Contents page.

This is my contents page for the college magazine. I decided to take the picture I used for my front and used it as the background. I then sent the picture to the back so it allowed the writing to be seen. Then I changed the format of the picture to washout so it made it leave noticeable and made the writing stand out more. I choose to use this colour writing because on my front cover I have a few reds and I didn’t want to use the exact same colour but one close to make them blend together and seem as if they have the same affect. I choose to have the Wyke college logo on the bottom right of my contents page so it shows what college it is for. I also placed the Wyke college website next to it to allow people to be able to access the website. I put the issue number and date on the contents page as well so people know what issue it is if they have missed it on the front cover.

Final evaluation.

Overall I think that my media product uses develops and challenges forms and conventions that would be expected in real media products. From making my magazine I have learnt to use Photoshop. I used Photoshop to make my magazine as it had all the features that I needed to make my magazine. I
I think this because I have made sure to include all the different aspects of real magazine such as little things like the bar code, the issue number and the date. Even though these are only the minor aspects of the magazine they make it more realistic because every magazine includes this.
I have also included the more major aspects with when people buy a magazine look at such as the title of the magazine and the additional articles, which i have made sure stand out so people can notice them, which is what media products aim to do so.
I think that overall my magazine indicates from the front cover the brief impact of what will be inside it and it shows that it is about all round college aspects and not just one certain subject etc.My media products audience is aimed at particularly students aged 16-19 years which is the age that they would presume to be if they were attending college. It would also be aimed at some students in year 11 aged 15 and 16 which could give them the chance to read the magazine before they came to the college in order for them to know what to expect at the college. It could also be aimed at the parents of students to read in case that there is something that they would want to know about the college, or what is going on, or how to get something for there son/daughter etc.
I designed my front cover in order to make sure that it stands out to the audience and so it will catch there eye when they see it. The way that i addressed my audience was that i made sure in the additional articles that they new what it was aimed at. I also used bright colours and made them stand out so that it would attract them to my magazine. My magazine would be in-house production.
The college would produce it itself and get it published by the local publisher. The magazine would be published for many reasons such as to promote the college. The magazine could be used to get people that are thinking about joining next year and make it look good for them. It could also be used to promote such things are exams and the results that it achieves to show how good it is to the parents as well at the students.
I have learnt from the preliminary task how to use Photoshop and design my own magazine. I have learnt to be able to develop my skills in to the next task and to be able to use it better to produce a magazine, contents and double page spread.

Magazine front cover - final design.

This is the final design of my magazine. I decided to design my magazine cover in Photoshop. The first thing that I did was take the photograph for my magazine, when I was finally happy with the photograph that I had decided on, I chose to edit it in Photoshop. I did this so I could make the best effect of the photo which would look the best on my magazine.
First of all I sharpened it and then I blurred the whole thing and rubbed out with the eraser on the part of the image that I wanted to remain there which enabled it to stand out more than the rest of the photograph.
I named my magazine 'Real' as I thought it was an all round name that could cover anything, as this is a general college magazine not just based on one topic. I thought that the name real was short, catchy and easy for people to understand. It was also a good word to fit into my slogan 'the real way to achieve' as this gives the college a good impression.
The font I used for the title was veranda; I decided to use this one out of them all because it looked the most suitable for the design of my magazine. After testing a lot of colours out for my title, I chose the font to be in white because it was the colour that stood out the most against my picture and background. I used an outline glow around the title and a low shadow as this made it stand out a little bit more than it already did, compare to the other text on the page.
Next I designed my slogan; I used the same font for the whole of the writing on the page as I thought it would look more professional if I did. I decided to put the slogan in italics as it was the smallest writing on the page so it would help it to stand out more. As the slogan is just as important to the magazine because it gives it the all round effect by summing up the college.
In the bottom right hand corner of the cover I placed a bar code, the date and the Wyke college website. I did this because every magazine has a bar code and the date on so it would need this on it and having the college website on it makes it so people who are buying the magazine they are able to access the website as well if they need to find out more about the college if the magazine didn't tell you it.
The way that I placed the advertisements of some of the different articles that are in the magazine on the front cover took the most time. I had to choose different font colours for each but ones that looked right with the rest of my magazine. I chose to use whites and reds, as white went with the title of the magazine and red went with the advert above the title. I had to be careful not to use to much white in the rest of the writing in case it made the title not stand out as much as it needed to.

Taking and editing photograph.

For my college magazine I am not basing it on a certain theme I am just doing it as a general college magazine.

For my picture I decided to take it as a general college look of a student working. I took my picture from this angle because it allows you to be able to see the folder that she is looking through and I had her put her right hand like that because I think it makes it look more like she is concentrating on her work. This could also give the impression that Wyke college students work hard in order to achieve good grades, so it is a positive picture for the college.







Next Iuploaded my photograph onto Photoshop and because it was quite blurry I had to sharpen it to give it more of affect to make it stand out. This is effective because it gives the main focus of the picture stand out more.















Finally to make the main body of the picture stand out so the audience know what they are focusing on. I blurred the background as then it makes the person stand out more so the audience can't focus on anything else. It makes it as so she is concentrating on her school work and nothing else around her. This gives a positive effect on the college because it shows that students are positive towards there work.

Creating a college magazine, draft and planning.

I am going to be writing about why and how i have chosen to do each part of my magazine the way I have.

I have started off by drawing a plan of how i want my magazine to appear. I looked at the acronym LIIAR to help me plan my front cover:
The language is what gets the reader to read on, i am going to make my magazine masthead and additional headlines stand out so that it will catch there eye.
The institution is what controls the production process and how it affects the final product. This magazine is aimed mainly at the staff of the college and some of the students; therefore it will have a more mature approach which will affect the way that it is written.
The ideology is what values are explicit and implicit. This is by the way that the front cover tells you about the magazine before you even read it, as the front cover focuses a lot on what will be inside of the magazine.
The audience is who the magazine is aimed at. The audience is one of the most important parts of the magazine and you need to make sure that you catch the audience's eye for them to buy it compared to other magazines.
The representation is who appears on it, what is excluded and how there portrayed. Teachers of students will normally appear on it, i am going to have a student on the front as mine, as they are as much a part of the college as the teachers are.
The masthead will be one part of the magazine that will stand out the most, it will be the largest bit of font on the front cover so that readers will know what magazine they are looking for. The writing of the name of my magazine will be the part which stands out the most, so when the customer is looking for the magazine they will clearly know what magazine they are looking for. The slogan for my magazine will go near my masthead and will be short and snappy, summing up what the college aims to do.
The Wyke college logo will go on my magazine front cover so that people know what college it is and if they see Wyke logo anywhere else they will be able to relate it to the magazine.
The name of my magazine will be short and catchy and it will link to something to do with college. I am going to call my magazine real, because the slogan to go with it will be Wyke College; the real way to achieve. I think this is good because it is a general college magazine not just based on a certain subject so it is an all round name that could suit anything.
The main picture will be a medium close up of one student. The aim of the picture is to give a good impression of the college. If the magazine gives a good impression of the college it could persuade people to want to come here. The picture wil represent the college and it will have a typical student look, to well represent the college.
The additional articles along the sides of the magazine will show what else is happening at the college and what it offers for the students that goes here and the students that will go here. They will stand out but not as much as the masthead and picture but enough to make sure that people can see them and know what is going on.

Comparing 3 different magazine covers.

I am going to compare three magazines which are all very different. The ones that I am going to compare are 'Teen Vogue' which is a fashion magazine 'Heat' which is a gossip magazine and 'NME' which is a music magazine.

The first magazine I am going write about is Teen Vogue which is a fashion magazine.
The language of this magazine is very compact; it isn't just a simple front cover there is a lot going on in it. This will pull the reader in because they will see that there is a lot for them to read about and each bit is something different. The way the cover shows this is by the way that each title for a different story is written in a different way even if it is just a different colour or a different font, it still shows that it is an different individual story.

The audience for this magazine would be teenage girls rather than boys the way that it shows this is by having a girl on the front cover and wearing pink with is the stereotypical girl colour. Also because the colours of the fonts and the colour of the actual title magazine is in pink and orange with are more girl colours rather than boys.

The title of this magazine has also been put on top of the picture rather than sometimes they are put underneath. However even though it has been put on top it has been put so that it doesn't block any of the picture out or any of the writing out and makes it very clear. This could show that the magazine is clear on what they are talking about.


The next magazine that i am going to write about is NME this is a music magazine aimed at teenagers both girls and boys.

The language of this is also very compact and has a lot going on. This magazine has more going on than the Teen Vogue one and when you look at it; it could confuse the reader as there are stories everywhere. However it could also pull the reader in because the audience will obvious be interested in music so they will want to know everything that is going on. This front cover shows that it does know a lot of what is going on because of the amount of stories that it is showing us that it knows, also more stories are inside than that are just on the cover so it shows that there will be a lot to read about.

The way that the magazine shows it is for boys and girls rather than just one or the other is by having both a boy and a girl on the front cover together and using both blue and pink texts. This shows that there is something for girls and something for boys included in the magazine which widens the audience.

However the title in this magazine is covered by the picture, not all of just the E where as the teen vogue one wasn't. As they have covered the E in the title they have put the title again next to it not as another title but as part of a title for a story inside but this makes it clear to readers that may not buy the magazine the name of it in case that they didn't know it.


The final magazine i am going to write about is Heat which is a magazine all about gossip usually to do with celebrities. This magazine is aimed at teenagers, more likely girls that will buy it because they are more interested in what is going on but boys could buy it as well.

The language of this magazine is also very compact which i obviously the same with all magazines to show that there is a lot going on for the reader to read about. This magazine shows the stories more with pictures as well rather than just text which could be a good way to pull readers in to show them who the story is actually about rather than just a title of it.

The title of this magazine has been partly covered by the picture but just the A and it is almost like his head is replacing the A because an A is a round shape and so is somebody's head.

On the magazine front cover both blue and pink is used showing that it is for girls and boys. The colours are used as a background colour behind two stories; this could indicate which story is more aimed at boys and which story is more aimed at girls.

Overall i have found that each magazine has similar ways of displaying there front covers, such as all three of them are very crowded front covers showing that the magazine is full of different stories. Also each magazine has something different about it, e.g. some are just for girls, some are just for boys and some are for both girls and boys.

Secondary teachers magazine cover.

This magazine cover is from a magazine with the audience of secondary school and college teachers.
The magazine is designed so that when you open the front and back cover they are both like front cover, half for girls and half for boys. This is because the aim of the magazine is to figure out if boys and girls learn differently. They have done the front covers like this because it shows that the magazine is equally aimed half at girls and half at boys not more on one than the other.

The language of this magazine is chosen carefully for both the boys and the girls. On each of the covers it says 'do boys and girls learn differently?' next to the main picture. However the writing on the side for the boys is in blue and the writing on the side for the girls is in pink. This shows that there is a difference between boys and girls and that they could learn differently just by the colours that they have chosen to use. They have chosen to use these colours because they are the stereotypical colours that people think of for both girls and boys. However also on the front cover it says plus free student cookbook. What they have done on this is where is says 'plus' they have put it in pink on the boys side and in blue on the girls side, this indicates that there is also a chance that boys and girls are the same and could learn the same rather than differently.

The title of the magazine cover is secondary teachers and it is the same on each side of the cover which could also be an indication that they are both the same. On the side of the cover which is for boys the boy has his hand in the air as if he is going to answer a question. Whilst his hand is in the air it is covering the C in the word secondary. As his hand is covering his arm is shaped in curve like a C so it is almost like his arm is replacing the C which involves him more in the cover because he has also become part of the title.

As the boy is answering the question he looks enthusiastic about answering and the girl is looking over at him which a smirk on her face. This connects both of the covers together so that the audience knows that it is both the same story not two different ones even though half is on the front of the magazine and half is on the back of the magazine.

Even though there are many things different about the magazine covers indicating a difference there are also things that are the same. However they are things that aren't as noticeable to the audience if they are just scanning at the covers such as the writing at the top which tells you about other things in the magazine. The main focus that catches the audience's eye on a front cover is usually the title and the picture, but the other stuff they do notice as well even if they don't particularly take it in, this shows that even though there is obvious differences there are also some things that are the same between girls and boys.

Producing a college magazine front cover and contents page.

As this is the beginning of the foundation portfolio preliminary task we look at how the media key concepts could be applied to produce a college magazine. I used the acronym LIIAR; language, institution, ideology, audience and representation.

L - language. The language is what gets the reader to read on, such as the print layout. This is important in a magazine cover because if the cover doesn't impress the reader then they are less likely to buy the magazine. The font and text are part of the language and for a magazine cover the font and text is chosen carefully to catch the eye of the reader. The aim of the language on a front cover is to give a particular impression to the reader of what type of magazine they are going to buy.

I - institution. The institution is what controls the production process and how it affects the final product. As this is a collage magazine it will be aimed at the staff working for the college. Therefore it will have a more mature approach on how it is written and design as the cover will have to appeal to adults.

I- ideology. Ideology is a dominant set of ideas presenting itself as common sense or truth. The ideology is what values are explicit or implicit. It is the set of shared values by groups within society. The implicit ideology is the way that the magazine front cover tells you a lot about the main focus of the magazine and what will be inside of it.

A- audience. The audience is who the magazine is aimed at. The audience is a really important part of the process of making a magazine because if the audience eye isn't caught by the front cover then it is more likely for them not to buy it. The audience of a college magazine would be teachers or even students which would be aged 16-19 years. The magazine is aimed at more middle class people.

R- representation. The representation is who appears on it, what is excluded and how there portrayed. On a college magazine teachers or students normally appear on the front cover or something to do with the college its self. What is on the front cover can range on anything that is to do with the college e.g. it can be something such as cooking up to something to do with sport.