Final front page and contents page for student magazine

Weekly Review

This week i have completed my original tasks and intend to move forward by carrying out the evaluation of my student magazine. Whilst composing my front cover and contents page, I have found that a weakness is co-ordinating where everything is placed and being able to fit everything on the page. A strength is the research I have completed which proved to be very useful for finding out the customers wants for a student magazine.

Research on front cover designs

As the design on my front cover and contents page is almost complete, I decided to add my evaluation of an exsiting student magazine.

Here is a university magazine aimed to inform there students what is going on in and around the campus. Current affairs are also included and the main topic of that time was the Olympics. As a student union it's focusing on what is available to the students, bar offers etc.

The banner is bold and states the obvious, it's brand identity is it's logo in the top left hand corner and allows you to see the union it belongs to.

The few coverlines that it does include are kept to a minimum and are situated on the right hand side of the front cover as well. The graphics co-ordinate with the magazines main feature ( the olympics). The strapline entices you to read further and find out what you can about the events and the font is kept in similar styles so it's easy to understand. The layout of the magazine allows the pictures to do most of the talking, showing the reader the spectacular sport events that they can witness. These pictures have been edited to highlight particular aspects of the movement taking place. I believe this magazine ticks all boxes when it comes to enticing a customer to purchase it.

Another outline of a front page

Here is a draft of my front cover without the photos in place. The magazine looks more appealing to the female population. The header/main title is bold and full of colour and the subtitles are attention-grabbing, focusing on the interest of students.

First draft of "New Mag On The Block" 's front cover.

This first draft has the basic outlines of the concept for my front cover. My next couple of drafts wil include the development of photos and colour schemes.

Questionnaire complete! Research conducted around College and results are shown below ...

I have chosen to show the results from my questionnaire which was conducted around the college. Many students showed an interest in a new student magazine being produced. When producung the graphs and pie charts it showed that students would not be interested in as much educational information, the main attraction would be gossip and information from around the college. Colour schemes and price were not mentioned in the questionnaire but I can predict that setting the magazine at a high price would not produce many sales. There input proved to be great research.

Researching target audience

I need to find out what my target audience enjoys reading. Please will you fill out my questionnaire ?

Researching target audience

1. Male Female

2. Age

3. Do you currently read any magazines?

4. If so … what do you read?



5. How often do you read magazines?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Other


6. Have you ever read a student magazine?



7. What would you like to see in a new student magazine?



Thankyou for completing my questionnaire.

"The Brief & Action Plan" ... Start Blogging!

This week, we have been asked to produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up as well as appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. this must be done using DTP and an image manipulation program. We must also produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate our grasp of DTP.

Action Plan

Week 1:

• Start a blog
• Conduct research on music magazines/articles
• Complete a questionaire aimed at your target audience
• Start mock designs of magazine cover

Week 2

• Organise and complete photos/photoshoot
• Designing layout of cover
• Use results from questionnaire to complete the above

Week 3

• Complete first draft of cover
• Continue desiging

Week 4

• Complete and finish pages
• Evaluation
• Answer other questionnaires

My action plan may vary slightly according to what is completed each week.