Evaluation of my student magazine "Creative Cats."

EVALUATION OF MY STUDENT MAGAZINE.              Alex Preece

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Before creating my magazine I researched different college magazines and analyzed them to help me know what is asked when creating a college Magazine. Most of the college magazines I looked at had the picture of a teenager as the central image. After more in depth research I found that they use three colours as their brand identity, normally bright colours to stand out; this has connotations of excitement and youth. In response to the research I did, the colours I picked for my brand identity were orange, purple and black. I did not use purple on my front cover because it didn’t show up in contrast with the central image. I found that in most magazines, they tend to use a Medium Shot so when photographing a student for my central image I took this into account. I took the picture landscape but I should have taken it portrait; it has now become stretched, which adds nothing to the cover. I may use this deliberately to challenge the norm of a front cover, using a different image.

I wanted the house style to have connotations of wildness and freedom, relating to the word creative. When deciding upon my name for my magazine I came up with “Creative Cats”, because of the alliteration and because cats are independent animals which relates to creativity and free thinking.

The mode of address should be chatty and quite informal so that the target audience can relate to it. To show that I was creating a magazine for students I used a picture of a student so that it would relate to the target audience. I used the font Chalk duster as this reminded me of tiger’s fur so I thought it went well with the masthead title.

I put the coverlines towards the bottom of the page to frame the central image. For the text of the coverlines I was happy with the colour but would change the size of the text and remove the shadow on the box to make the writing clearer and easier to read. The cover is visually calm; this does not relate to the “Creative Cats” masthead or the house style. I would get my model in a more creative pose, possibly with her hands in a claw shape and pulling a face.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My target audiences are students aged 14-22. The writing style is quite bubbly and fun, which has connotations of femininity rather than masculinity so I would say it is more aimed towards girls. I think that the word cats are associated more with girls than boys as boys are associated with dogs.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Personally the magazine should be sold within the college due to the contents such as useful exam tips and movie releases would probably appeal to people of the age bracket 18, as they probably will have more time to go out. They would probably have more money to spare at the age of 18 and while doing my research Students said they would pay anything from £1 to £2.50.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The age of the target audience I was aiming for was around 14 – 22 as they would probably be the most likely to have extra change in their pocket to spend as they would have a part-time job and be in education. Also people who are interested in upcoming films, fashions, and music and tips for studying or just enjoy answering questions might buy it too. I tried to make this magazine look plausible to both genders however I have been told that it would appeal more towards girls.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to make the magazine colorful and informal to keep the magazine looking fun so that it wouldn’t look like it was boring inside.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To create my magazine I used InDesign, Blogger and my Nikon D3100. InDesign was a strange to me as it was completely new to me. InDesign was difficult to use but I got the hang of it eventually however the computer was working a bit funnily. When using InDesign I had to use different layers for each separate thing on my magazine this would allow me to go back and change something easily if someone didn’t like it, rather than starting again. It was strange how you had to go through so much to place images where as I would usually just drag and drop.