Evaluation
By studying magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads, I’ve been able to see their forms and conventions. My media product has taken on some of these forms to make it more realistic. The front cover of my magazine contains the name of my magazine, ‘Best days’ which is bigger than all the other writing on the page making it the first thing you read. As well as the title, the features are down the left hand side of my magazine, which I found was typical on many magazines. I used capitals and effects such as outer glow for some of the features so they stand out that extra bit. Finally, I added a medium close up photograph which is the main aspect to my magazine as it is the biggest element. The photograph features a side shot of a student which reflects the theme of college.
The forms and conventions for my contents page and double page spread include photographs to visualize what is inside the magazine, columns to break up text, quotes enlarged to show the contents of the text and photographs to illustrate the text. Along with this, I have kept the title in roughly the same place to link the pages together and the cover and contents page also have the same background which is also another link. These are all elements which I have adapted from my initial research to make my magazine as real as possible.
My magazine aims at college students from ages of about 16-19. I thought about what connects with this target audience carefully and addressed it in many ways. Being a college student myself and doing initial research such as my questionnaire, I gathered more knowledge of what would appeal to this target. I did this by using pictures of students dressed up imaginatively; I kept the colours bright and the contents of the magazine up to date and relevant. I used a basic font which is easy to read and kept the text to the point and to a minimum so it was interesting but not too much of it to make it boring. My magazine represents a particular social group as they are all approximately the same age. It represents particular social groups by the contents of the magazine, such as the relevant activities going on and the up to date news. Also the presentation plays an important role as this is what attracts the students initially.
From constructing my magazine, I have learnt that technology has vastly improved. I have learnt how to use Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. From experimenting with these two programmes, I have learnt that you can look at every single aspect of what you are creating in great detail to allow for a great piece of design that really appeals to the target audience. For example, the main aspects I learnt were how to use layers; gradients and quick selection however I learnt in greater detail how to use levels on a photo and how to use effects on text to make them more prominent.
