Conclusion of are front cover magazine

After a couple of hours work I finally completed the front cover and I think it looks really good and effective. Some things I had to play around with such as the images on the front cover because at first they looked a bit tilted so I had to play around with it until it looked straight. Another problem I had with the images was that I didn't want to have too many images because then I thought people may not be able to see the background which I want readers to do else there wasn't no point having a background so I had to play around with the layout. I wanted to do something different compared to the original school magazine because I felt there was to many images and not enough text explaining the image which we made sure we did so the people that will read are magazine can clearly understand what's happening in the images. I also decided to put teasers on the front cover of the magazine because most people from the questionnaire said that it would probably make them read the school magazine so I thought it would be essential to add this.

I used different fonts on the front cover of magazine so that people can tell the different subjects rather than having all the same font because it might confuse some people so I thought this would be a good and effective idea so its easier for people to tell the difference and so it doesn't look all the same there's more of a variety of colour and bright colours as well because most people said that the font used for the front cover is to dull and the colours aren't bright enough so I made sure I done that to keep readers happy. One of the font colours that I used was green this connotes fresh so it says I am doing something completely different to what the original school magazine was like so hopefully I will get more readers because they will enjoy reading it more and they are interested.

Another thing that looks good on my front cover was the logo because I decided to make it bigger so it stands out to the reader now and it doesn't clash with the background like the original school magazine did so hopefully now readers will be able to tell were the magazine came from and get are school recognised because most people that I asked outside of the school said they wouldn't know were it came from because it blended in to much with the background and it wasn't big enough so now hopefully the readers will be happy with the new style.

The images came out really well and we were impressed on how well they looked on the front cover of our magazine and I only had to change a few things on the photographs that took but most of them were alright so all I had to do was stick it right on to my front cover so it saved me a lot of time because although I had to edit some of them.

I decided to keep the title the same I tried to come up with a different name to make it sound new and more exciting but I decided to keep it with the original name because we had the picture of the front of the entrance were it says Bodmin college so I used that as our background so it stands out and people can now actually tell that it is Bodmin college's own magazine. I also didn't want to change it because people may not recognise that it is the college's magazine so I thought that it may get less readers so I thought we would just really try and focus on the teasers on the front cover to get readers interested rather than spending a lot of time just trying to come up with a new name for the magazine.

I feel my strengths were strengths were taking the images and being able to put them straight onto the front cover of the magazine with only having to edit a few. I also felt I was good at coming up with what teasers to put on the front cover of the magazine so I can try to attract as many readers as I could such as I thought that it would be a good idea of having the pictures of the new part of the common room because most people are interested in seeing what the common room looks because its new and this could get the attention of both students and parents. I also thought my teaser of the Rosie and cider play was a good idea because on the original school magazine they only really focus on one subject and everybody has different tastes so I decided to add this so I could cover a wide selection of tastes for people and even if the students don't like the sound of the play some parents might like to go and watch it so I feel we advertised it well.

I think my weaknesses was trying to decide on the layout of my magazine because I couldn't think of to ideas but I wanted to put to quite a bit on the front cover of the magazine because I was worried it might look empty and not as advertising so I decided to just have a few main images which people would most likely like to see. However I also didn't want to fill up the front cover because I liked the background picture and I really wanted it to stand out so readers recognises the image. The only other weakness that I really had was trying to find the right font colour because I wanted it to stand out from the background like the publishers of other magazines do so I tried to use a variety of colours that I felt would stand out to the reader.

Overall I think I done well with my magazine front cover and I was impressed with the outcome of the magazines because it took me a lot of time and effort. I really hope that people that see my front cover of the magazine would be impressed as well because most of the things I put on the front cover of my magazine was to do with the feedback I got back from are questionnaires so I based everything on what the readers would like to see.

Producing the front cover of are magazine

For this final piece of work we decided to do have of the front cover each. Jake Pearce applied the background of the front cover and all the other images and I applied the font to go with the images. We looked at each others flat plan and questionnaire analysis so we could come up with a really good idea on mix both of ours together because we liked each other ideas. We both decided that the entrance of the college should be used because the photo that Jake took looked really good and effective. An idea that Jake came up with is to show the new pictures of the common room because not every one has seen them yet so he thought it would be a good idea to use this as a teaser for people because most people are yet to see the new parts of the common room. An idea I came up with was to put a image on the front cover about the latest drama play called Rosie and cider the reason why I thought this idea would be relevant is because it is the most recent play and it will be a good way to advertise the new play for the college and its also a good way to get the college recognised for not only being good at one or two subjects it shows we can do a range of subjects well. The other thing myself and Jake both agreed on was about having a teasers about the academy results because from the feedback we got most people wanted to know more information about the academies because most parents and lower years don't get to hear the results. The final bit that took a bit of time was trying to find the right coloured and sized font because most people from the questionnaire said that they didn't like the colours used because it was to dull so we tried different colours to see what would go best with are background because we didn't want them to clash together because then people wont be able to see the teasers that we used to try and get the attention of the readers.

Pictures taken and analysis

Today I started taking the pictures to go on the front cover of my school magazine. I took the pictures that I thought would be appropriate to go on the front cover so he took pictures that he felt would be appropriate for are front cover such as entrance of the school and the new common room. After I took the pictures I looked at them and analysed them so I could evaluate whether or not they need cropping because maybe the images are to big and what kind of lighting there is on the photo so whether it was natural light or if we wanted to change it and use a different kind of lighting so make it look better. I also explained the connotations so what the picture shows and what effects it gives and the reason why we took the photo in the first place for example we took the photo of the entrance of the school to use as are front cover picture because as well as we have made the logo bigger we also have on the background of are front cover Bodmin college.

I took this image because I thought it would go well as my background of the the front cover this is because its a clear picture of the entrance and the reader will be able to see that it is Bodmin colleges magazine because you can see the Bodmin college on the building.

I took this photo because I wanted to show everyone the new extension on the common room because not many people apart from the current 6th form so I thought it would be a good opportunity for everybody to see the new images of the common room.

Flat Plan

After analysing my questionnaire and finding out what images and information people would like to see I went on to creating my flat plan I had taken into account of what people wanted to see judging by the feedback of my magazine. I decided to do different things to the current magazine such as one of the things I made sure I did was make the logo bigger so it stands out a lot more now. I also decided to add more teasers because people said that it will grab their attention if they can see whats going on inside of the magazine and I also included on my flat plan about the latest academies results. Also this lesson I have decided to team up with Jake Pearce because we both decided we had different strengths and weaknesses so we could support each other and then overall make a better front cover.

Analysis of questionnaire

After I had all my questionnaires completed I went on to analysing it. I also explained why I choose the certain questions that I did and now had a good idea on what to do and add on to the flat plan that I was about to create. From the feedback I got back from my questionnaires it was clear to me that some people were very unhappy and disappointed about the current school magazine and it was made clear to me that I'm going to have to do a lot of different things to the school magazine to make people happy and to grab the readers attention. For example the majority of people said that they didn't like the front cover of the school magazine because they thought the colours were to dull and it doesn't appeal to them however some people said that they like the dull covers because it goes with the season that we was currently in at the time which was Autumn.

The feedback that I got from my second question that I asked about whether or not the school logo was again very negative the majority of people said that the logo doesn't stand out enough and some students even said that some people that read it from the outside amy not know that its Bodmin college's very own magazine. Some people also said that the logo blends in to much with the background. From the feedback from this question it tells me that I need to make sure that the logo stands out much more when I go onto making the front cover.

The next question I asked was about the same amount of answers for both yes and no this question was amount the amount of pictures used. Some people said that they liked the amount of pictures used because they like to see what has been happening around the college and what events having recently taken place. However some people said there was to many pictures and not enough text explaining what was actually taking place in these photo's. The best way I can try to make people want to read my magazine is trying to balance out the amount of pictures and text on my front cover.

The feedback I got from my fourth question which was about the colours used was also a bit of negative feedback. The majority of people that I asked said that the colours were to dull and didn't stand out to them and they would like brighter colours to be used so it stands out to the readers. From this feedback I'm definitely going to make sure that I use brighter colours so people are happy with it and it stands out to a wider range of audience such as people that are not normally reading the school magazine.

The reason why I asked the fifth question was so I get some idea of what people will like to see when I finally create the front cover of my magazine. I got a wide range of feedback from this question which I expected because different people have different tastes. The main things people wanted to see was the latest news and results from the academy and whats going to happen within the next few months.

My sixth question was about whether or not teasers would make people want to read the inside of my magazine. The majority of people said that they would like to see teasers on the front of the magazine because it would give them something to look forward to reading inside the magazine. The other feedback I got was that they can then see if there's any stories in there that they would be interested in reading because some people said that sometimes they cant be bothered to read it because they don't know if there's going to be stories in the magazine that they are actually interested in.

My last question I asked people was do you like the font of the magazine. I asked this question because I wanted to know if they thought the font of the school magazine was effective and whether or not it stood out to them. The feedback I got back with this question is that it doesn't really bother them because it is big enough to read and there isn't that much font on the front cover of the magazine anyway.

After analysing all of the information I have got back from my questionnaires I am going to make sure that I try and add in everything that people want so that my magazine front cover will grab the attention of loads of people. Such as I'm going to make the logo bigger so it stands out to people and they know were the magazine came from. I'm also going to make sure I use bright colours to grab the readers attention and try a different kind of layout to the current one to see if people prefer it.

My questionnaire

For the next piece of work for the preliminary task I had to produce a questionnaire. I made sure that I had all the necessary questions in order to make sure that when I came to making my front cover it had everything that the student sand the parents would like to see on the front cover of the magazine so it would grab their attention and make them want to read it also the feedback from my questionnaire will be a huge help for me so I can make a good flat plan and then go on to making a good front cover the questions I came up with was:

1) Do you like the front cover of the Bodmin college school magazine?

2) Do you think the logo stands out?

3) Do you think there are too many pictures?

4) What do you think about the colours used for the front cover?

5) What would you like to see on the front cover of the magazine?

6) Would teasers make you want to read the inside of the magazine?

7) Do you like the font on the magazines front cover

Analysis of school magazine

The next piece of work was to analysis are own magazine and say what we thought was both good and bad about the cover. Again I looked at the connotations to help write a fair analysis of the front cover of the magazine and to help me think of what I should do to make people want to read my magazine and how to make it stand out more to the readers.

Analysis of 3 lifestyle magazines

Started the coursework the first task was to analysis 3 lifestyle magazines in this piece of work the key areas that I followed in order to make the best powerpoint I could was by explaining the conventions on the front cover such as the images used and how it has an effect on the reader and why it will make the reader want to buy the magazine the type of font they use for the front cover of the magazine so whether or not it stands out so it grabs the readers eye and the amount of font they have on the front cover so whether it gives to much information on the front cover or whether its just enough to make the reader interested. Some other things I evaluated on the front cover was the masthead so they way they lay it out on the front cover such as if they make sure the front cover is filled up images or if there is more font also I talked about the background and if it worked with the font because if the background and the font clash together than it isn't as effective but if there are two completely different colours then it stands out more. I then went on to looking at the contents and analysed different front covers to see how many teasers they use and whether its to much or not enough and if their high sales are anything to do with the people on the front cover. The last bit I looked at with the conventions was who it appealed to the reason why I done this is because I deliberately choose different magazine covers because it appeals to different people. The next thing I then included in my powerpoint was general details about the magazines such as the name of there website, the person who publishes it, the editor,genre and how often a new issue is released. The last bit of my powerpoint that I found out some information about was the sales figures and compared it to a different magazine and how well they do considering who they aim the magazine at.