College Magazine-Task 4

Evaluation

I think that this task was successful and that I successfully applied the conventions of a college magazine. While doing my research on college magazine I learnt what was typically found on the front cover and contents page of a college magazine and how they are usually laid out. I followed these conventions to make my magazine seem as professional as I could. I have used a photograph of a student aged 16 on the front cover as he is dressed like a college student would and is of a college age. He is the only image on the front of the magazine as when researching I found the majority of college magazines only had one image on the front, typically being of a student. I have text on each side of the image, not covering the students face. The text consists of short headings about what is inside the magazine. I think I have chosen good topics to put on the front of the magazine. I based these topics from what was wanted from the audience of my questionnaire. As my magazine is focused for students I thought it was important to have subjects students would want to know about. I also learnt that the front cover shouldn’t be too busy and full of text. While doing my front cover I began to add too much and it looked crowded and unprofessional. However when I made it more simple it looked more inviting to read and more like other college magazines on the market.

For my contents page I looked at how other contents were laid out. I learnt that most content pages have a column referring back to what is on the front cover, then a second column about the rest of the magazine. I then did this for my contents page. I used the Henley college logo on both my front cover and contents page to follow a house style. I also used the same colours so that the two pages look like the actually belong to the same magazine.

While doing this task I learnt about the colour wheel and how to use it. This also helped me when picking colours and will in future tasks.

If I was to do this task again, I might change the image on the front cover from black and white to colour to make the cover brighter and stand out more. I would maybe change the colours to see if any look better on a colour background. Also on the front cover I would maybe try to make the left third stand out more so that when on the shelves it doesn’t just blend in with other magazine. With my contents page I don’t think I would change much as I like how it looks.

College Magazine- Task 3

College Magazine- Task 2

I choose the first draft layout of the front cover as this allowed me to have the main image covering the whole of the front cover. It also had more writing options on it as I would just print text over the main image.

I choose the second draft for my content page as I liked the image being at an angle. It made the page look more interesting and the picture then wasn’t covered by writing. I left out the advertising so that there was more room for the content text. Also the advertising would have ruined the professional look of the page.

 

College Magazine- Task 1 Research

Evaluation on research

From my research I discovered that most first year students did not know where to find a college magazine however would purchase one. Both first and second year students would like to hear about food with the college and about deals within other shops in Henley. They would also like to hear about road closures and anything that would affect their journey to college. This topic may apply to older students more as they are more likely to be driving themselves to college instead of younger students who may catch a bus. Only some students would like to hear about sports enrichments. The students that did enrichment were the ones that were interested in reading about enrichment in a college magazine. Second year students mostly wanted the magazine to be informal and to include information on road closures and different ways of travelling to college. Also nearly all first year students also wanted the magazine to be an informal style.

This information has affected my decisions on what to put on the front cover of my college magazine. As the front cover is the first thing students see before buying the magazine, I will need to put topics that will interest them. Therefore I will have topics such as food, sports and road closures. My magazine will have an informal style as this is what most students said they’d prefer. Majority of students said they didn’t know where to find a college magazine therefore hadn’t brought one before.

While analysing other magazine covers I noticed a pattern of how a typical magazine is laid out. Also there was not much writing on the front of the magazines I analgised as the front cover is meant to be a main image with a simple overview of what the magazine includes. The pricing of the magazines tend to be fairly small to not put people of buying them. However if there was a promotion or sale of the magazine then the price was made more obvious.

Preliminary Task- College Magazine