Preliminary Task Summary

Completing the preliminary task before producing my final magazine allowed me to recognise various common codes and conventions of magazines which I could incorporate throughout the course of the project.

 

It also allowed me to develop my understanding of satisfying the needs of the target market in order to increase product sales.

 

Overall, I believe it will be vastly successful and will aid me in the production of my music magazine.

Preliminary task: contents

This is the contents of my magazine:

From researching codes and conventions of magazine contents pages, I discovered that mine would be more successful if I included the following features:

• A page title “contents” so the reader can understand the reason for the page.
• A colour scheme of three colours from the theme of the cover.
• Numbers linked to each page so they are easy to find in the magazine.
• 2-3 photographs of intriguing pieces of content from within the magazine.
• The school logo to brand and advertise the school.
• Text dominated contents pages are more appropriate.
• A simplistic sans serif font which is easy to read.

On my contents page I attempted to include all of these codes and conventions.

I included a relatively simplistic sans serif font. I believe that this would be successful in terms of being easier to read. The title is “Contents” and is written in a large, bold font for added noticeability.

I also ensured that the colour scheme was similar to the scheme on the cover of my magazine for a recurring trend throughout. This was to intrigue the reader due to the bright colours and to further allow the writing to stand out in contrast to the background colour. This will make it more appealing to my intended audience of young students due to the simplicity.

I included page numbers to indicate where you can find each piece of content within the magazine. This will eliminate confusion for the reader to entice them to continue reading. Alongside various page titles, I also incorporated a photograph to represent what will be found on the page. These photographs simply represent the more intriguing pages to entice the reader to discover more.

The theme of including the school logo continued on my contents page as a reminder of the content of the magazine and to brand and advertise the school.

Finally, I made my contents text dominated for ease of reading for the audience and generally for a more formal appearance. I deemed this format to be more suitable for a school magazine to represent the formality of the provided education to persuade people to study at the school.

Preliminary task: cover

This is the cover of my magazine:

To create my magazine cover, I edited my photos on photoshop and I designed the layout on indesign to place all of the components together.

Photoshop allowed me to cut out the image of the girl as I used the magic wand tool to erase the background. This allowed me to superimpose the image over the title of the magazine for a more creative effect. This also made it suggestive that the students come first at the school and are the most important aspect to appeal to the audience which prominently consists of students. This idea also conforms to the codes and conventions which I discovered from my research.

Indesign allowed me to create frames so that I was able to design the layout of my cover. It allowed me to notice how many photographs I could fit on the page and where everything would be placed.

From researching the codes and conventions, I was able to recognise that the cover of my magazine would be more successful if included the following features:

•           A logo to represent the school.
•           A prominent central photograph of a student.
•           The student should appear happy to appeal to the audience.
•           The photograph should be well lit so it can be seen more easily.
•         The photograph should be taken from a low angle to present the students as authoritive.
•           The image should be superimposed over the title to show students come first.
•           The use of 3 colours in the colour scheme.
•           A variation in genders and ethnicities to prove anyone is welcomed at the school.
•           A large title in a simple sans serif font for simplicity.
•           Plug features to show appealing content from within the magazine.
•           The use of a banner for a simpler layout.
•           Exciting punctuation so it is more intriguing and appealing.
•           The date and the issue of the magazine.

On the cover of my magazine, I attempted to include all of these codes and conventions.

I included the logo of the magazine in the top left hand corner to represent the school and to allow the reader to understand that the prominent topic of the magazine will regard aspects of the school. This also branded the school to make it more recognisable.

I included a large, prominent central image of a smiling student to allow the school to appear like a happy and friendly environment. This will allow the target market of students to be appealed to continue reading the magazine. The image is also well lit to allow it to appear professional and it is taken from a low angle to suggest that the students are powerful and dominant. I also superimposed the image in front of the title of the magazine to further emphasise the fact that the students come first.

The colour scheme of my magazine consisted of three colours; light blue, dark blue and white. These were the school colours as shown in the school logo so it was immediately branded. Furthermore, blue is a universal colour which allowed the white writing to stand out in contrast to the dark background colour so it stood and was easier to read.

The title of my magazine was “Whitley Reveal”. I wrote the title at the top of the page in a large, bold sans serif font for added simplicity. The simple font allowed ease for reading and would also appeal to the young audience which I aimed my magazine to appeal to.

I included two plugs on the cover of my magazine which regarded aspects of the school. These plugs were accompanied by photographs to associate with them and a caption for an explanation. These presented interesting stories which would entice the audience to continue reading the magazine as they are intriguing as they would be likely to wish to find out more about the articles shown on the cover.

Preliminary task photos

These are the photos which I used for the cover and contents of my magazine...

Preliminary task: contents codes and conventions

Magazine Contents Pages: Codes and Conventions

The contents of a school magazine should also incorporate various codes and conventions to appeal to the specific target audience.

Firstly, page numbers indicate where you can find each piece of content within the magazine. This eliminates confusion for the reader. The page number is linked to the title of the page which it is associated with, usually by a straight line or a line of dots to allow the reader where they can find each piece of content within the magazine. Along with the title of the contents, I will also include a small description of the page. This feature was included on one of the contents pages which I analysed and it allows the reader to understand what is on each page.

I also identified that they generally contain around 2-3 photographs portraying some of the more intriguing content from within the magazine. This will appeal to the audience and persuade them to continue reading as they have noticed the more important and appealing aspects to entice them. I will include this feature on my contents page. I will also place a caption at the bottom of each photograph to describe what is being shown.

The contents page of the magazine often incorporates the school logo. This acts as a reminder of the general content as the magazine simply surrounds aspects regarding the school.

A contents page can be either image dominated or text dominated. If it is image dominated, it can allow the page to appear more noticeable and creative whereas, if it is text dominated, it can allow the writing to be easier to read and appear more formal. Therefore, as I am creating a school magazine, I believe that a text dominated contents page would be more appropriate. For instance, all of the contents pages which I analysed were text dominated to suit the genre by appearing formal and easy to read and they all appealed to the target audience.

The contents page also generally has a similar colour scheme to the front cover. This allows a continued theme to be presented for the similar reasons of intriguing the reader due to the noticeable colours and allowing the writing to stand out in contrast to the background colour. This makes the writing easier to read and is, therefore, more appealing as it will require less effort to do so. Therefore, on the contents page of my school magazine, I will be likely to incorporate a brighter coloured background with an opposite colour scheme for the writing so that it is easier to read.

On all of the contents pages which I analysed, the font was relatively simplistic. On the contents page of my magazine, I will use a simple sans serif font to allow it to be easier to read. The title is always simply “Contents” and I will include this in a larger, bold font so that it stands out and is more noticeable.

Preliminary Task: front covers codes and conventions

Magazine Front Covers: Codes and Conventions

 While researching codes and conventions, I viewed a variety of school magazines in order to discover what they incorporate to make them successful. I researched a number of school magazines for inspiration for the development of my school magazine.

On the front cover of each magazine, there is typically a student smiling. As they appear to be happy, this reinforces they portrayal of the school being a fun and enjoyable environment which the school magazine is attempting to promote. We are required to use a medium close-up of one single student so I will utilise this convention on the cover of my magazine to present the school as fun and enjoyable to make the magazine appear friendly and make people wish to read it. The image on my cover will also cover the majority of the page as the main focus.

I will also utilise the convention of employing a girl to be shown on the front cover and a boy on the contents page to portray a balance in gender so that my magazine will appeal to a wider audience and more will wish to read it. Each magazine included this feature so I believe that it will allow my magazine to be similarly successful. Furthermore, I will attempt to include people from varied ethnicities to suggest that it is a multi-ethnic school and anybody is welcome to study at the school and able to gain success from doing so. These two features are included on the cover of the “Roundhay Roundup” cover as it includes two girls and one boy; the boy appears to be from an ethnic minority.

The image is also occasionally taken from a low angle in order to allow the students to appear to be more powerful as shown on the cover of the “Roundhay Roundup” magazine. This shows that the students are comfortable at the school and powerful in the environment. The image is required to appear well-lit so that it is clear and looks professional. This image should also be cut out on Photoshop and superimposed over the banner. This could suggest that the students come first as they are prominently in the foreground of the cover to represent importance. The prominent image usually contains a student looking directly at the camera. This could be an implication of a personal pronoun to allow each reader to believe it is them that is being targeted to read the magazine. Therefore, I will include this on the cover of my magazine.

Approximately three colours are used on the banners of the magazines to make it appear eye-catching and effective. It also eliminates confusion and makes it appear more simplistic to avoid overcrowding. For instance, on the cover for “Greenfields School” magazine, the colour scheme consists of dark green, light green and blue. I will include a banner on my magazine with a limited number of colours. I will also be likely to use a universal colour scheme for the banner to represent the school colour but, also, eye-catching colours to draw in attention. I will also incorporate writing in a colour which stands out in contrast to the colours on the banner so it is easier to read for the audience. Furthermore, there is a varied range of fonts and sizes to include variation and make it appear more exciting and interesting. I will use this feature in order to attract more viewers to wish to read the magazine. For instance, on the cover for the “Top Terrace” magazine, a simple sans serif font is used to appeal to the younger audience due to its simplicity.

Exciting punctuation is used to make the content of the magazine more exciting and intriguing. I will include this feature in my magazine to make it more intriguing through the use of exclamation marks and informal, colloquial language which will, stereotypically, appeal to my target audience. In terms of appealing language, I could use features such as alliteration and the power of three to make it sound catchy and fun.

I will be likely to include a plug feature which presents what will be included in the content of the magazine. I will attempt to make it revolve around an interesting topic which will appeal to students. For instance, phrases like ‘cool candidates’ will, stereotypically, be likely to appeal and will make them wish to continue to read on as included on the cover for the “Roundhay Roundup magazine”. Furthermore, on the “Hazley’s Sixth Form” magazine, a plug showing an opportunity to win money is incorporated to entice the audience to read the content. Also, one of the magazines which I researched incorporated a folded corner. This suggests that it is inviting you to open the magazine and read the content.

I will be required to include the edition number of the magazine and the date to allow the reader to notice that the content that they are reading is not out of date. Furthermore, a barcode is not required as the magazine is not to be sold; it is a free magazine for the student’s pleasure.

To represent the school, the school’s logo could be included to allow the reader to understand the general subject of the magazine. This will brand the school and make it more recognisable and will be effective on my magazine for this reason and it was included on almost every magazine cover which I analysed; “Greenfields School”, “Roundhay Roundup” and “Top Terrace”. The school name will also be included on the cover to, again, brand the school and allow the reader to understand the content more thoroughly. One of the magazines which I researched also included a short summary of the school at the top of the cover. For instance it could mention that it is ‘A school specialised in technology and media along with inspiring the student’s willing to learn.

The headline of the magazine will be written in a large font which will stand out on the page. If I wished more my magazine to appear more formal, I would use a font like the one on the ‘Greenfields School’ example; scripted and curly. However, I want my magazine to appear to be more informal to appeal to the younger students. Therefore, I will use a simple sans serif font like the one on the ‘Roundhay Roundup’ example as it is more simplistic and bold to stand out on the page and appeal to the younger generation (students) who are the target audience of my magazine.

Preliminary Task

Hello, and welcome to my blog! In this project, I am required to research the various codes and conventions of school magazines before creating my own front cover and contents page. I am using this blog in order to record all of my ideas and creations. This is a preliminary task to prepare me for the creation of a music magazine as it will allow me to understand codes and conventions along with enabling me to practice creating my own pages.