Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?
My audience would be between the ages of 11 and 18, which are the ages that students attend Secondary school. I have chosen students instead of parents because pupils are more effected by the "goings on" around the school, therefore making the stories inside my magazine much more relevant to them. I believe the design of my front cover appeals to this target audience because of the simple layout and the bold and vibrant colours which makes the text on the page stand out to the readers. In my magazine i have used  as little text as possible without making the magazine look like it has nothing in it, because the attension span of my target audience would be less than older target audiences. I have also used text that 11 to 18 year olds would understand so they can take in the information more quickly, this in vital because a customer only looks at a magazine cover on a shelf for a couple of seconds, so the more information the magazine gives to the customer the better. As then they would be more likely to buy the magazine because they know what is in the magazine.

Like my front cover i have used a simplistic design for my contents page to suit my target audience. This is because it is a lot easier for the reader to navigate around the page, therefore they will read everything on the page. 

What have you learnt about technologies form the process of constructing this product?
From constructing my magazine i have learnt how to use new technologies. When i started making my magazine it was very obvious that i didn`t know how to use the editing software Adobes Fireworks. However as i spent more time using the editing software i became more comfortable using it as i knew lots of new features which it offers. The skills i have learnt include; cropping an image, adding drop shadows and using page rulers to professionally layout a front cover and contents page. 

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of school magazines?
My magazine develops and challenges forms and conventions of school magazines. Firstly on my front cover i have used a big and colourful masthead which every magazine i have looked at has on it. The reason why i have done this is because i want my magazine to become a brand and if i didn`t readers would not think by magazine name "PB NEWS" was a big thing. I have also used one image on my front cover that is what students can relate to (studying), which is what other school magazines do. However, during my research i found that lots of magazines have text which is not stand out to the reader, which results in the reader missing information about the magazine. To tackle this problem i tried to use drop shadows on the text to help try to make it stand out but this was not enough so i have used boarders around my text which then makes the text stand out. No other school magazines which i have looked at have done this, however my magazine still looks professional.

This is my contents page, from my research i have used different elements of other contents pages to create my contents page. My masthead is big and bold along side it being at the top with no text around it, it is the first thing the reader sees on the page. The font colour black matches with the text to the right of the page, i have doe this so that the reader is not overwhelmed by having too many colours. The text that i have included in my contents page is what is featured in my magazine, from my research every magazine has a contents page where the text is showing what the magazine is featuring, i have done this to show the reader what the major stories this magazine covers. Beneath the text i have included the page number so that if the reader is interested in a story the reader can easily find the page where it is on. The images i have used are taken the library, in the pictures the students are focused on there work what they are doing. The main reason why i have done this is to set an expectation of being focused to the lower school as they are the main target audience of this magazine.

Front cover and analysis

Contents page analysis

Mock Contents page and analysis

This is my contents page, from my research i have used different elements of other contents pages to create my contents page. My masthead is big and bold along side it being at the top with no text around it, it is the first thing the reader sees on the page. The font colour black matches with the text to the right of the page, i have doe this so that the reader is not overwhelmed by having too many colours. The text that i have included in my contents page is what is featured in my magazine, from my research every magazine has a contents page where the text is showing what the magazine is featuring, i have done this to show the reader what the major stories this magazine covers. Beneath the text i have included the page number so that if the reader is interested in a story the reader can easily find the page where it is on. The images i have used are taken the library, in the pictures the students are focused on there work what they are doing. The main reason why i have done this is to set an expectation of being focused to the lower school as they are the main target audience of this magazine.

Thumbnail sheet

These are documentary photographs i have taken showing students hard at work, which reinforces the idea of the school ethos. All these image involve something to do with learning and school, these would be appropriate to use in my magazine because it links to the theme of school which the magazine evolves around. Some of these images look the same but i have taken the same shot from different angles by doing this i can use an image that would fit my magazine as one image will give me just enough space to add text in. The image that i am going to include in my front cover is the second from the right hand side on the top row because the facial expressions of the student tell the tell that he is focused. Also by the use of the library as my background it also gives a relaxed but focused way of learning which is what i want to put across to the readers.

Contents page visual layouts

Above are the visual front covers I have come up with for my contents page. Five out of the six designs have the masthead covering the top of the page, this is because I want the masthead to be seen the first on the page. However, one of these designs I have not placed my masthead at the top, instead I have put it covering the left side of the page, the main reason I wanted to do this is to experiment with not using the conventional magazine layout of having the masthead at the top. On every design I have put space for text on the page, in my final contents page I need to include text as the whole idea of a contents page is to inform the reader what stories or topics are in this issue of the magazine. From my research I have found out that a good contents page has the right ratio of text to images, all of these designs I think I have accomplished this as there is a lot of text or images on the page by doing this it will inform the reader without losing the readers attention. The bottom right design I believe is my best design and I am most likely to use this on my final piece. This design is perfect for a school magazine because the page is divided from text to images and a starburst, as a result this makes it professional because every aspect of the contents page has its own part of the page so the reader knows where to look on the page for information.