Learning how to use photoshop...

So that's how my front cover looks now. I have learnt to put the masthead on it. I put the one that goes together with my model's scarf. That is what other magazines mostly do. All the well known magazines tries to match the masthead with the masthead.

Just the beginning, but I think it looks pretty good already. The only thing I want to do - darken her hair, make it more contrastic and probably make her lips red. I love the background of the photo, so I am not going to change it.

Flatplans

Flat plan number 1

Flat plan number 2

I have a couple of ideas about my flat plan. It might be one or another, depending on the main image. I want my college magazine to be much different from all the magazines you have ever seen. The magazine which inspired me looks like that : 

inspiration

This magazine looks a bit different from all the magazines I have ever seen before. Especially that the magazine looks a bit more mature, dark colours connote about seriousness rather than having all the bright colours. College people mostly want to grow up and be very mature, which means even though they unconsciously uses bright colours, more mature ones might catch their attention more effectively. 

I like that the magazine does not have too many cover lines, and the masthead is constructed quite nice. That is what I want to see on my front cover. However not having lots of cover lines means that the main image has to be very catchy, which might be hard to do, but not impossible. 

College magazine photoshot!*

Pictures pretending to the main image for my college magazine.

Yesterday (23rd September) I took a photo shot for my college magazine front cover. I wanted the specific person, so I did it on my spare time. I used my friend which came here all the way from Watton.

I chose everything, what she wears, how she poses, where the photos are taken.

Black and white represents my target audience's favourite colour, also the scarf makes it more natural, real and 'young'. 

The student is wearing student badge as well, which is a good representation of being a member of society, in this case - college.

I have chosen this particular girl because I want my magazine to be different. Less cover lines, more 'alive' thing, more interesting, but at the same time kind of dark and professional. It connotes about college people going from teenage years to adulthood.

Model : Georgia Sidiroglou

I mostly like the green background behind her, also the notebook that she is holding, shows that it is a very beautiful landscape behind her, nice season and the students who love nature, chooses to study outside. 

Also I have chosen these clothes because my target audience is interested in fashion. Small details like a scarf makes it look more professional and more fashionable.

I like the direct gaze. I like that it looks like a freezed moment between her study sessions.

I like that the picture is pretty dark, which makes it different, but you still can see natural, green background and the flower in her hair makes it more 'real'. It seems like the picture is 'breathing' itself. Her gaze to the sideways just looks like she was talking to someone while stopped to have a break between studying. 

This picture looks like a professional model poses for the photo shot for college/fashion magazine. I like the background which is formed from the tree. Nature again. I would just crop the green size and the coat making it look more real.

I like that it looks so real, looks so natural. Just like the model was studying and the picture was made by accident. I do not like the lighting in the picture, it looks a bit too faded, the camera is focused more on her legs that her face. Also the background do not make that big contrast, whereas having the green trees background makes it much better.

Stopped moment in the morning going to the college, that's how it looks. Again, the dark surroundings makes her look more contrasting and catches the eye.

Representing Target Audience

My Target Audience Profile

Target Audience Profile

 

Questionnaire evaluation

Questionnaire evaluation

This is my college magazine questionnaire evaluation. All the results I collected I put to these graphs so it shows the very useful information which helps me with setting my flatplan for  college magazine, but at the same time helps with my main task - music magazine.

This information let me get to know my target audience better, to know what type of music they like, which festival they have been to, what colours they like or what they want to get in a new college magazine. This gives me a lot of topics to talk about. Also one of the questions I think very common in youth groups - tattoos and piercings. Mostly young people love body art but how does employer reacts?..

College magazine questionnaire

College Magazine Querstionnaire

Before starting my real hard work with college magazine, I need to know my target audience - people that will be the niche market for my product. One of the best ways to find out is to do a quick research. I have chosen to do short questionnaire with several open and closed questions to get to know every participant much better. 

What is a magazine?..

The first thing that comes to my mind is pieces of paper which provides some kind of information depending on what type of target audience it has to represent.

In media terms a magazine is a media text, media product that gives us certain type of information depending on genre, niche market (specific type of people that the product is targeted to), but then the other question which needs to be answered - how do we know what type of genre is certain magazine, what type of audience it is linked to?#

Every media product has its own codes and conventions. Conventions is what the target audience expect to see or hear of that particular type of media text. Mostly every type, or genre magazine has its own ways of representing what is in the magazine. Also genre conventions easily tells us a lot about target audience, even if you (personally) do not belong to it. People stereotype certain things and this lets us understand target audience. Also the magazine itself has some of other media types inside of it, like advertisements, might also have small parts of diaries, stories (interviews) or social media (posts from 'Facebook' included in a paper magazine, to make it more and more modern and to make a target audience much wider. Some people might not like to read a magazine in paper but they would love to read it online. Or maybe some of them likes reading just short stories and they could do it on 'Facebook'.)

For example a magazine with bright colours, mostly pink, light blue and white connotes about female audience. The main image shows the age group of the magazine target audience. Mostly women who read this magazine wants to look like the main image model. Young women from the age of 18 to about 35. 

I have chosen German 'Cosmopolitan' which means I cannot understand the language but media lets me 'read' it from the front cover. 

Model is looking straight into a camera, which is called direct address in media terms. 

The magazine front cover is not overloaded with lots of sell lines or sub stories. It does not have a skyline, any puffs. 

It is quite minimized, but it has the main things like masthead, main image which is not the mid-shot (which connotes us about a genre of magazine, as long as it is a fashion magazine, front cover is already selling clothes, make-up, hairstyle)

Names of sub stories are written in a bigger font to attract attention, also using just one word means it is a very strong word which will catch our target audience eyes straight away. 

Also every magazine has its own USP (unique selling point), usually for fashion magazines it is a model which is used on the main image. This image is the most important thing in magazine, it sells the magazine.

BUT


A magazine not necessarily means a paper magazine. Media goes bigger and bigger every day, now we also have internet magazines. An opportunity to read the magazine online as much as offline just makes the niche market a bit bigger.