Mock up of front cover and contents page

Research and planning: Questionnaire results

I created my own questionnaire to find out what students would like the magazine to look like and what it should feature. These are the results:

The most popular colour scheme is purple/white/black. 

The audience would prefer the magazine to be free.

The audience would like the magazine to be called ichat.

The most popular subjects were music/media, events in college and events out of college. 

Students mainly wanted images of students and celebrities. 

The students liked the idea of having a christmas or music theme. 

People decided they would like a mix of formal and informal language in the magazine.

Research and planning: Textual analysis of a student magazine- 247

The Masthead of the front cover is large, red and is positioned to the right hand side of the page. It is unusual for a title to be positioned here, which draws the audience’s attention. The colour red also attract people. The central image shows a young girl at a festival having fun. This is an image that attracts young people because it looks fun and playful. The cover lines are positioned at the bottom of the page and are small apart from the larger titles, which advertise the magazines contents. The puff is in a red bubble to draw the eye and offer something that people may be interested in. 

The central image takes up most of the space on the contents page. The colours are green and brown and the image is unusual, this makes the audience want to read on and relate to teenagers as they usually feel they need to be individual. The contents of the page are positioned around the image in different sections to break it up. There are different colours to highlight the key information. The fonts range and some are larger or positioned differently, this makes the text more eye catching and connotes a sense of fun and liveliness; which is what the target audience is interested in. 

Research and planning: Textual analysis of a student magazine- aspire

The masthead is in smart font with simple white and green colours that connote a sense of nature and freedom. The central image is of a young man, smartly dressed and smiling outside what looks like the college. This connotes a sense of happiness and peace. The cover lines are bold and positioned closely at the bottom part of the page. The letters are purple and white which are eye catching. The text is in the same smart font. This connotes the magazine is for students that are more serious about the subjects in the magazine.

The colours of the contents page are simple and neutral to maintain a smart look. There are four images on the page, which draw the audience’s attention. The writing is clear and spaced apart to make it look easy to read, which teenagers prefer. The green subheadings break up the text and connote the magazine is calm. 

Analysis of a magazine front cover

I have decided to analyse and evaluate the connotations of a girls fashion magazine, Glamour front cover to help see what attracts teenagers to a magazine and what differences and similarities it has to a college magazine front cover.

The masthead is the name of the brand the magazine is from and used to distinguish one brand from another. Glamour magazine uses a bold, pink masthead that spreads over the width of the cover and takes up around 20% of the page. This is eye catching and the colour connotes it is a girls magazine. The word is also slightly covered by the models head, which connotes the title, is well known and the people who buy the magazine buy it often. The colour of the masthead may change each time depending what the magazine is based on that week or month.

The cover lines are bright and some are larger than others. This draws attention to different pieces of writing and makes the subject seem more exciting. Some are written in different fonts to go with the theme of the subject and this also attracts young people. The writing is pink black and brown colours, which are, eye catching girly colours and they are bold colours, which draws people attention to them. They are also typical colours you find in fashion, which connotes a sense of fashion.

The central image is of Beyoncé, who is a very popular pop singer.  This draws people’s eye if they idolise her or like her and many teenagers idolise her. She is looking very glamorous and dressed summery which goes with the theme of the magazine. 

Introduction to Prelimenary task and action plan

As part of my AS media coursework, I have to create my own front page, contents and double page feature spread of a student magazine that I am creating myself. I have created a blog to record my research and planning of my magazine, this will help me to create a successful magazine.

Action plan!

Week 1- - Set up blog

-       Put action plan on blog

-       Complete textural analysis of one magazine and post on blog

Analysis of magazine and how they target audiences

Week 2- - Complete textual analysis of school/ college magazines and post on blog

-       Post research of target audience on blog and review findings

-       Begin to take photos for own magazines

Analysis of school- college magazines

Research of target audience

Week 3- - Post mock-up blog and provide commentary

Produce a mock-up of front cover and contents page

Begin to design front cover and contents page

Week 4- - Post final front cover and contents page on blog

Designing of front cover and contents page

Christmas holidays- Work on evaluation questions

Week 5- - Post evaluation on blog

Complete evaluation 

Introduction to brief

As part of my AS media coursework, I have to create my own front page, contents page and double page spread feature of a new music magazine. I have created this blog to record my research and planning of my magazine which will help me to produce a successful magazine.