Evaluation: For student magazine

Evaluation:

Whilst making my student magazine, I think my photography went well because, I was able to take a multiple of pictures from different shot angles / types, and every picture I took went according to my student magazine plan. In my plan I wanted to have a picture of a male student that plays basketball to be my front cover. I was able to take a mid-shot of a boy holding a basketball in a sports wear kit as my front cover. Then I took a mid-shot of the boy shooting the ball into the net and placed it on the contents page. However, I needed to take more picture of other things relating to the college because it not a sports magazine. So I decided to take a wide shot image of the entrance of Leyton Sixth Form College. I also, took a shot of another student revising and completing working in the library.

I didn't really manipulate my images on PhotoShop, I only cropped and made my images smaller so they could all fit on the page.

I think my layout worked really well because I had enough space to include everything that I suggested in my plan. My front cover was made in PhotoShop, on the front cover I made the main image the background and had the cover lines on the left hand side of the magazine. But I had a slogan saying "commit to be fit" near the bottom of the magazine. I placed the bar code on the bottom left of the page, and the Facebook / Twitter links advertising my magazine. My contents page was made in InDesign, on my contents page I drew guide lines so my text doesn't go over to the side I wanted have my pictures. Also I drew a guide line for my contents page title so that if I was to increase the size it wouldn't affect my contents information or images. On the left hand side the headings with sort description what would be inside my magazine, I did this so my target audience (college students) can have a brief understanding about what my magazine is about, without having to read it all. The images I took with a camera I placed them on the right. The images are another way of letting my target knows what my magazine is all about but from a visual aspect.

My Masthead is called "LSC" which stands for Leyton Sixth Form College. I thought this was a good title because the magazine is for Leyton college students and it is short, simple and easy to read. Also my target audience would know what LSC stands for straight away without me having to give them a definition. I didn't use image manipulation but I used it on the masthead. I did this by using a PhotoShop shop tool called "    ", I then when further to changing the angle. This allowed me to make my magazine look more attractive and my masthead stand out and catch the target audience’s eyes. My masthead was in capital, white, bold letters. I used the font called "     " in PhotoShop because I thought it was simple but had a bit of a style to it and I didn't want my masthead to take away the attraction from my main image, which this font helped me to do.

 On my front page of my magazine I had cover line on the left side of the magazine saying "enter competitions…" and “trip to New York...” and “healthy eating...” I was trying to advertise a wide range of different events / things happening in the college. I thought by putting a competition of going to a big city like New York on the front cover, would allow me to have more students interested into my magazine because everyone always has an interest in America. Plus it would be seen as a mini holiday from all the hard work they have been doing.

I didn't write a lot like an article but I think my journalistic style of writing went really well, because I didn't use slang and I have the correct grammar and punctuation in the appropriate places. Also I didn't make my brief paragraphs under each sub-heading on my contents page seem as a story. 

If I was to make any improvements on my magazine front cover it would be,

• I would take the picture again but have the individual against a white background
• Add more of a stylish writing to my cover lines

Also, on my contents page I would improve

• Add more colour because it was  bit plain.

The three key points for development when producing the main task (music magazine) are:

• Making sure the individual in my photography is standing in a plain n background because that takes away the attraction from my magazine front cover.
• Add more colours to my front cover and contents pages attract my target audience eyes to my magazine.
• I would make sure I focus on the target audience because they would be the ones buying my magazine.