THE College magazine Final evaluation

Jadie Jackson

The Final Products

Overall, I feel this cover encompasses both side of student life with cover lines and plugs that will appeal to both the very academic and the very social students at college. The design is uncomplicated and easy to follow with the main attention grabber being the red of my models cardigan the lack of colour in the typography is purposeful to pull the eye to the image as it is the only item of vivid colour. The amount of sell lines and plugs is purposely kept to a small number so the reader is not overwhelmed by the amount of copy on the cover and thus put off of the magazine altogether. The reduced number also means it is easier to read, follow and understand. The reason for some items being placed in semi-transparent Above is the final product: my black/grey boxes is because I felt college magazine cover. The that the white font would be hard to layout was voted for by read in certain places but I did not wish to change the colour of the students at my college via a text. Placing them in small boxes quick ten question makes them easy to read without a questionnaire. Created in colour change and also adds a bit Microsoft Officer Publisher. more body and structure to the front cover instead of it

The Cover

being just strips of writing here and there.. The reason I have used an outside shot (mid shot) of my subject that lacks books and other items and scenery that hold connotations of academia is because college is not just about academia. There is the social side also, the fun side, the enjoyable side. That and I feel that most college magazines have books of some sort on the cover and I didn't want to just follow the crowd and produce another stereotypical cover. The outside setting connotes freedom and space and I feel this is what college gives most students, freedom from the constraints of high school and space to grow and develop as a person. The use of eye-line in the shot on my cover is purposeful to draw the reader in and to engage them, make them feel included. Though this is also stereotypical of college magazines, I feel it is also very effective this could possibly be why so many magazines use this technique. The barcode is neatly tucked away in the corner as it isn't the main feature but is still easy to locate along with the price and issue number and the greyed out boxes at the top and bottom of the cover gives it a feel of containment as there are obviously page size constraints and I feel the masthead is bold and obvious while being clear, easily recognisable and also coordinated despite its slight detachment from the rest of the copy.

The Contents Page

The layout of this page is simple and easy to follow despite the fact that it is slightly more chaotic and less list-like than the front cover. During my research I found a contents page made by another student for AS media that I really liked and I took inspiration from this and adapted some of the ideas I found there. For instance, the stencil font I used I first found in that piece of research and as it was fun but still held connotations of academia, I decided to use that font also with slight colour changes and other variations. The colours used for the fonts are simple and clear and coordinate with the other colours used on this page such as the red coordinating with black in the contents list as it does in the stencil typography. The contents table itself I wished to make less list-like as it always appears like that in most magazines. As it is ultimately just a list, all I did was slant the numbers, the copy and the 'C' cover logo. Like the table borders, this logo was also designed in Paint and copied and pasted over where I situated it where I wished it to be. The purpose of this logo is to allow readers to easily find stories that interested them on the cover and it is a technique used in many magazines not just college ones.

Above is my final contents page. I chose the layout for this piece based on my research into other college magazine contents pages. Created in Microsoft Office Publisher.

The film roll strip that runs horizontally across the page was created in Publisher and once the images were manipulated in Photoshop mainly cropped as they included too much of the background I resized them and slotted them into the empty spaces. This links back to the main image on the front cover and also reinforces the idea that the new college film is the main feature of the magazine. The letter from the editor is a staple convention in most magazines and I have included a small one in the upper right hand corner surrounded by a red and black dashed border and polished off with a smiley face. The use of other text on the page that was created using the Word Art Gallery helps to fill space and also highlights these small features such as the funnies and also the letter from the editor. The small image beneath the contents table links to the anchorage beneath it and highlights another small feature that may interest the reader improvements to their college viewed through the eyes of fellow college students. Overall, I feel this contents page is chaotic enough not to be boring but also organised and coordinated enough to be easy to follow and understand.

The Good, The Bad and My College Magazine

The Cover

Good
The cover lines are well spaced and clear with an easy to read font. The image is free of overly academic connotations. Fonts are clear and well spaced. Cover lines and plugs are appropriate and relevant to the target audience. Placement of the main features in small boxes draws attention to them.

Good

The Contents Page

The contents table is not just another boring list as the typography varies and font colour changes. The fonts are clear and coordinated and the small 'C' logo informs the reader instantly of the location of articles/features from the cover. The film roll strip prevents the page from being overly bland and the somewhat chaotic layout prevents it from being too boring. The fonts used are the same as those used on the cover, bringing a sense of continuity and together-ness to the two pages.

Bad
The left hand side seems overly crowded whereas the right hand side looks a little sparse in comparison. It could be said that it is plain and bland, and possibly too listlike in terms of the sell lines etc. The small boxes around certain features may be seen to detach the text from the rest of the sell lines.

Bad
The space in the upper right hand side could have been used better it seems a little bare in comparison to the rest of the page. The background is a little bland and dark and it could be said that the entire page does not quite coordinate with the cover it is more chaotic and disorganised by design. The left hand side of the page seems well connected and inclusive whereas the letter to the editor etc. seems detached from the other side of the page.

Changes

During the construction and editing of my magazine cover, no changes were made to the layout and the copy as I believe that the text to image ratio was appropriate and that because the layout was voted for, it would be a bad idea to change it as it was chosen by my target audience as their favourite.

Changes 2
Changes were made to my contents page during construction and editing and as of such, it varies greatly in places from my original layout plan. On this slide I will discuss the changes I made and the reasons why I made them. The letter to the editor was moved from the lower right hand corner to the upper right hand corner and the small side feature that it replaced was moved to where the letter was originally supposed to be. The reason for the move is simply because the letter would have been too big for the allotted space and needed more room. I also included another small sell line below the letter as there was a chunk of empty space that needed filling and also because a lot of magazines have funnies and I wished to include them.

The anchorage text connected to the small image below the contents table was also relocated from beside the image, as in the layout mock-up, to below it. Again this was due to space constraints as there was not enough room beside it but plenty beneath it.

Time Management
During the research, development and construction of my college magazine I feel I have managed my time very well. The research portion of this project took the longest to complete as I wanted to be thorough and ensure I was effectively targeting my audience. The questionnaire was done to this purpose so I could ensure that my target audience would approve of the layout of the cover and that it would appeal to them. Overall, I found this research very useful in deciding the layout of my cover. The construction of my magazine took the second longest, obviously, as during the construction of it, things were changed and added and problems with software etc. had to be overcome. During the construction of my contents page things had to be moved and edited in Paint and then moved back across and fitted in and I also had to decide whether I would change the film roll strip or keep it the same this will be discussed on a different slide. The photo shoot for this magazine didn't take long at all and the image manipulation was quite quick also as I only had to crop the images before using them. This evaluation is also taking quite a chunk of time to complete but I feel the end result will be a thorough and well put together evaluation of my work.

Variations?

The above images and their variations, made in Publisher during development, were the main thing I had to decide upon. The one of the left was my original, and my final idea, and the one on the right was an idea I had to fill space and give the page more body. I kept the one on the left the same and developed the one on the left to the same level to see how it would compare.

In the end I decided to keep to my original idea as I felt the variation would cause the page to look overly crowded and distract from the other items on the page as well as reducing space for other items and thus causing more changes and possibly removals to be made.

Software and Hardware Used and Skills Learned/Gained - 1

Samsung N150 Plus
I used my netbook for the majority of my work on this project as well as the college computers (although these became rather troublesome and were a reason for complaint to IT services).

Nikon DS100

This camera belongs to the college but I was allowed to take it out for use during my photo shoot. The digital camera I own would not take pictures of such a high quality as this camera and so I decided to use this instead of my Samsung ES25. I didn't have a clue how to use it until I did my photo shoot and I learnt as I went along. I am now capable of using this camera to capture images and I will be using it again for my music magazine photo shoot.

Software and Hardware Used and Skills Learned/Gained - 2

I used Photoshop CS2 at college and CS5 on my netbook at home. I have previous experience with this software and as I only used it to crop images this time, it wasn't particularly taxing and I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. Although I hadn't used it in a while, how to use it came back to me quickly and I was only rusty with this software for a very short time.

Open Office 3.3 Impress was used to create this power point evaluation. I don't use it much so I have gained skills and knowledge in this area although it is not much different to Microsoft Office Power Point. Again there were problems with this software.

I used Microsoft Office Publisher to put my magazine cover and contents page together and found it relatively easy to use as I also have previous experience with this software. There were however problems with this software which will be discussed on another slide.

Problems
The main problem encountered during this project was the college computers playing up. They constantly froze during blogging and use of Publisher and Photoshop and this became so frustrating that it was reported to IT services many times and eventually complaints forms had to be filled out although the results of this are yet to be seen. Another problem came in the form of my netbook and its inability to run programmes and software particularly fast. During the making of this evaluation the programme kept freezing and this resulted in it being repeatedly and violently hit.

Publisher became problematic also as it ran extremely slow and slowed me down massively and this led to further frustration and hardware abuse.

My photo shoot had its problems also and because of the college technical theatre students, I had to relocate - despite having permission to use the main hall for the shoot.

END