Evaluation

Making a student magazine cover was tricky, while using Photoshop; the use of how to layout, colour scheme use or the presentation of the cover, especially since I only learned how to use Adobe Photoshop, although throughout the process I got used to the form in which it works. Also i investigated magazine cover’s and identified what the key concepts in which students like to read about in magazines, fashion, party, gossip, sport, I would then use this information in my magazine and reinvent something similar to this but in my own form. However as it’s a student magazine I had to think on how I was going to layout the work, because I’d need it to target woman as well as men, which then leaded me onto thinking about the colour used, pink couldn’t be used nor purple, as it would clearly be presented to one target audience, so I thought of using an average blue with the main image of a girl studying which targets one of both audiences.

I researched into what magazine genre’s there were, like fashion, college, sport and soaps which then gave me an idea of how to recreate a magazine from seeing these perspective views. This guided me onto seeing what people wanted to read, but I lowered my genre and choose one, college magazines, and went through these types of magazines to give me an idea of what my target audience would want to read. Making this research helped me out as I hardly know anything about magazines, helping me define what college students read today. While making my magazine I decided to name my magazine ‘student life’ as it’s directed to students and have two meanings, it’s about students who study and by saying life it’s also discussing their personal life which is part of the importance which need to be talked about ‘where life is heading’. The magazine is showing importance in these students life by seeing how these teenage students can improve their lives, so they have potential to do better. I made my mast head in InDesign, naming it ‘Student life’ creating it as a capital letter and bold title, I researched onto other magazines, for example L.A magazines, which use the same style of font for their college magazines giving an understanding of what type of magazine genre its related to, because magazines from America are recognised from the type of font.

Also I had to think about what age, gender , class as I needed to know whether the person is young or old, female or male, and whether if they can afford to pay for the magazine. So I decided it would be based for a 16-20 year old, directed to male and female which would be at a reasonable price, by researching onto what these students earn, it’s quite a small amount, giving an understanding that they won’t pay as much for a magazine. To distinguish that it’s a student cover, you’d know from the main image as it’ focused on a teenage girl studying, expression of text e.g. SECRETS! Which isn’t as likely for an elderly to read.

In general magazines are sold in supermarkets, club houses, libraries, corner shops, however my magazine would be distributed in a college as it’s targeted for young teenage people or it could be sold in a youth club, because it’s more likely for a teenager to stop and pay attention to the magazine, when its displaced on these places, rather than in a corner shop because they’d be more

interested in seeing gossip/sports magazine. Also they could be sold in supermarkets or could be rental in the Libraries.

The masthead is placed at the top of the magazine, corned to the side, and it’s slightly tilted as I wanted it be looked as if it’s stamped onto the magazine. I organised my work by making a column, with texts giving information of what the magazine provides, and also has texts layered out the bottom of the main magazine to show the main intention of the magazine and what it brings to the audience. I used variety of colours for all my fonts, mainly 3 colours, yellow white and black, by using too many colours will make the magazine look childlike, for example in fashion magazines they use variety of colours, done so as they combine with fashion, however within my magazine I wanted a few coloured fonts because i wanted it to look quite low-key, so that the magazine can be taken more seriously but also have a sense of aliveness. By using yellow I gave a feel of aliveness to the magazine, blending it to the background, blue, to give an awareness of being free, which I done to show that studying is hard yet you should be calm and feel a lightened. Font texts are showing what is going on in around college, outside life of other’s, also the magazine is asking questions to target audience which I done in particular because as a student I know that we all have problems and by asking this, the target audience with be interested in reading this. Big white font text at the side ‘read inside’ stands out the most, directing the audience to the text as their immediate reaction is to do as the text says. By making my magazine like so, it will direct to young audiences as it makes points about their future life. Learning support, also how to keep fit which is an important in an everyday life, but not only that, counselling, giving the opportunity for students to feel better and stronger about themselves.

Using adobe Photoshop to process my magazine was very helpful as I can remove, bring forward, crop and may other things to my magazine but most of all it makes my magazine become more real and brings me a step closer onto how a professional magazine should be. I could always go back to my work and improve it, which I would do as i has some areas which isn’t quite finished, like the mast head, it’d be better if there was more meaning to it by bringing colour. Making this magazine bought me to research about the target audience, seeing the layout, colour, text and organisation. I would have to explore more when using adobe Photoshop because there are still some things I need to learn about the way it functions. Overall using Photoshop is a way of knowing the broader range of how media companies make these types of magazines.