Preliminary Task

Then i had to design my front cover. My aim was to design a school/college magazine aimed at years 10 and 11. I had to take into consideration the house style of my magazine.
I decided to use 3 models and make the picture very relaxed.
Below is my picture which i chose to use on my front cover. I have used 3 models including folders and books to make the picture associated with school work. I also added an umbrella to make the picture seem more casual. All of the models had eye contact with the camera and cheesy grins to connect to the reader.
I manipulated the photo by increasing the brightness to make it seem more friendly and cropped it so that the 3 models were in the centre of the page.
My masthead designs are on a presentation

Next i had to decide what cover lines to do:

"Think you know your teacher? Guess their baby photo!"

"Sixth Form?
Taster lessons starting next week!"

"Mocks for GCSE’s coming up?
10 Top Tips on how to revise."

I designed a puff to make the reader want to buy the magazine and grab their attention, this involved:

"Free Itunes voucher
inside!"

Feedback on my final front cover:

Positive feedback:
"The magazine front cover is convincing"

Negative Feedback:
"Ensure puffs and coverlines stand out on your front cover"

I learnt from this that my image was too busy and there was too much focus on the models so therefore the coverlines and puffs were harder to read. For my main task i shall ensure that my image is not cropped as much.

Feedback on my mock up of contents page:

Positive Feedback:
"Good use of striking colours"

Negative Feedback:
"The design is not like a magazine contents page so focus on the style"

Audience Research

I designed a questionnaire for my prelim task to see what people liked to see in a magazine. I sent this out to 20 people keeping my audience very specific as i chose to target GCSE students at the Folkestone School For Girls. :)
Below is my questionnaire:

1.) How often would you want this magazine?

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Termly

2.) How much would you be willing to pay for this magazine?

• nothing
• under £1
• £1-£2
• £2-£3
• £3-£4
• over £4

3.) Would you pay more to have the magazine in colour?

• yes
• no

4.) Would you want to be involved in writing the magazine?

• yes
• no

5.) What would you like there to be in the entertainment section? (tick more than one if needed)

• Interviews
• Quizzes
• Non-fictional stories
• Fictional stories
• Horoscopes
• Games/Sudokus/Wordsearch

6.) What size would you like the magazine to be in?

• A5
• A4
• A3

7.) How would you like the magazine to be delivered?

• by post
• via school

8.) Would you like the magazine to be beneficial for your education as well as entertainment?

• yes
• no

9.) What articles would you be interested in reading?

• music
• celebrity
• real life stories

10.) Would you like local information to be included in the magazine?

• yes
• no

11.) Besides these would you like anything else to be included in the magazine?

________________________________________________________

12.) Finally what do you look for most in a school magazine?

________________________________________________________

This is what i found from 15 results:

• Students wanted the magazine published termly
• The price would be between £1 and £2
• The magazine would be in colour
• Students wanted it to be beneficial for their education
• Include entertainment like interviews, quizzes, games and horoscopes
• To be delivered via school
• To include infortmation on Music, Celebrities and True Life stories
• The students also liked the idea of local information

Positive feedback

The questionnaire did help me with what i should include in the magazine and what students wanted, helping me to know what coverlines i should put on the front cover.

Negative feedback

The questionnaire did not help me with the style that the students wanted, for example the colour scheme.