School / College Magazine research

Chris Bossons

The darker tonal colours used show that the magazine is targeted towards a young adult audience, as well as targeting the articles to the student area. The focal point of the magazine cover is the person on the front, therefore, to show that he is the focus, the background has been blurred out and thus making him sharpened. The magazine writes informally to give the reader the impression that it is not only giving them guidance in certain topics, but as well as acting on the behalf of a ‘friend’, giving unbiased answers. The layout is similar to a students lifestyle (Organized yet unorganized in other areas) which yet looks professionally made so that it appeals to its target market. The product in the prize offer is a mobile phone, which is seemed relevant to that age category.

The layout of the contents page is very basic, and is often what you expect from a contents page. It features all of the articles inside. This suggests that none of the articles inside the magazine are significant to any other. The only articles that appear significant to the other articles is the article that relates to the front cover. This is shown significant to the others by featuring the same image shown on the front cover, along side a competition related to the picture itself. Aswell as this, the three main articles are shown towards the bottom of the page. These articles include competitions, an interview with the artist shown on the front cover, and a vital article aimed towards students. A comic is shown at the bottom of the contents page to appear friendly and informal.

The front cover features an adult on the page as the magazine is targeted at adult learners. The model is shown to be smiling. The expression on her face mirrors the experience during adult learning. The magazine seems to be public, rather than being exclusive just to the pupils (“Enrolling online” gives the impression that the magazine is aimed at people that are currently not a learner at this school.) The layout is very basic; this could be seen as a reflection of the courses on offer (if the layout is simple, the reader automatically presumes that the courses itself are basic and simple, however, if the layout is structured complicated and features a lot of text, the reader presumes the courses are large amounts of work, and very complicated.) The colours used are bright and vibrant, which catchers the viewers eye and hooks them in.

The structure of the magazine appears professional and intellectual, however, it features juvenile “pin up” text and headers. This feature could represent a ‘study note’ idea to represent the idea of learning. Bright colours are used to stand out to the reader, as well as a variety of images positioned on a slant to show creativity. As the magazine is designed to attract the audience to the school, the magazine represents and mirrors the reputation of the school. It is shown that the contents page has been made by a professional. The colours used are neutral and appeal to both genders.

This magazine cover shows a childish/ juvenile feels to it as it is targeted towards the students rather than adults. The juvenile feel gives the impression that the magazine is designed by the students themselves. As the school itself is a all girls schools, the colours used are targeted to girls. All the images show smiling faces as this represents happiness. Similar to how a magazine such as “Chat” features a role model, in theory, so does this cover (the role model being a happy person.) The layout is simple, with the school logo positioned the bottom left, and two pop-up images. This suggests that the magazine lacks articles.

The layout of the contents page is very busy and complicated. Rather than having a straight forward list of contents, the list is scattered and separated with low quality images of students. The colour scheme is a constant cool tone of blue, which is seen as a ‘baby’ blue tone which is aesthetic to both genders. The juvenile image and unprofessionalism is shown on this contents page. It gives the impression that it has been created by the students themselves.