Magzine Evaluation

Magazine Evaluation For my pulmonary task I had to use photo shop and Microsoft publisher to develop a new school magazine. For the feature article photo I used a medium close up of a student and edited the background so there would be no background in the magazine. I thought it would be easier to do this as I could add in some new ideas along the way, for example, try out new backgrounds, try new colours for the background and emphasise the colour of the masthead using the background colour altogether. I considered this but decided that the magazine would look better with the background the image had to begin with and thought it would help make the main conventions on the page stand out. For my photo I had a picture of the student facing forward and looking at the camera, which gave the effect of the student looking at the person who is considering reading the magazine. This would be a vital convention for the magazine because if the person was to be looking away from the reader, the reader may not be interested in the magazine because it doesn't stand out to them. Whilst doing my magazine I realised that photo shop uses layers to help create new ideas and to make it easier to set things out in a certain way. I thought this was really useful as I wanted to make my feature article image go over the masthead and I found it easier doing this using the different layers. For my masthead I used white font to stand out and contrast the background. I thought this would be useful as it will catch my audiences attention and make the magazine stand out. I also used a 'curvy' font to make the magazine come across less informal and more gossipy so it would show the students that it will be informative but in a fun way. Another convention I used was a puff. The puff says 'the coolest school mag around'. I thought by using the colloquial language it would be more appealing to the target audience as it doesn't make it sound formal. I also used other conventions, one example is the plugs. One plug that stands out in particular is the advertisement of how much the magazine costs. In this case it says the magazine is 'free' to everyone and is in a bright coloured fonts and background to emphasise the price of the magazine. Whilst doing my magazine I was considering the connotations and denotations of the magazine by looking at the conventions. The reason I chose to use bright font is because it makes the magazine look much more interesting to read, also using the bright colours would stand out to younger students as it would stand out to them. The feature article photo is the same as I used the background to show bright colours to stand out to the students. For my masthead I decided to slant the writing as I thought this could show that the magazine is formal but almost gossipy at the same time. By using this technique connotes that the magazine will be fun and interesting to read. I also felt that it gave the magazine a new and exciting look that would interest the students. For my contents page I tried to make it simple rather then flooding the page with a lot of coneventions. I thought that it would be a good idea to dennotate by using the William De Ferrers School logo as the bullet points to show what is in the contents page. Although I tried to make it look simple I acctually used more conventions then I thought. For example, I took a screen shot of the magazine cover and put it in the bottom left to make it easier to show where things are in the magazine. I used arrows to point to the part I was talking about and decided that by using the school logo it could be too boring to students. Also I used the connotation of using bright colours on the contents page, along with the title 'Contents' which I used a similar font to the front cover. I thought my first attempt of a magazine cover and contents page wasnt bad. I thought that it would interest the students and inform them about new activities and new things that have come to the school recently and upcoming events. Before doing my pliminary task I had not used photo shop before which meant that I had no experience using the software. Although since using the software I have learnt new ways of creating things and editing. I have learnt how to cut out backgrounds from images or change the colour of the backgrounds, layer different conventions in an effective way, find new fonts and experement with colours and shapes, and also learnt how to make my work to a decent standard. If I was to do my task again I think I would have used a different background, although I said that it would look more effective leaving the background in I felt that it was too dark and when I put the other conventions on it made the work come across as a bit messy and hard to read. Also I think I would have tried to show more connitations in my work, I would have tried to do this by using a wider variety of conventions rather then just the common masthead, feature article photo, plugs and puff. I think I would have kept my target audience the same, which is around 14-18 year old students.