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College Magazine Analysis

Siena Matkin

+Explain the thoughts behind the design for your College Magazine?I wanted the magazine to be relatively simple – professional without being boring. I wanted to get across that it was a magazine for Sunderland College, and which campus the magazine was based around. I used an image of the logo for Sunderland College in the bottom right hand corner. The image was small, so that it didn’t distract from the main image, but it was clear to see. The name I gave my magazine was ‘Bede Bimonthly’, which showed that it was a magazine specifically designed for Bede College. It also showed it was a monthly magazine. My masthead was large and in the top left-hand corner, as this is where the eyes are naturally drawn. I also used the ‘Wave’ style on Word-Art to distort its appearance, because I think it made It look more interesting than if it was just written normally.

I also wanted to use the college’s colour scheme in my magazine, which is white and blue. All text on the front cover was white, so that it stood out against my image. I used bold, chunkier font (Avenir Next Heavy) to try to match the general appearance on Sunderland college newsletters and website. I tried to organize the cover lines around the image, and so most of them are on the left side. My image was a medium-close up of a student standing outside between the Bede and Headways college. She was smiling, which projects an image that coming to the college is an enjoyable experience. When the image was taken it was sunny, which makes the picture bright and looks more appealing than if it was raining. In the background of the picture, you can see the Headways building, so it shows that the picture was taken at the campus.

My contents page had a very straightforward appearance. I used the college colour of blue for the text, and to find the particular shade I searched online for examples, e.g. on the website. I used WordArt on the heading to create an arc shape, which makes it look more attractive. I used the same font for my text as on the front cover, and I tried to organize the contents list so that they were spaced out and their page numbers were clear. I wanted to include the Sunderland College logo on every page, so I decided to fit it in with the page number, to make it look more presentable and interesting. It also helped to save space, so that the page didn’t look cluttered. The background was white, and I used two of my own photos of areas around Bede campus in the background. I increased the transparency of these images to create a faded appearance, so that the text written over the top of them was more readable.

+Who is your audience by age, gender and audience code? How does your magazine link to that?My audience is primarily the students of this college, who usually are aged 16-18, however there are also many adults on higher education courses, so I was aiming to appeal to them. The audience code for my primary audience is category E – most people that attend this college are full-time students and are either unemployed or have a part time job.

My secondary audience is the parents of students and potential students of the college – I would want the magazine to reassure a parent that the college will give their child a good education and that they will be happy here. I would want it to appeal to a person who was thinking about starting a course and to provide them with basic information about the college.

I think my magazine would appeal to the primary audience as it talks directly to them, for example one of my cover lines on the cover page talks directly to new students. Another cover line is for news and upcoming events, which may interest a parent. There is course and enrolment information advertised also which may be interesting to a new student. I have provided contact information for the campus on the contents page, however I think I should have included the road name in the address section, as it would have made it more clear as to where it is.

+What have you learnt about using your blog doing this task?

I have learnt the basics of using Blogger when doing this task, for example creating posts containing text and images. I learned the basics of editing the posts, for example changing the size and format of images or text. Whilst I have learnt this I have gained the ability to change the posts based on what suits the blog and looks better. I have also learnt how to embed slideshows and upload to the blog using HTML code, which will be useful for future posts.

+How did you edit your images and what skills have you learned doing this? How will you use these skills in creating your music magazine?

I edited my images using Adobe Photoshop. I did not make many changes to them because I thought they were quite good already, so I mainly just adjusted brightness and flipped them. I learnt some of the basic skills of using Photoshop when doing this task, which will be useful when I create my music magazine, as Photoshop is the software I will be using. The preliminary task gave me the chance to find out how to use Photoshop as my previous experience is very limited.

+Are you happy with your college magazine?

Yes and no. I am very happy with my front cover, because I think the image I used is good as it shows a student at the college who looks happy, and shows a college building in the background. I think it provides a good representation for the college and I think that my masthead and cover lines etc. look quite professional. I also think the content of the cover lines would draw in various people of the target audience, for example the cover line addressed specifically to new students. I also think it was a good idea to use the special offer of a free coffee with the issue, ass it provides an incentive for people to pick up a copy.

In comparison, I do not like my contents page. It looks very basic and I think it looks quite unprofessional in comparison to my cover page. Obviously it fits the purpose of a contents page, as it directs you to each page clearly, however the design of it is plain. My knowledge of using Photoshop is very limited, so I was not able to implement design features that I would have liked to, such as using borders to separate certain sections. I also think that some of my text becomes difficult to read when it crosses over the faded images behind. I also think that more images could have been used in the background, because it looks slightly sparse.