The front cover of a magazine is the first part that most
consumers will see. So it must stand out to do this they normally consists of
bright colors and big bold writing so that its eye catching and interesting.
All of these magazines have a mast-head, which is the big bold writing near the
top of the magazine. This is the part of the magazine that is supposed to be
instantly recognizable for the audience.
At the very top of each of these magazines there is a slogan.
This is used to tell consumers some of the main content included inside the
magazine. Cover lines are the groups of text dotted around the front cover.
They very commonly used in magazines. They pick out key parts of articles
included in the magazines. They are used to catch the consumers are and make
them want to read into the article.
Every magazine consists of a central image. One of the
magazine covers I chose has a person as its central image. It has used a medium
shot to show what the footballer is wearing and also making it clear who it is.
Another feature these magazines have in common would be a
lead article. This is the main article inside the magazine which is supposed to
interest the majority of the readers to get them to purchase the product.
My Magazines Target Audience
The target audience I am aiming for would be 17-19 years of
age and for both genders. This is so that I have a larger audience. Their
occupation would be working in the nearby by area doing Saturday jobs. Doing
things like being a waiter in a restaurant. It would be aimed at people in
group E of the demographics table. These are students and causal workers. The
kind of students that I want to find my magazine interesting would be students
that are interested in their education and value it. They are also the kind of
students that are interested in doing well and are interested in going to
different places and exploring. The group I use as my target audience in the
psycho-graphics table are explorers. These are the kind of people seek
discovery and are full of energy and individualism. My target audience like to
spend their money on things like technology, games and music. The kind of media
I expect them to consume would be some comedy TV shows because they are very
popular with teenagers, so I will make sure to include this inside my magazine.
I would also think they are likely to watch action thrillers because it’s
something that keeps viewers on their toes. I also wouldn't be surprised if my
target market read the local newspapers or watched the news to find out what’s
going on in the world around them.
Another thing would be that the students use social networks like Facebook to socialize with other people. A brand that would represent the majority of my readers would be something like apple. This is because it’s very fashionable up to date and also very expensive. Because my main target audience are students I think a lot of them would spend their money on devices like phones and computers because this is what they use for the sixth form and to socialize with each other. I think it’s very likely that they would spend their money on the latest gadgets or clothes because it makes them look better, and modern. The type of car i think my target audience would have would be something small and probably second hand. This is because they only just started driving.
Basic Magazine Design
I want the name of my magazine to be something students can
relate to, as well as being modern and interesting. I have decided to call mine
Istudent. For a slogan I have come up with "The generation of the
future". I think this slogan links really well with the name of the
magazine because it connects with how the internet is the next step. It also
connects with students because they are the next generation and have control
over the future. The colour scheme I want to go with is bright colours, this is
because i want it to invite readers and make them feel comfortable reading it.
I want to go with a clean and modern design style to keep readers interested
and so they don't feel like they are reading an outdated magazine. I want my
magazine cover to be dotted with cover lines all over it. This is to make it
look like it has interesting contest.
Photography Plan
To make my central image appeal to my target audience I want
to make it so that it’s an actual picture of a student so they are interested in
reading it. I plan to focus on just one sixth former, but maybe have some
others in the background. I plan to take the photo outside because an inside
one is a bit more confined and I want the readers to feel free. For the
background of my central image i want either one of the buildings or maybe the
playing fields. I think it would be best if the background was of one of the
new buildings, this is so the magazine feels new and modern and not out of
date. I think my picture should feature
a sixth former and not anyone else to show consumers that this is what my
magazine is about and what it focuses on. Not only that but also so that it
appeals to my target audience. I think they would be less inclined to read it
if a primary student was on the front cover.
Front Cover Mock Up
Magazine Front Cover
Analysis
I have used a varied amount of conventions; this is to
interest my target audience. One convention which I had to spend a lot of time
making sure it was right for my target audience was the cover lines. I laid
them out in an organised and clean fashion, this as in order to make easy for
students to see at a glance how many interesting articles are included in my
magazine. I took many photos which I could have used for my central image. I
wanted one that would represent a happy student and also one that was relaxed.
This could mean that the consumers could feel at home. Once I had inserted my
central image I tried to keep all the other conventions like the cover lines a
distance from it, so that it wasn’t covered and so my target audience didn't
feel that it was covered. Coming up with a lead article was harder than coming
up with a cover line. The reason for that is because I had to think of
something that would interest students and would be worthy of a big story that
would really interest the majority of my target audience. I went with two main
primary colours which were blue and black. I thought that they worked really
well together. Although the Blue stood out against the background, the black
hasn't shown up very well against it. So for next time I think I would change
the background to a solid colour like a brick wall or just make the text a
brighter colour like red so it’s more visible to the naked eye. I tried to go
with an eye catchy font. I decided on a futuristic one not only because it
stands out, but also because it fits the name of my magazine as well. A slogan
that I thought fitted my magazine and target audience was "the generation
of the future". I thought it was a good link with the fact that the
readers would be the generation of the future as well as it being catchy. I
added at the end of creating my cover a bar code and a date, this was supposed
to really bring it to real life and give it that real magazine look.
Overall I think my cover was very successful and came out
much better than I thought it would. To start with I was really struggling with
getting the gist of how to make it look, but once I looked at some examples
loads of ideas came flooding to me. I have shown a number of people and I got a
lot of positive feedback about it.
The next time I make a front cover I would like to Keep
everything to plain colours and not add so many affects. The reason for this is
I think it looks a bit overdone and unprofessional. Another thing i would
prevent myself from doing would be putting a rectangle behind my lead article.
I think having it there makes the lead article stand out for sure but it also
makes it look less appealing. Next time to improve my cover I will also use
more varied text fonts to make it look a bit more exciting to consumers. Using
the same ones does make it look a bit dull and boring and nowhere near as
varied as it should be.
Overall on the whole project I do think my time management
could have been a lot better. I went out a couple of times to try and get the
correct picture for my magazine instead it think I should have been a bit more
wise and dedicated more time to doing so and done it in one go. I did waste a
lot of time on thinking about what to call the magazine and what its slogan
should be. This meant I fell a bit behind meaning I had to try and catch up.
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