Self Evaluation for

Preliminary Task

How does my Magazine Represent Particular Social Groups

Front Cover: Using a student on my front cover created a representative link to my target audience which is students. This means that there is a relatable element to this cover. Other students will see this cover and mentally link that one of their own is on the cover, which make them believe that the contents of the magazine is going to be linked to their own self. I chose a female to be on my cover so that any girls that may come across the magazine will not think that it is purely targeted towards the male gender.

From my questionnaire data I summarised that the majority of individuals that were surveyed were male. Because of this my results were slightly swayed to be preferentially male; as a result of this I chose to include a stereotypically ‘boy-ish’ colour and did so with the blue font. I chose the orange to go with it as the two colours combine quite well and it is a neutral colour, which means that if a girl picked up this magazine they wouldn’t automatically assume that it is a magazine for boys.

I chose to place my barcode in the lower left third, which admittedly follows convention but it’s position on the page is clear because of the background colour.

The background of my front cover depicts a generic, classroom style computer room. I thought that this would be the best background to have as many of the students will recognise the set up, which will in turn add relatability for the audience.

On my front cover I have the student dressed in a smart but casual attire. This fashion choice shows my audience that it could just as easily be them sat in front of the computer. As an underlining factor it also shows my student audience the correct style that they incorporate when dressing themselves for college.

I have made my ‘Contents’ title large so that it obvious to readers what the purpose of this page is. I have also kept the font the same as the previous font I have used on both my front cover and the rest of my contents page.

I have used this picture because it shows a student revising in the library. This can depict that even though college can be fun and about socialising, it is also important to carry out work in order to do well. I situated the location of the picture in the library because the library can be the perfect location for students to carry out their work for their exams. This picture also relates to my “Top 10 Exam Tips That Will Help Get You Through A-level” cover line.

I chose this background colour because I thought that it looked modern and professional. The colour also makes the text stand out and easy to read.

This picture was used for my contents page because it is a picture that I took at a football ground. It is related to the “Super Saturday” cover line.

I used both the same colour and font for my contents page cover line. I did this so that there was consistency and to keep it neat looking in appearance.

I included City College Norwich logo because this magazine is designed for City College students. This will mean that if it wasn’t already clear to the audience that this magazine has been produced by the college.

Contents Page:

This is a picture that represents students working in a lab. It is related to the cover line that states “Science Can Come To You”. Because the picture has not been staged it show genuine students hard at work but also talking (possibly about the work), which shows that there is a social entity to the college.

What Aspect of my Work am I Pleased With and Why

Front Cover: An aspect of my front cover that I am pleased about is the name that I

have used. When I reviewed the work of other I found their names to be very generic and a little predictable, they also tended to have very little meaning. Where as my title does have meaning and is unlike anyone else’s.

Another feature of my front cover that I am happy with is the way the background picture has been constructed. By this I am referring to the setting, the student I used and event the at which the shot was taken. The setting of the picture is a computer classroom which show that the college is in touch with contemporary technology, which can be seen as a positive advertisement. The student was in the picture was very good at posing in a natural way so that the picture didn’t look forced. The angle of the shot complies with convention as it is a medium close up shot but it also complementary to the student in the picture.

A final Aspect of my front cover that I like is the combination of the two colours that I have used as a part of the text on the cover. The two colours are complementary towards each other and make the text stand out on top of the picture. Because there are a multitude of colours situated in the background picture the text had to be particular colours in order to stand out.

Contents Page: A feature of my contents page that I am pleased with is how I have

continued to use the same colours for the text. This has instated a uniformed characteristic. This adds an entity of neatness and professionalism.

Another detail that I am happy with is how all of my pictures are in some way related to the cover lines or to the college. This relatable aspect ties both the magazine and the college neatly together. In other words it adds a sense of relatability to the college magazine.

In addition I am also fond of is the positioning of my cover lines on my contents page. They defy convention of a stereotypical contents page. In my opinion they act as “stepping stones” for the audience’s eyes, taking them gradually fro the pictures in the top third of the page to the bottom.

A final aspect of my contents page that I like is how I have chosen a duller background in contrast to my busy front cover background image. This choice of a dull background allow the text to stand out and adds contrasting factor between the contents page and front cover. The background also makes the picture that I have used stand out in a sense that your are drawn to them.

What Aspects of my Work Could be Improved on and Why

Front Page: An aspect of my front cover that I could improve on would be the fact

that I forgot to add both a date and an issue number. I understand that I would have marks deducted if I did this on my music magazine for my main project so this means that I will make sure that at least one of these will be on the front cover of my music magazine.

Another feature of my front cover that I could improve upon would be that I feel I marketed the magazine too much towards boys over girls. This has made my magazine slightly more niche instead of being something that can apply to the masses. A way that I could make my magazine less “boy-ish” would be through changing the colour of the text. In my questionnaire for my music magazine I could include a question that could gain data on my target audience’s preference on this factor.

A final detail of my front cover that I could improve would be possibly decreasing the complexity of the title. Even though it is un-generic, I gathered from the peer feedback that I got that it was possibly too complex and that the majority did not understand what it meant. I could correct this by simplifying the title I use for my music magazine but I will still try and keep it un-generic and different from other magazines that I have come across.

Contents Page: An aspect of my contents page that I would improve on would be how my

picture are laid out. Due to time restraint I did not have enough time to create a flat plan for my contents page, which meant that I had to improvise on the day of its creation. This meant that the sizes of the pictures are uneven in my opinion as they are all different sizes although I did try and work around this by positioning them in a certain order that flowed with the position of the text.

Another aspect of my contents page that I would improve upon would be clarifying the pictures, the City College logo in particular, which is slightly pixelated due to it being stretched to fit. I also found that the way the picture has been cropped makes it slightly off centre admits its white background.

A final detail of my contents page that I would improve would be the colour of the background. Although the background does make both eh pictures and the text stand out, I do not feel as though it follows the uniform of that the front cover has set as there is no hint of that colour on the cover. Perhaps a darkened red colour would have been better as it matches the colour of the students shirt.