Evaluation

 

This is my final design for my magazine front cover. It looks like what I have planned on paper and my mock up layout so I am happy with the layout out of it. It keeps to the simple layout that attracts parents. We set out to make a front cover that is not too busy but includes the main norms of school front cover magazines. We took some of the feedback from our peer assessment task and changed the cover lines like our peers suggested. Instead of spreading them out across the bottom we compacted them together however I think that it didn’t quite work. The three cover lines that we included don’t really look as professional as I would have hoped. So if I was to do this again I would revert back to my main plan and have the cover lines spaced out separately at the bottom, which makes the magazine layout look more professional and easier to read as I feel the way the cover lines are displayed are at the moment is a little hard to read.

 

I am quite happy with the colour of the magazine; it keeps to the traditional Misbourne colours which are dark blue and white so this keeps to the norms of what I found in my format research. However, saying this a am a little disappointed with the background colour format. I visualised a dark blue background which then fades into white the further down the page you go but due to my lack of experience with Indesign was unable to do this professionally and to a high standard. In this case, a target I must set myself is that I must brush up and practise on my Indesign skills which will enhance the performance of the final magazine.

 

I am very happy with the images that I have used. I think that they are very effective and simple. The main image gives a clear view on the message that I am trying to put across through the front cover of the magazine. The main image portrays a calm and relaxed view of the school, displaying three sixth form students having a chat with one another. This the message that we want to put across to our target audience, which are parents of the school, is a relaxed and happy environment where the students feel comfortable and stress-free. We do however want to imply that this is a hard working school who achieve high end results so we have included a picture of a student working hard in the cover photo underneath. As we want to emphasise that this school is friendly and show that everyone gets on we have included another cover photo of a student holding the door open for another student which I think works quite well. I think that this image shows respect and kindliness within the students of the school and this is the message we are definitely trying to put across in the front cover as it will imply to the parents that their children will be safe and happy at this school and also suggests to future parents that if they were to send their child to this school then they would feel comfortable and looked after by the older and other students as this image and the main image shows that the school is like one big community which is good for the purpose of the magazine. As with the other two cover images I feel that although they look pleasant and looks good on the front cover they aren’t quite relevant and I think we could of used more powerful images. The image of the huts for example doesn’t really mean anything to our audience. Yes it is a nice picture of the huts but none of our content I about the huts so maybe we could change it to an exam results picture as that is one of our cover lines and would be more relevant and meaningful to the target audience of our school magazine. Furthermore, the image of our swans next to the masthead is not really what I expected. It is a good picture and I am pleased that we decided to include it next to the masthead as it links to it but I am a little disappointed with the white background behind it. I think that it looks a bit out of place in front of the dark blue background and doesn’t really look that professional. However, if we were to remove the white background the swans which are dark blue will be lost in the dark blue background. Maybe to improve this though we could edit a white outline around the swans because I think that this would make it more effective and unmistakeably much more professional.

 

In conclusion, I am very happy with the final version of our magazine for The Misbourne School. I think that the simple layout makes it very professional and very effective for our target audience. I like most of the pictures used especially the main image but I would change a couple of the cover images as it would make it more relevant to our cover lines. The cover lines are probably the main thing I am not typically happy with and would definitely revert back to our old layout we had for our cover lines. I am very happy with the background and the masthead, I have no problems with the masthead, but as mentioned I think we could of faded the background more into white but I don’t think that matters too much it is just a little extra detail. So overall, I am happy with my first attempt of making a school magazine but it could definitely be improved to make it look more professional.



School Magazine Contents Page Mock Up

The image above shows a mock up of the contents page of my school magazine. As this is just a mock up it simply gives me an idea of how a detailed contents page will look like. 

Front Cover Final Design

The picture above shows the final version of mine and Jack's front cover design for The Misbourne School's magazine. There will be a detailed analysis and evaluation of my front cover at a later date to come.  

School Magazine Layout - Self Assessment

On our school magazine layout we have developed some ideas from the norms of school magazines from the information we gained from the research task but also have kept to the normal magazine aspects. 

Firstly the ideas we have developed by not following the magazine norms is to have cover lines at the bottom of our page to give more information about the pictures we have sourced above. As seen in the research analysis tasks, normal school magazines do not use cover lines on the front cover and depend entirely on the images alone. This helps to contribute to the professionalism of the magazine however we have decided to break this rule because we thought it was more appropriate for our target audience. By positing small cover lines at the bottom of the page our magazine keeps a professional layout while going against the predictable school magazine norms.

For the majority of the layout we have kept to the usual school magazine norms as we wanted to keep it safe and not do anything to out there which will hinder the effect that we want our magazine to create. The aspects that we have stuck to are; to keep to the school's colours, mainly for the background but can also be used for the text, to use images on our front cover to display more information about what's inside and lastly to keep to a simple layout which is not too crowded. This way it keeps to the aim of our magazine and will attract our target audience. It also keeps to a professional manner that will appeal to the parents of the school's students.

We use the layout to attract the right social group and audience for our magazine, which is the parents of the schools students. The professional layout is aimed at parents who most likely want to see that their child having fun and learning. They want to know that they have sent their children to the right school and by producing a high quality magazine with good content about school achievements such as sports events and school shows parents will feel confident that their child is spending everyday in a good place. Parents will want to know what their children have been up to and by using pictures and small cover lines in a professional layout they can easily access this information.

 

 



School Magazine Layout - Peer Assessment

 

Above is an audio recording from which Jack and I got two of our classmates to peer assess our magazine layout. The recording was taking place in a noisy classroom so there is a lot of background noise in the video, however you can still hear what our class mates had to say about the mock up layout which is pictured in the video.

School Magazine Design

Above is an image of a mock up design layout for my school magazine layout that I am designing with Jack Sims (jacksimsasmedia.blogspot.co.uk). The target of our magazine is to attract the parents of the school so we aim to have a professional layout so it's not too crowded and keeps the school magazine norms. We will include five photos of students and the school, a few cover line stories and a main image.

Format Research - Front Cover Analysis 3

For my third and final format research task I chose to analyse the front cover of Craigholme School. Looking at this magazine I can immediately spot some differences from the magazines that I analysed previously, however there are a few differences also. In this document I will be disusing the properties of this magazine's front cover.

Audience: When looking at the front cover of this magazine, we can immediately tell that the audience of this magazine is the same as the other two we have looked at. Both parents and students will be interested in reading this magazine. However, I do think that unlike the other two magazine this one isn't has formal so is therefore aimed more at the students of the school. I say this because the layout of the page isn't as professional as the others. There is just one solid colour that is used as the background which doesn't change throughout the whole page. The colour is a bright red which helps attract the younger students and judging by the pictures of the students it looks like that this is a primary school so it will consist of young children. On the other hand though, you argue that the target audience of this magazine would be the parents as the young students wouldn't be bothered to read it as they would probably not be interested in it.  

Main Image: The main image on this magazine is centeralised in the middle of the page and it shows a picture of some students on a school trip. It looks like they are in China so this picture implies that this school does some amazing stuff because not many schools go to China for a school trip. Whatsmore, the students in the main image are looking incredibly happy which shows they are enjoying themselves and feel safe. As well as the students, the teachers in the picture also look happy which shows that both the students and the staff get on which could mean that this school is like one big family community.

Text: Just like the other two magazines we have looked at there isn't much text on the front cover of this magazine. The only text visible is the masthead which diplays the name of the school, "Craigholme School" and the school's strapline underneath it which states "Realising Your Daughters Potential". This gives us more information about the school, we now know that this school is a girls schoool which suggests that it is a private school. Furthermore, the word 'daughters' implies that this magazine is indeed for parents as the magazine itself is addressing the parents. The font of the text keeps to a san serif layourt just like the other magazines we have looked at. They have made the text formal because it is a private school so as the parents will have to pay for their daughters' education they want to know that their money will be well spent on a proffessional school that will get their child the best results.

Masthead: Unlike the other two magazines, this magazine actually has some sort of a masthead. The masthead is quite big and a lot of red is used. The title of the school is filled in the masthead, however it looks like the text is too small for the masthead space. In this case too much of the red stands out and it doesn't really look very appealing or professional. However, in the masthead they have embedded the school badge at the side which makes it look a bit more interesting, but saying this I think the masthead still looks a bit dull and they could of been more creative with it.  

Format Research - Front Cover Analysis 2

For my second format research task I chose to analyse the front cover of Rainey Endowed School. Looking at this magazine I can see some similarities however, there are also some differences. In this document I will be disusing the properties of this magazine's front cover.

Audience: The target audience of this magazine is very similar to what we saw with Shrewsbury High School. Both parents and students will be interested in reading this magazine because the front cover layout has a sense of formality to it, so the smart red and professional school logo engraved in the background. This will attract the parents of the school to read this as they know that the content of the magazine will be formal and informative. The students would want to read this because at the top and down the side there are pictures of their peers and class mates so they too would be interested in what's inside. They would wan to find out why their class mates are on the front cover as it would be an achievement or some sort.

As well as current parent and students being the target audience of this magazine, like Shrewsbury I would also suggest that potential students and parents would be interested in reading this magazine. I say this because the purpose of this magazine is to persuade and inform, it is informing the audience what the school offers and what it is like to go there.

Main Image: The main image of this front cover I would say is the logo of the school which also acts as the background. The background is very effective because it is the school's badge on what looks like the red school blazer and then it fades into a lighter red at the top which acts as the background. This then implies that the main image is based around the school's main colours so this way current students and parents can relate to it as soon as they see it. The only actual images on the front cover is the ones around the top and down the side. These images show, the school itself, the students in class, students in the sports team and an action shot from the school's play. All these images are a wide variety which shows the readers that a lot has been going on at the school and it also tells potential students what this school can offer. These pictures act as their own cover lines even without any text as they are telling the reader what will be inside with no text needed.

Text: On this front cover there isn't really much text. The only text visible is the masthead which is just the name of the school, "Rainey Endowed School". Like the previous magazine we looked at (Shrewsbury). The font of this text is in a san serif style which creates professionalism and formality within the magazine  so it gains the audiences trust, especially with parents. They can to informed that the school they are sending their child to is safe and professional. There is also some more white text along the bottom. It simply just states "2012 Magazine" The "2012" is big with the "magazine" covering it over the top. I can see that they have tried to keep to the professionalism, however in this case I don't think it worked. The white writing doesn't really stand out well enough over the "2012" and even the white part of the main image behind so I feel that they could of used a darker colour for this part of the text just to make it stand out a little more.

Masthead: Just like the previous magazine we looked at there isn't really a masthead on this magazine. The title of the school, "Rainey Endowed School" is just in the middle on the background all by itself. They have centralised the text so it keep to its professional format and have put the school's logo above it which gives more information about the school.  

Tuesday's Media Lesson - Indesign Practise

In today's lesson we were using Adobe InDesign for the first time. We were told all the basic tools of how to create a simple mock up magazine front cover. This included a masthead, an image and a cover line. Throughout the lesson I played around with the software just to get to grips on how to use it so when I come to designing my real magazine front cover I will have a good understanding on how to use the software which will mean my front cover will hopefully be up to a high standard.

Format Research - Front Cover Analysis 1

Audience: The target audience of this magazine is parents and students of Shrewsbury. We can tell this because the whole point of the magazine is to promote, advertise and inform, so in this case only parents and current students would be interested in reading this magazine. However, saying this, as the purpose of this magazine is to advertise the school, it can also attract potential students to join the school because it is informing the audience what the school offers and what it is like to go there.

Main Image:  The main image on this magazine is a strange one. Most of the page is filled with a dark blue background which implies that this is the school's main colours. The only images visible on this front cover is multiple small images in the middle of the page. The pictures show what looks like the head teacher of the school and other students enjoying themselves on an activity school trip. This implies that as well as working hard at school, the students also enjoy themselves which is essential for young learning. Furthermore, the dark blue background shows professionalism because it is basic yet effective because a fancy colourful background would tell parents this may not be a serious school so the choice of colour is good for the school.

 

Text: On the front page of this magazine, not much text is used. The only text that is on this front cover is the name of the school. The text that they have chosen I would say is very suitable for what the purpose of this magazine is. The font type is san serif. This creates formality within the magazine so it gains the audiences trust, especially with parents. They can to informed that the school they are sending their child to is safe and professional.

 

Masthead: There isn't really a masthead on this magazine. The title of the school, "Shrewsbury High School" is just at the top straight across the background. Although there isn't a genuine masthead across the top of this magazine, they keep the title together and justified which kind of creates a masthead of its own and is very effective.  

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Hey I'm Harrison and I'm using Blogspot. I hope you enjoy my blog about magazines throughout the year