Research And Planning: Front Cover Analysis

Feedback 24.11.09

Good work so far Charlotte but i need to see research. You need to be working on this more at home. You need to outline the genreal conventions of msuci mags and then upload and analyse a front cover, contents and feature article of a similar genre mag to your intended project. Discuss how they use the conventions creatively to target the audience and suggest genre. Don't forget to discuss the purpose of these pages - eg. fulfil AIDA, fulfil surveillance need etc - use theories. See checklist in packs for more help.

Mrs A

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task i had to create a front cover for a college magazine, I made it so that the image I used looked bold and that the person stood out on the page. To do this I cut out the person and then changed the opacity of the background so then the writing would be clearer, also I thought that this way would look better than having lots of rectangles with a changed opacity.

There are some improvements that need to be made to the magazine such as, I could have used some more headings on the cover, there are currently only three of them, to make the magazine more appealing the target audience.

On the title of the magazine I used bright and bold colours, green and yellow outline, this makes it stand out and it is more eye catching than a boring colour.

I put a strap line running along the bottom of the magazine to stop the page from looking empty, the text that I used was ''exclusively for St. Mary's college'' this makes it sound like it is unique and if you go to this particular college then this magazine is aimed at you. All the topics on the cover relate to current events in the college and are mainly study tips and trip news, this is because students don't want to read about 'boring' things such as academic topics, they would rather be reading about a new trip offer.

The image on the front cover shows the student doing something, I thought that an action shot would work best because it shows what college is all about, she is reading a book but smiling at the same time so this puts across the sense that college life is good.

I think that I could have made the headings bolder and make them stand out more, it looks like they have just been placed anywhere on the page, I could have put a box around them

or an auto shape to make them look bolder and stand out more.

I sketched my contents page as shown on the right, I thought that the best way to keep it 'fun' was to include lots of images, this would also add colour to the page which would keep it exciting and interesting.

I would try to include as little writing as possible because students aren't really interested in the reading they would rather look at pictures and read the magazine that way.

Initial Thoughts And Ideas...

The project that I have chosen to do is a music magazine focusing on the a balanced mixture of genres. I chose this option because I love listening to most music and also I love reading magazines so I think this option would be best suited for me. My target audience for the magazine will be for female teenagers, in order to ensure that the target audience is right for my type of magazine I need to give out questionnaires and surveys and then adjust my magazine to fit the target audience. There are already some music magazines which talk of a similar genre already on the market, I need to make sure that my magazine retains its originality and is as unique as can be. To do this I will make sure that the front cover will be an interesting topic because girls are more likely to want to read about them if they are styled and photographed appropriately for this audience. The USP for my magazine would be the style of genre I have chosen, I think the fact that it will be a mixture of music, mainly chart, means that it will have a wider audience which it will appeal to, therefore meaning more people will want to actually buy it.