Main Coursework- Introduction

The main coursework task involves designing a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a new music magazine.The genre of music i am going to use for the magazine is rock. Therefore i am focusing on a target audience of people who like rock music, bands, gossip and the style.
This task should develop and improve my skills from the preliminary task because i now have more knowledge on using the softwares Adobe photoshop and InDesign, therefore should be able to experiment more with the softwares when creating my magazine.

Flat Plans

For the main cover i used a bright colour scheme to grab the readers attention. Brighter colours also suggest it is for a younger audience which is what my target audience is. The magazine name is in a large bold font so it stands out on the page. I have used a sans serif style of writing because it is modern so again appeals to a younger audience. I used main sells that college students would be interested in reading, for examples, pictures of freshers night would make people want to buy the magazine, so it draws them in and then they can read the rest of the articles in the magazine. I also included some coupons which would also make people, especially girls, want to buy the magazine so they can use the coupons.
I have included important information (which has not been included in my flat plan) such as the price, which is only £1 meaning students will be more willing to buy it because it is cheap and also the date to state when it was issued.
The layout of the contents page is very simple and basic. Each article is stated with the page number, and the style of writing used is again sans serif. Three images are used at the bottom of the page to make the page more interesting.

As Media Preliminary Task

My preliminary coursework task is to create a magazine cover for Sussex Downs College. My work will be produced using Adobe InDesign and using my own original photographs.
My target audience will be aimed at college students. I want the magazine to appeal to students by including topics that they will be interested in such as stories on students at the college, sport fixtures and results, coming events and an evaluation of the event including pictures.

The flat plans for the college magazine have been uploaded into the second blog.

I have choosen this first image to appear in the college magazine because I took it at one of the college partys therefore it is relevant for the style of the magazine. I like that it shows someone having a good time which may make people see the college as a social place to get involved in and also that the people in the photos are from college therefore more people are likely to buy it if they see their friends of themselves in a magazine. However, the magazine still needs to show the educational side of college therefore I have also choosen a second image of a girl working in the library to attract more than one group of people. I like this image because it shows the second side of college and encourages people that the library is a relaxed place to socially work with your friends. However i have choosen the first image to go on the cover because i think the majority of students would like to see a fun image appear on the magazine and then the images inside can represent the college in other ways.

I choose to show this next image because i think it is an example of an image that will not be effective in the magazine. This is because it has no relation to college or events going on at the college. the mis en scene setting has a persons bedroom in the background showing it was taken at a irrelevant time to college.

Evaluation of final college magazine cover and contents page.

This is the link to the final magazine pages...

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B20gzrmLsLdxNGVmYmU1N2UtOTQ0MS00Y2ZmLWJkNTItMTA1MmIyYmI0ZWJj&hl=en

Front cover: I like the final front cover because the image on the front is a fun image that most students would be interested in buying because it shows somebody like them that they may know showing current events that have happened and promoting college as a social place to be.
The front cover shows it is only £1 to buy therefore it is cheap and affordable for students. The front cover covers all aspects of college including: sports fixtures, news and events; last years As and A level results; gossip on events and new students; a chance to win a free haircut and lastely student advice. This covers most aspects of college including social, educational and careers advice which most students would be interested in reading about even if one aspect of the magazine such as sports events did not interest them. I also like the colour theme in the image. It is bold yet not to bright like a childs magazine would be therefore the colours are inbetween sophisticated yet a younger group of people. The set out is very simple therefore it could have been made more interesting with a few other pictures to back up the headlines displayed.

Contents page: I have shown a template of how the contents would be set out. It is displayed in a very simple, easy to read format and will follow the same colour theme (red and yellow) as the front cover did. All the titles of the pages are dispalyed in a larger font with the page number then a small discription is dispayed underneath. At the bottom of the page are 3 small images to match some of the storylines and these will all be relevent to college events.

I like the final magazine because i believe it will appeal to all people interested in different apects of the magazine and has images and text to exaggerate the student theme. From this task i have learnt how to put a magazine together and gained some skills using design programes. This will prepare me for when we create the final magazine for our final piece of coursework. I now have knowledge of how to make a magazine i can therefore focus more on creating new and individual ideas for the next task as i will be more used to the programmes and have more skills to put into practice.