Plans

Last lesson, I drew up a basic plan for my front cover and contents page to give me some ideas on what to put on it and how to fill out the initial layout.

Front Page

This draft is just representing a basic layout plan for my front page so I can wor out what images need to be taken and how much text space I can use. It is also a plan for the different conventions that I need to use in my magazine.
It is a general idea of where I want to place all the content so I have an idea of what I want on my front cover.
I have followed the basic conventions of a magazine front cover which I found out with the research on magazine front covers conducted in an earlier post to use as a baseline for my own front cover.
The basic layout will probably change depending on the images and text I use for the front cover and contents page. The colours I use will also depend on the image and text.

Contents Page

This, again, is a basic layout plan but for my contents page so I know which conventions to feature and where. It also gives me an idea of how much space I have on the contents page.

Foundation Portfolio Perliminary Task - College Magazine

The task is to create a college or school magazine front cover and contents page. The photograph for the front page must be of a student in medium closeup. I will use Microsoft Publisher, Word and Photoshop to create the front page and contents page.
To start the task I will begin to think of a design and name for the magazine. I have to think of the target audience and what would apply to them.
I will also produce a mock-up of my final ideas before further production of the final front cover. Also, I will produce blogs to present my research, planning and evaluation. The posts below contain some of the research I have conducted so far.

Analysis of Teen Vogue

Teen Vogue is aimed at an audience of teenagers girls between 16- 19 years of age. I know this because of the masthead which has the word "teen" in. The image on the front cover is also a well-known teenage actress who is seen as a role model to young girls.

Teen Vogue is a fashion magazine and the ideology is to show the new fashion trends. The magazine is published monthly and the first issue was published in 2003 as a version of Vogue suitable for a younger audience. As well as fashion, the magazine contains celebrity information, feature stories, stories on current issues and events, and the latest information in entertainment such as music and movie news. The magazine also contains tips on life such as stress reliefs which is advertised on this front cover.

The colours pink and yellow can be seen as a representative of the target audience as pinks are stereotypically associated with girls. The stories featured on the front page are also representative of females as the main focus of the stories are beauty and fashion.

NME Magazine Analysis

NME also has a target audience of 16 to 19 years olds. The magazine is published weekily and its in the price range of students. Its ideology is based on music and bands past and present.

NME has been published since 1952 and NME stands for the "New Music Express". The name was abbreviated to the NME. The full name of the magazine is featured in the masthead as well as abbreviated name.

The main image is of The Automatic. This is a representation of the ideology of the magazine which is music based.

The masthead is slightly covered by the main image which shows that the masthead is recognisable and iconic of the magazine.

The headlines and subheadlines also show representations of music as they are mainly band names or artists names.

The main conventions of magazines can be seen on this front page. The masthead can be seen in the right hand corner on this front page, it is slightly covered by the main image which is another convention of a magazine front page.

Magazines Aimed at 16-19 Year Olds - Heat Magazine

Heat magazine is one of the many magazines that are aimed at 16 to 19 year olds and older.

The magazine mainly focuses on celebrity gossip but has some focus on fashion and it's readers stories.

The title/masthead has been partially covered with "Charley"'s head which shows that the magazine is confident that most people know who they are.

Many of the articles in the magazine are based on situations happening at the time with celebrities.

Heat is mainly aimed at an audience of women

as the magazine contains fashion tips for women and gossip articles on celebrities.

The institution of Heat magazine is EMAP Consumer Media and Heat has been published since 1999.

The magazine is published in Great Britain which makes its audience British teens+.

Heat magazine was first published as a general interest entertainment magazine but it was proved that it wasn't very popular and so was revamped into a less serious magazine and more of a gossip orientated one aimed at women. High profile celebrity gossip (the yellow banner at the top of the front page saying "Brad still loves you!") fills most of the magazines pages as well as reality shows such as Big Brother (the Charley article shown above) and X Factor.

Heat also advertises the fact that it is a gossip orientated magazine with the sub headline "This week's hottest celebrity news".

Textual Analysis of "Secondary Teachers Magazine" Cover

The magazine "Secondary Teachers" is sent to Secondary schools around the country.

The front page is a wrap up. When you open the magazine and turn it around you can see that it is a joint front page.

On each side there is a student who looks presentable and smart. The boy has his hand up as if he is eager to answer a question and looking at the reader, drawing them in and involving the audience which is most likely targeted at secondary school teachers. the girl is looking at the boy which creates a connection between them on the cover.

The cover shows a battle of the sexes atmosphere. On the boys side of the magazine the sub headline "Do boys and girls learn differently?" is in blue and on the girls side of the cover the same sub headline "Do boys and girls learn differently?" is pink which is stereotypical of the genders. Girls are associated with the colour pink and boys are associated with the colour blue.

The background is white so the students are emphasized as the focus point. The text also stands out from the background. The white background also shows that the photo was taking in a studio rather than an actual classroom. This shows that the picture is slightly abstract as you wouldn't find a student posed like that in an actual classroom environment.

The sub headlines running across the top are also bright against the white background making them stand out.

The purpose of this magazine is to provide information on new styles of teaching and fun ideas to secondary teachers. The cover of the magazine shows this as it has photos of two students and the headlines and sub headlines are to do with teaching and new techniques of teaching.