is acceptable with this specific magazine is because many people already recognise Vogue as the font is the same every month and it's a largely popular fashion magazine. The colour scheme is pink and feminine which links the magazine to women automatically. The date and price has been placed to the top left of the magazine and is much smaller compared to the other text. The reason for this is because they want people to focus more on the other features and not necessarily notice the price.






Ideology:

The ideology of this magazine is mainly based around wealth, fashion and a higher social class. The reason this is so obvious is because the magazine is quite clearly a well-known fashion magazine which is published all around the World. The models are often sophisticated women in expensive clothing which indicates the magazine is aimed at women with large amounts of money who enjoy fashion. The main image is always of a celebrity/model which makes us feel the magazine is genuine and popular.














Institution: 

Vogue is an American fashion magazine and it's clear that it's largely successful, this is obvious by the fact they have been publishing since 1892 in America and went on to publish monthly in 23 other countries. The editor of British Vogue is Alexandra Shulman who writes an editors letter in each months publication of Vogue.
Many different brands are published in Vogue and a large amount of the magazine is designer brand's advertisements.

Information found from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_(magazine)
and the Vogue magazines.











Audience:

Vogue is a very upmarket and expensive magazine full of articles about designer clothing therefore the target audience is more likely to be young to middle aged women who have large amounts of money. Vogue is a very popular magazine and so would also appeal to people interested in fashion and as it contains a large amount of advertisements, it could appeal to media/photography students. The people who model for the adverts in Vogue are usually well-known and popular in the modelling industry therefore the magazine is appealing to people who are fans of the specific model.














Representation: 

The cover model of this specific issue of Vogue is Alexa Chung who is often linked to the magazine as she's a contributing editor at British Vogue and is well-known for her modelling and fashion. She fits the representation well, is appealing for people interested in fashion and makes the magazine seem trustworthy as she's a very popular celebrity. The colours work well with the clothing that Alexa is wearing as the text is very visible in comparison to her neutral colours.



















Language:

The masthead to the Vogue contents page fits the similar position of what is on the front cover and is also very bold and visible. We are told that it's a contents page but that isn't as visible as the masthead which gives us the idea that it isn't an important feature of the magazine. A large image is shown of what is likely to be featured inside the magazine which makes the contents page very similar once again to the front cover. A small section of the contents page is dedicated to the cover stories and it shows what page numbers the articles on. Page numbers are an important convention to a contents page as they're needed in order for specific articles/stories to be found easily. Another section shows all the other stories and their page numbers featured in the magazine. At the bottom of the page is a small promotion towards Vogue which says 'Subscribe to Vogue' which would be aimed at people who often buy the magazine.









Ideology:

The main image shown is of a women posing in clothing that is likely to be expensive and in fashion at the time of the publishing for this issue. The clothing is very revealing which can be taken differently by each person. The wealth and social class is clear from this page as the features shown are often for women who can afford expensive clothing.

















Institution:

 

Before a magazine is published it has to go through the editors so they can review specific aspects and see it is up to the standard of what they want. This page would often look similar throughout each month's publishing of Vogue as it isn't a large part of the magazine.



















Audience:

Vogue is likely to be aimed at young-middle aged women who are interested in fashion and therefore this page would be appealing and helpful for them to find exactly what they're looking for quickly.




















Representation:

The representation is very similar to that of a front cover as the title is large and there is a main image to fit with one of the articles. The colours stand out against the plain background and make reading it a lot easier. The reason an image has been put here is to link into the magazine and explain some of the main features.






















Language:

The layout of double page spreads are often very similar and contain an image on one side with a small description and the main story to go alongside it. In this case the story opening is to the left of the page and the main image is on the right but goes slightly over into the left page. Usually an article will only get a double page spread or more if it's a useful or popular topic. Vogue often make double page spreads of the celebrity they have put on the cover and this appeals to many people. The font is quite plain and simple which can mean that the photo takes most of the attention.






Ideology:

This specific article seems to be about what supermodels wear after their workday, so this would be aimed at people who are interested in fashion and how supermodels dress when they aren't having photos taken. Vogue is mainly for higher class women so this article may also be promoting certain clothing styles.











Institution:

Double page spreads are often written by different journalists who work for Vogue and the whole magazine would have been run through the editor before publishing.















Audience:

The audience for the whole of Vogue magazine is young to middle aged women, people interested in fashion and possibly journalism. This page would especially appeal to aspiring journalists as they would study and read carefully through the articles to review the techniques used.













Representation:

A model is shown doing some form of exercise in this image which implies that the article could be about what clothes can be worn whilst relaxing/working out. The photo seems very sophisticated and set in a calm place which gives the effect of relaxation.

Mock-up of a double page spread

Unused images

Digital mock-up of a front cover

Initial ideas spider diagram

Mood board

Examples of shot types

Two shot: A two shot is when two people are in the frame and usually either conversing or showing something that the audience need to see between the pair.

Extreme close up: Extreme close ups aren't commonly used but when they are it's often for showing extreme detail and emotion.

Wide shot: The person/ object takes up the whole frame, for example if it's an image of a person then you will see their whole body and body language. 

Mid shot: A mid shot shows less detail to the emotions but adds more of a person's body. It's usually a shot of the person from their waist upwards. 

LIIAR analysis and existing products research

I looked at these three magazine front covers for inspiration and ideas when creating my own front cover.

Language: The main image is relevant to the magazine as it's a student from the college campus and it contains many connotations including the relaxing atmosphere of the college that the front cover implies. The colour scheme seems to be mainly red and blue with additional black font and green from the background, this makes the magazine appealing to both genders as they're suitable colours. The model is stood smiling in an open area which implies relaxation, open opportunities and happiness. The headline is in a large, red font which attracts attention. 

Ideology: The attitudes, beliefs and values of this magazine front cover are to be appropriate and useful to the student readers and inform and educate about the latest events. The colour red is used often which could signify passion towards the college and her subjects. The girl has been placed in a field with only trees around her which could indicate open opportunities from the college. 

Institution: Either the students or teachers at the college. 

Audience: The audience for this specific magazine would be students or teachers at the college.

Representation: The student on the cover is portrayed as happy and relaxed which enables parents/teenagers to get an idea of how the college may make you feel as a student.

Language: The photo on this front cover is of a man holding Law textbooks which indicates the kind of courses available at the college and they make the college look more academic and professional. He looks casual and relaxed which gives the college a good outlook. The layout, subheadings and colours show that the magazine is suitable and relevant for both male and female students. The layout isn't too formal either which indicates what audience the magazine's aimed at which are teenagers.

Ideology: This college magazine and all other college magazines need to come across as serious about learning but also show that it can still be an enjoyable experience, so with the casual clothing and happy/relaxed look it gives the college a good image.  

Institution: Either the students or teachers at the college.

Audience: The audience for this and all other college magazines would be students or teachers at the college.

Representation: The background to this front cover is black which makes it look simple but props like the college textbooks are added to show what the magazine/college is really about. This reflects on how the college feels about their subjects and portrays them as being serious about them. 

Language: The photo shown on this cover is a famous artist that many students may have heard of, therefore it would appeal to many of them. The colours of this page are coordinated and although the blue is rather dark, the yellow text lightens it slightly and makes it more visible. The layout/design is very informal which implies that it is aimed at teenagers.

Ideology: This front cover wants to appeal to students and so they used a celebrity as their main image because many people will know who he is and therefore want to buy the magazine to see how the celebrity is linked to their college. 

Institution: Either the students or teachers at the college.

Audience: The audience for this and all other college magazines would be students or teachers at the college.

Representation: The image shows the celebrity as laid back and happy which would appeal to teenagers and possibly encourage them to buy the magazine as they may be interested in what's going on in the celebrity's life.

Each of these magazines are very similar as they're made by the same institution. The colour schemes on each magazine are very bright which can link to happiness therefore implying the college is a happy place to be. Each front cover has very similar fonts for their mastheads and sell lines but the colours vary so that the colour scheme matches and the magazine will be recognisable throughout it's publishing. The first and second front covers include students as their main images which shows that the college like to get students involved and that they are the main feature to the college and its progression. The third magazine front cover has a celebrity as it's main image which can appeal to students if they enjoy that specific music. All of the models on the photos seem happy which reassures people that the college isn't a stressful and terrible environment. 

Conventions analysis of a magazine front cover