Brief for my music magazine

I must create the front page, contents and a double page spread of a music magazine of my chosen genre.  All my images and text must be completely original and produced by me; I must use a minimum of four images.

L.I.I.A.R evaluation of my final product

L –

I have created a masthead which promotes the magazine and gives it a unique name; I did this by thinking of my own magazine name and I produced it in a way in order to make it stand out – I used bright, large and unique font. I made sure that my masthead fit in with my colour scheme. I stuck to the typical conventions of a masthead by placing it in the top left hand corner of my page. The masthead effectively reflects what the magazine is about.

My main image is conventionally large to fit around a third of my magazine cover and it also reflects the contents of the magazine. My model makes clear eye contact with the camera which is effective as it draws the audience in. The one critique I have is that the image itself is not very clear, and I do not think that it fits well into the background as the image has too many yellow hues.

I stuck to a colour scheme of two colours; green and white. I decided to use these two colours as they was a lot of green and white in my background image and white I thought that using white text instead of black gave the magazine cover a more sophisticated look. I would also say that the colour green could represent nature and health whilst white represents pureness and innocence; consequently choosing these colours has given my magazine a clean and friendly look. By using white for my main stories, and then again to advertise a page reference is effective as this will make my readers instantly notice that page number and jump straight to it.

I have used an issue number, dateline and barcode in order to make the magazine cover look a lot more professional and realistic. I have placed the dateline conventionally below the masthead as it makes sense to show the dateline below the masthead as they both match together.  I also placed the issue number next to the masthead as they conventionally go together. This information is placed at the top as it isn’t really that important towards the audience. The barcode I have placed at the bottom of the page (right hand side) as again it isn’t important for the reader and therefore doesn’t need to be placed somewhere where it is easily noticed.

I have made sure that my main article relates to my image of the student by making the main article the most noticeable (by using different coloured and styled font to the others) and by placing it near the image of my student.

I have placed the majority of my articles on the left third of this page as this is the conventional thing to do. This is effective because when magazines are stacked on shelves, the left third of the magazine is the part of the magazine that is shown to the audience, so by putting most of my stories on that side my magazine is being advertised more. However, it is important to put a story on the other side so the magazine looks balanced.

I have used four cover lines on my magazine as I felt that was an appropriate and accurate number of cover lines to use. I have tried to make the cover lines catchy so that they will draw in the audience, for example ‘Missing student!’ The cover lines fit in with the colour scheme (except the main story as I wanted it to stand out) as they are all in white.

I have also used a kicker on one of my articles so that this will effectively ‘kick’ the audience to a specific page thus making them read the article further.

I have used tellers underneath every cover line so that the audience will know what each article is about briefly.

I have used a skyline so that I can show what the magazine is about; this also adds some definition to the masthead. The skyline is important as it gives a little teaser as to what the reader can expect inside the magazine.

I –

My magazine has been created exclusively for Wyke College as only Wyke college students are able to read it. Wyke College doesn’t have any magazine other than the college paper for students to read, which I imagine will be academically based and provide news about results; my magazine can be compared to this paper as my magazine would also be academically based. The way in which my magazine would be different is that my magazine would also have inside articles written by the teachers, instead of students.

I -

I have made it so that my magazine gives off a sophisticated atmosphere as I wanted the message to be that it was a very academic magazine which can be used to access grades and exam dates etc. I want to represent the college in a positive way and to make the college seem very successful.

A –

The obvious audience that I am aiming for are students who attend Wyke college as the magazine won’t be available to anyone else outside of Wyke. My audience isn’t generalized to one year as both first and second years will be allowed to read the magazine. The magazine will be aimed equally at both girls and boys alike.

R –

My magazine will represent students positively as it mentions a 100% pass rate; any bad grades will not be mentioned in the magazine.  Therefore this will represent the college positively as it says that all students either passed or got exceptionally well grades.

Contents page mock up for my preliminary task

L.I.I.A.R analysis based on my feedback

Harley mentioned that he thought my first draft was very colourful and detailed, this relates to the language part of my magazine as when I did a LI.I.A.R analysis of my brief, I mentioned that I would need to use a few different colours to create a successful colour scheme. He also mentioned that the masthead of my magazine doesn't really fit with the concept; this goes under both language and ideology.

He also wrote that my magazine could look more professional with some more work, this fits in with how I wrote about representation in my L.I.I.A.R analysis, and about how I had hoped that it would have looked more professional that how it had turned out.

On my second draft, Harley mentioned the representation again, saying this one looked a lot more sophisticated and professional, which is what I was hoping for. He mentioned how the lack of as many colours and more dull font had made it look more sophisticated; this ties in with the language aspect of L.I.I.A.R.

He also wrote about how he felt my second draft would be more appropriate for the more educational students, and the other for the students who want to read something more fun; this ties in with the audience aspect of .L.I.I.A.R

Final product posted for my preliminary task

This is my magazine cover.

audience feedback on drafts and original idea for my preliminary task

"Firstly I think it is very colourful and detailed. With more developement, I think it will look very professional. But, seen that it is a college gossip magazine, the title Campus days doesn't really reflect the contents of the magazine.'' Harley, First draft

''This one looks like it's more sophisticated and serious by the font and lack of bright colours. This draft would be better for a serious magazine, and the other for a more fun magazine'' Harley, second draft

How would I promote the launch of my magazine for the preliminary task

They are several ways in which I think are the most effective when it comes to promoting my magazine;

1. The first thing I would consider would be trying to get a small advertisement or page for it on the college website, or, even better, on Moodle. This could be in the form of a small square image of my magazine, which then goes onto a link in which more information about the magazine would be available. I think this would be effective as those two websites are commonly used amongst the students; therefore the promotion of my magazine would be successful.
2. The second way of promoting my magazine would be to have a display held up in the lobby of the Oak building, or perhaps have leaflets placed in the leaflet stall. Oak is the main place where students meet, so it is a hot spot within college. It is best to place the advertisements for my college magazine in college hot spots as they will be viewed more often. It may also be a good idea to place displays in the other college buildings, although I think that the Oak building is more of a necessity. Having leaflets is a good idea, I think, because they are small and handy and therefore easier to keep or put in a bag, thus my advertisement staying with the students. It would also be a good way to get the advertisment passed around, and making leaflets wouldn't take as much time and effort as some other promoting ideas.
3. Another idea is to have a short video advertising my magazine played on the TV in the Oak foyer. This is a good idea as it would be more eye catching than the other ideas and hopefully would draw more attnetion to my advertisment. I also think that it's good to use more creative methods to advertise my magazine as it will consequently make the audience more interested in reading my magazine. The use of sound within the video (if can be used) would also draw attention towards the advertisement.