G321 Foundation Portfolio - Print Brief

The front page, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I looked at other media products to gather ideas for my final design, these include magazine details on the front page, the style of logo from the Trinity website as well as the editor's message on the contents page. I tried to fit as many magazine conventions in as possible to make the products look as professional as possible and be ale to suit the target audience I was aiming for. I tried to fit my younger target audience by looking at magazines aimed at younger audiences such as NME and Top of the Pops. I then wanted to build on these conventions to make them suit the design of my products. One of these examples was using the magazine logo onm the top left of the 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?  What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The school would distribute my magazine. This is because the magazine is about Trinity school and would so be most appealing to them. I use less formal language and font in order to attract the younger audience as well as using news that mainly involve students of the school, students which the magazine is aimed at.


Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be students, parents and teachers of Trinity school, buy mainly aimed towards younger readers.


How did you attract/address your audience? 
I used bright colours (which happen to be the colours of the school I was creating the magazine for). This along with images of students on the front cover, and lures on the cover which appeal to students of the school and their parents. I also used stories in the contents page that appeal to the younger audience as well as a reasonable amount of images the younger audience can look at instead of loads of text.

How did you attract/address your audience? 
To find what students would be attracted to in a  school magazine, i asked students (mainly sixth formers) as well as teachers to see what they think would attract a larger young audience. This helped me get a better idea when I started designing to make the magazine fit its target audience. The advice I was given helped me see what would make the magazine look less formal such as changing the font on the front page.

Final Design

    FRONT PAGE                                           CONTENTS PAGE

  

These are the final designs. I have changed these slightly from the last drafts I did. I included in more lures on the front page as well as another story in the contents page in order to use up space. I also added my own signature to the editor's message on the contents page, I did this by scanning my own signature and putting it into photoshop.

Final Design - Drafts

This is my front page draft. This was originally meant to be the final design I used but I made some more improvements to make it look more professional. I have three lures on the front, one of which I bended round the arm of the person, this is because it's less formal and appeals more to my younger target audience. I also tilted the Trinity logo to the side to make it less formal also. I gave the magazine details such as magazine details on the page, a convention of magazines. I also gave short summaries of other pages on the bottom left of the page, this is also a convention of magazine as it shows the reader more stories without using large font and taking up space.



I kept with a similar design to my written drafts as I did with the front page. I have a short message from the editor at the top right which is a convention of magazine contents pages. Another convention being that i used the cover page in the contents page and linking short story summaries to the lures to show the audience what page the story there interested is in on. Images linking with numbers is iconography of contents pages as it illustrates the stories making them more interesting to the reader. The page number as well as the story summaries are separated on the right side of the page. This is also a convention of magazine contents page as this organised layout helps the reader find the stories they want to read easier.

Original Photography

This is the photography I took around the school to use in my magazine. I won't use all of this photography as it does not suit the purpose I want to use them for, or the target audience. Such as the photo of the boys playing table tennis, they're in smart clothes and not sports clothes, this means students won't relate them as much to actually playing sport or an actual event as the photo is obviously posed.

Magazine Drafts

I realise that this layout is not very informal and so does not look to appear to a younger audience.

The logo should be tilted to make it look less formal.
I used a blue colour scheme because it's the main colour of Trinity school, this would appeal more to the students of the school.
The lures I have only put on the left side of the page as I wish to center the image on the right side.

I used blue again because it's the colour of Trinity. I tried to use a lot of images in order for the younger audience not to get bored. I will put in images which will be related to pages in the magazine, I will put the page numbers on the images so readers don't have to look through all the text. I also made it so the Contents heading looks to be cut out of the banner, this makes it look less formal than a normal heading.

This is my second design for the magazine. I went for a sharper design but with the same colour scheme of blue and yellow which is suitable for the purpose and target audience of the magazine, as they are two colours of the school. istarted creating the final design shortly before creating this, I regret this a I think that this design appeals more to a younger audience as it is sharper and looks more modern. The masthead isn't in a banner like the first design but in a a small area at teh top right, I tried to use up as little space as possible for features such as the name of the magazine and details to make room for the main image and lures.

For the contents page, I used the same design of straight lines and triangles. It does against the usual iconography of magazine as the images do not have page numbers on them but instead linked to short summary of the image's story and page number to its side. I have also included details of a subscription to the magazine at the bottom,  this is a convention of magazines. I kept the layout of the page numbers donw the left side of th page as it's also a convention of magazines such as Kerrang magazine.

Research #6 - Contents Page

This is the contents page for teen vogue. They have used black, white and red as the main house style, these 3 colours a common convention of magazines. A large main picture is place in the upper center of the page, linked to a page number, this makes it easier for the reader to skip to that page if that was the story they wanted to read. Stamps are also included by some of the pages numbers and titles, this shows the reader what page a story is on that was featured on the front cover and that the reader might have wanted to read. The page numbers are a larger font than the page titles, this is iconography of magazines as this has been the same with the other three contents pages I have analysed. Teen vogue is a magazine with a target audience of mainly teenage girls, the colour scheme of the contents page is bright with colours such as pink and orange used, this colour scheme of vivid colours is a convention of magazines with a young female audience. The image contains mainly female models over male which also shows its target audience.  The layout is simple, the page numbers and listed in three columns in the bottom half of the page, with the word fashion enlarged beside it, this is because Vogue is a mainly fashion magazine. The image is large and placed in the top half of the page with the name of the magazine used as a heading at the top of the page. Using the image at the top and page numbers at the bottom is a common convention of magazine contents pages.