Contents Page Complete!

I'm proud to say I have now completed my Contents Page which is displayed below for everyone to see :)

And here is my full analysis :)

For my Contents Page I used Microsoft Publisher mostly, except for some Image manipulation, in which case I used Adobe Photoshop, but when I was putting it all together, it was on Microsoft Publisher. Though we originally were going to use Adobe InDesign, thanks to time restrictions we did not receive lessons on how to use it, so we had to use Microsoft Publisher, I still believe it turned out very well though :)

I decided to keep the black Gradient style to the background that I used on the Front Cover as I believed it worked very well, especially with the use of red coloured Font on this page. I chose the red colour on the Font because I wanted something different to the pink on the Front Cover and as I said, I believe this red works very well with the black Gradient background.

Following my Contents Page Draft, I displayed the word "CONTENTS" down the left side of the page because I like the way it appeared, thanks to its size it clearly indicates to the reader that this is the Contents Page of the magazine and thanks to the style it is presented (vertically down the page) it looks good too I believe.

Following my Contents Page Draft, I displayed the Headline at the top in slightly larger size Font, as it is the Main Article and thus deserves significant attention, and displayed the Cover Lines underneath going down page in a slightly smaller Font as they are still important but are not the Main Article so they hold slightly less importance. I displayed this Text down the center of the Page as really it is the main point of the Contents Page, to show what pages the Articles are on so that people can find them, so I figured it best to make them very noticeable and easy to find for the reader by displaying them right in front of them.

Following my Contents Page Draft, I displayed images relating to various articles down the right side of the page along with a picture of the editor of that issue of the Student Magazine, I displayed images relating to various articles to draw readers in and make it look more professional, you may notice I used the same Image that is on the Front Cover down the right side of the page, this is because I figured if I am going to display an image relating to the Headline here it should be the same one that is on the Front Cover, as the consistency would help the magazine look more professional and would make more sense since the image on the Front Cover is related to the Headline. The choice of what Cover Lines to display an Image for was chosen by looking at what Images I had available to me and choosing the ones which would go appropriately. I chose to display an Image of the editor purely for the fact I believed it would make the magazine look that little bit more professional. Also one last note about these images, I did purposely choose to display one of the images I had with one of the Cover Lines, whereas for Cover Lines it was, as I said before, looking at what images I had and which went appropriately, I specifically chose the wreath image to go with the "Upcoming School Events" Cover Line as I believed it would look professional, as on the Front Cover it says this is the November Issue so I wanted something relating to November in this magazine hence why I chose the wreath as November is the month we remember the fallen.

The Images of the stars above and below the text "CONTENTS" were purely to make it look more stylish and thus more professional, to get these stars I simply searched "stars" into Google Images, chose an image of a star, took it into Photoshop, made the white Background Transparent, and then coloured it two tones of red (red because that way it matched the colour of the text on the Contents Page) and then copied and pasted it onto the Contents Page.

My choice of Font was down to me wanting something attractive and professional, I came across a few Fonts that caught my eye but the one you can see above is my favourite, I just liked it's style and how it looked in the colour red, also it's not too "fancy" or too "posh", making sure it wasn't either end of the scale was important since my magazine is aimed at 16-18 year olds, and I believed as far as Fonts can go,, this one seems attractive to that age group (because I liked it and I am included in that age group).

And that about sums it up for my Full Analysis and Explanation :) I hope everything has been explained clearly and I hope my reasoning has also been explained clearly, so that it provides you with a strong idea of how and why I chose to present my Contents Page in this way :) .

Anyway everyone that's everything, till next time :)

Feel free to leave comments about what you think, I'd love to here your opinions :3

The Contents Page So Far

Hi guys :)

So below you can see my Contents Page for my Student Magazine :)



I believe it's coming along well so far :)

I figured this time to save myself trouble instead of giving an analysis now and only having part of it analysed I will just give my Full Analysis + Explanation when I have completed my Contents Page, that way I save myself the trouble of practically repeating myself and save myself time too :)

anyway, till next time :)

Feel free to tell me what you think, I would love to hear peoples opinions :)

Front Cover Finished! (Full Analysis + Explanation)

I have now finished the Front Cover for my Student Magazine :D which you can see below

I will now give a full analysis of my Student Magazine Front Cover :)

The style of Font I was looking for, for my Masthead was one of a Urban/Dissolved style, I chose the font I did for two main reasons, one, because it was my favourite out of all the Fonts I considered for use, and two, this Font was quite easy to manipulate using Photoshop in means of changing it's colour (as it originally was black), changing the Font's colour does not seem like a hard task but as it's style was dissolved in some parts of the letters, I had to edit it so that I could colour all of it and it would look professional (the Font I chose came from the website dafont.com) .

For the exclamation mark I actually used a lower case "L" from the "Cartoon" category on dafont.com , I then flipped it upside down and combined it with an army star also font on dafont.com under the "Army" category in the "Dingbats" section (this section contains many images related to different themes such as "Army" and "Sport") .

Editing on the Masthead contained, making sure the Font could be coloured by cleaning up some of the particles of the Font, editing some parts around the star to just leave the star on its own, colouring the Masthead (in clashing colours purposely for the extra effect of making it stand out) and using the "Smudge" and "Blur" tools on Photoshop just to give it a more wild/stylized feel to it.

I chose a Black Gradient Background around the Masthead because I believe it worked best, I tried different solid colours (including black) but they just did not work as well in my opinion. I chose various bright colours to contrast the Black Gradient Background because I felt it helped catch the readers eye and also just helped it stand out.

I chose the Image of a student studying as it related to my Headline, which was about "EXAM TOP TIPS!!!" so I figured it relevant to provide an image to back up the Main Article of the magazine.

I chose bright pink as the colour for the Headline and Cover Lines as it was a strong visable colour against the image which took up most of the Front Cover, so it is readable but also quite eye catching I believe as it is a very strong vibrant colour.

I used an explosion effect that I found on Google Images as the backing for the Text "£1.00!!!" to help the text stand out more and to help promote the excellent price of the magazine, I edited the explosion effect in Photoshop as when I saved it, it was only an outline, I coloured the borders darker then filled in the center in red so that it would provide a noticeable backing for the "£1.00!!!" Text.

The issue stated down the bottom right is just to add realism to the Student Magazine, as obviously as I stated in previous posts, my Student Magazine would be Monthly and thus I thought it appropriate to label issue of the magazine by month.

And that about sums it up for my Analysis and Explanation :)

I shall post up pictures very soon on how my Contents Page is coming along :) but till then, cya guys :3

Feel free to post up any comments you have about my Student Magazine Front Cover, I would love to hear what you think :)

My Unused Front Cover Fonts (Textual Analysis)

Hey everyone :)

Below is a picture of the other fonts I put serious consideration into but did not choose for my Front Cover Headline Font

The general theme I was going for were Urban/Dissolved style of Fonts, my chosen Font isn't in here as of course I am just displaying the Fonts I did not use. The reason for my choice of Font for my front cover was not only because it was my favourite but also, when considering which Font to use, I had to think about which Font would I (with the level of knowledge I have of using Photoshop) would be able to edit so that I could make it a different colour (as I went for a Dissolved style with some of the fonts it is evident upon inspection that they are dissolved in some parts which obviously presents a problem for colouring easily).

So taking into account my skills with Photoshop and which Font I liked best I arrived at the font you can see on my Front Cover in my previous post :)

Anyway that's all for now everyone, I shall vesry soon be posting up a picture of my Front Cover as it is finished, along with a full explanation of everything on it and why I chose to present it that way :)

Till next time :)

(Just a note for anyone interested in any of the Fonts shown, the website I used to obtain them is called dafont.com , they have literally thousands of great Fonts so I'm sure you can find what your looking for there, hope that helps :3 )

Front Cover So Far

Below is a picture of my Front Cover so far

So far I am happy with it :)

I chose this Font for two main reasons, mainly I like the look of it but also because it was a more solid font that some of the others I looked at therefore it was much easier to re-colour from black to the range of colours I used, I will post up another post later on showing the other Fonts I considered for use on my front page, all the fonts I used were from the Font website dafont.com .

I believe the black Gradient behind the Masthead helps it stand out more, I tried solid backgrounds out but they just did not seem to work as well as this, also the colour black worked because the Masthead is already a strong variety of colours, so I needed something different to their vibrant, loud colours and black seems to work in making them stand out more. The strong clashing colours of my Masthead helps catch the eye I believe :)

For the exclamation mark I used an Army star from dafont.com, then cropped out some parts of it I did not want, then combined my edited star with a lower case "L" from a font from dafont.com from the Cartoon section, I flipped the lower case "L" upside down and put it above the star to look like a stylized exclamation mark :)

Also for the Masthead I used the Photoshop tools "Smudge" and "Blur" to make it more irrational and noticable to audiences, I believe the effect came out quite nice :)

Anyway that's it for now, as I said I will post about the other Fonts I considered for the Masthead and why I didn't choose them later, till next time :)

(The post regarding the other Fonts I considered is now up)

Front Page Picture Decided

I will be going with this picture for my front cover :)

The reason is because I very much like the angle of the shot and the bright colours of the jumper that the girl is wearing stand out a vast amount which I think attracts the eye to the Front Cover :)

Front Page Testing

So I decided on 3 possible images for my front cover, below you can see these 3 images along with a random font I chose off of the website "Dafont", just for effect and to help visualise the image on my front cover

My feelings are mixed but from first glance i feel the 3rd image will work the best (the image of the boy on the computer)

I will play around with font later and when I do will post about my favourite fonts and which I will be using and why, if you have any opinions on which of these 3 images works best please leave a comment below :D

Anyway, till next time :)

Some Information About Construction

Hey everyone this is just me dropping a little info on how I will go about constructing my Front and Contents Page for my Student Magazine :)

The info really is just that I will be analysing each choice I make as I go through construction and writing it up on here explaining why I did certain things and the effect I believe it gives to my magazine :)

For example when I am thinking of fonts for the title of the magazine I shall post information on fonts I have admired the most and why, and of course provide images too, so that anyone reading this may get a better understanding of what I mean :)

Anyway that's about it for now, till next time :3

Front Page And Contents Page Decided!

I have decided to go with my Front Page 1 design and my Contents Page 1 design, I have decided on these not only because they were my favourites, but also because looking at the 4 responses I obtained via my blog, these were the most popular :)

Below is an image of my tally, it's not much but I figured why not put it up :)

Some More Photos

Hey everyone :)

I just uploaded all of the photos I took using my phone so here is another compilation of some of the photos I feel could be used somewhere on the Front/Contents Page of the Student Magazine. Obviously I can edit the photos using Photoshop before applying them if I see they need it, so yeah that about sums it up :)

Some Photos I May Use

Below are some photos compiled using Microsoft Publisher onto an A4 Sheet, that I may be using on my Student Magazine. If i find more out of my many pictures that I feel quite strongly about using I shall post them up in the same way :)

Another Play With Photoshop

Today, I had another test session using Photoshop in class and below are the results :)

I was just testing out different tools like last time, and also I explored various brush styles for the Paintbrush and also various effects under the Filter tab along the top of Photoshop, overall I think I learnt about some valuable things that will help my magazine look more proffesional while I'm making it :)

Student Magazine Photography Finished!

Hey everyone :)

So, as the title of this post says, the photography for my Student Magazine is now finished! :D

I should have all the photos required, I gathered them across the days I stated, including a vast amount on Friday the 18th of November, while going around the school using a Digital Camera provided by Mrs Birks, The Head of our Media Department :)

So yeah that about sums it up for this post, just checking in basically and letting everyone know the latest development

Anyway guys, till next time :)

Organising For Taking Photos

I have now organised with people when I am going to be using them to get images for the Front and Contents Page of my Student Magazine, thanks to the things that will be included in my magazine (listed in my previous post titled "From Analysing The Questionnaires") almost all of the photography will be done at Saint Edmund's College, as here is where I will be able to meet my friends and use them for my images where appropriate, the only other photography will be done at home but will not require other people's input, so I can do this as soon I have all of my other photos taken :)

The photography will be taking place across the space of Thursday the 17th of November and Friday the 18th of November for photography requiring my friend's input, and Saturday the 19th of November/ Sunday the 20th of November for photography requiring only my input :)

That about sums it up, till next time :3

Student Magazine Drafts

I have now finished my 2 Drafts of the Front Page and Contents Page for my Student Magazine :D

I hand drew the designs then went over them in black pen to make them stand out when I scanned them in

Below are the designs, please leave a comment saying which Front Page and which Contents Page is your favourite, I may let the choice of others affect my decision or I may just chose which I think looks better, either way I will leave a comment myself saying which is my favourite :)

Below you can see Front Page 1 (on the left) and Front Page 2 (on the right)























Below you can see Contents Page 1 (on the left) and Contents page 2 (on the right)

Student Magazine Name Decided

With the polls regarding the name of my Student Magazine now closed, it has been revealed that the most popular name was Smash!

So with that my Student magazine will now be called Smash!, thank you to everyone who took part in voting on a name, I couldn't have done it without you :)

Experimenting With Photoshop

So we used Photoshop for the first time today, went pretty well I think, I'm pretty proud of my cookbook, as you can see below.

I used a variety of Photoshop tools such as the Paintbrush, Marquee tool, Paint Bucket, Magic Wand, Magnet Lasso Tool, Texture and more.

I adapted my image from the one below.

Like I said I'm pretty pleased with how my first play around on Photoshop went, and hopefully I'l be able to learn to do a lot more and use it towards my Student and Music Magazine :)

Till next time :3

From Analysing The Questionnaires

I had 10 responses to my questionnaires when I analysed them, 2 responses on my blog and 8 in person.

These are the things I have decided thanks to those results:

The magazine will:

• Be a monthly published magazine
• Be aimed towards an audience between the ages of 16-18
• Cost anything up to £1
• Contain GCSE and A-Level Advice, Information on the Latest Films, Information on the Latest Music, In-School Sports Results and Information on Awards Received By Students
• Also Photographs Of Student "Life", General News e.g. School Events and a Fun Fact Section
• Be aimed towards both genders

I picked what the magazine will contain by taking a tally of answers where appropriate and picking the 5 most popular, and for the suggestion area, I took the 3 answers that appeared the most, because as it was a suggestion area these were the most popular ideas from multiple people.

Below is an image of the sheet of paper I wrote the results of the Questionnaires on, the red circles meant these were the most popular of the choices/suggestions

As for the name of the magazine I will post a Poll soon containing my favourite suggested names and names suggested that fit everything the magazine contains, also a few of my own names for the magazine.

- 16/11/2011 - The name of the magazine has now been decided :)

My Questionnaire

Hey everyone :)

Below what you can see is the questionnaire I have created for my Student Magazine :)

Please fill it in by putting your answers in a comment to the post, thank you :3

I will also be conducting this questionnaire in person by printing off copies and asking students to fill them in, when I have a sufficient amount of questionnaires answered I will make a post regarding the analysis of the questionnaire results :)

anyways thanks everyone, till next time :3

Summarising My Magazine Analysis

From my magazine analysis I have seen lots of helpful features which I can use in my own magazine once I have decided the details, these include details such as what age group my student magazine will be aimed towards and what type of things are going to be included in my student magazine. The details of my student magazine will be decided vastly by the responses I receive from my questionnaire, which I will be posting up soon for everyone to do and also printing off copies to use, so that I may get more results :)

helpful features which I can use in my own magazine include things like:

• Use of different colours concerning age groups to which the magazine is aimed at
• Use of images to tempt readers
• Use of both sans-serif and serif font to make text look unique and stand out
• Use of contrasting, clashing colours to catch peoples attention
• Use of things that are relate-able to the audience, thus making them more enjoyable to read as the readers understand them more (such as everyday problems)
• Use of different layouts and the way they can present the main themes of the magazines
• Use of the title of the magazine and the way it attracts the audience it is aimed towards

and more

I also am going to spend a good amount of time thinking about all of these details in relation to the results from my questionnaire.

Anyways that's all for now :) till next time everyone :3

Analysing Student Magazines - Textual Analysis

Magazine: STuDenT iD (Issue 8)
Published by: Ludlow College

The Front Page

From the top we see a very bold masthead - "STuDenT iD", it is coloured red, white and blue and is a combination of serif and sans-serif font, its colours are very bold and strong and are used to attract the audience it is aimed at, which in this case seems to be 17-18 year olds. Underneath is the headline which is "SPOTTED!! BASH PHOTOS", the font used is sans-serif and is written in white as it stands out against the black background, most likely to drag the eye towards the magazine and get people to buy it. the layout of the front page is covered with graphics, images that relate to the headline, this is done most likely to draw the audience (17-18 year olds) in more and make them want to buy the magazine so they can know more about the headline. Down the left side of the page there are also other things listed that are included in the magazine (in addition to the headline), they are written in red and green, which clash but in doing so draw the eye of possible readers to the magazine, and in sans-serif font. At the bottom of the front page there is one more thing in the magazine listed along with some images surrounding it to catch readers attention.


The Contents Page

The layout of the contents page seems laid out simply so readers can easily find what they want to read about, the background colour is white and all the text across the context page is written in sans-serif font and in black, this of course makes it easy to read and easy to find what the reader is looking for. upon the top left of the contents page is an image of the editor for the Easter edition of the magazine, this is probably just there to commend a job well done to the editor for the Easter edition of the magazine but it also gives students a chance to know the face of the person who helped make the magazine they are reading. Further down the left side of the contents page is a letter from the editor of magazine addressing the reader and giving a brief summary of all the things in this edition of the magazine, this just gives the readers a basic knowledge of everything in the magazine. The middle of the contents page is taken up by a bold headline of what is inside the magazine followed by the information of what stories, pictures, trips, etc are included in this edition of the magazine and what page the reader will find them on, this of course just allows the reader to know where to find what they are most interested in reading about. The right side of the contents page contains a small amount of images relating to the things listed down the center of the page, the use of these images could be to draw in the readers to find out more about the things in which the images relate to, and thus help the readers get the most out of the magazine.


This is my Textual Analysis finished :3

so yeah, till next time :3

Analysing Student Magazines - Content Analysis

Content Analysis:

1. Magazine : College Life (Autumn 2009)

    Published by: Saint Edmund's College & Saint Hugh's School
    Content:

• Information on members of staff (old and new)
• Information on events to do with the school (also events to do with students)
• Information on exams (A level and other)
• Information on school trips
• Information on school sports

This magazine seemed more aimed towards parents (so around the ages of 30+ perhaps) and people looking to have their children attend either of these schools.

2. Magazine: COMMON sense (15th March 2006)

    Published by: Luton Sixth Form College
    Content:

• Information on the team behind the magazine
• Information on bands
• Information on relate-able issues of everyday life (relate-able for students)
• Information on charities
• Information on celebrities
• Information on trends
• Information on health
• Information on media (film and gaming)
• Puzzles (sudoku, find the words, etc)

This magazine seemed to be aimed a lot more at students (between the ages of 13-18) as a lot of the information and articles inside were very trendy and contained many popular 13-18 year old topics.

3. Magazine: STuDenT iD (Issue 8)

    Published by: Ludlow College
    Content:

• Information on the team behind the magazine
• Information on events to do with the school (school plays, art exhibitions, etc)
• Information on what students love and hate
• Information on school trips
• Information on staff (old and new)
• Information on music
• Information on sport
• Information on the environment
• Information on fashion
• Information on world events
• Information on technology (and business surrounding it)
• Information on parties (student parties)
• Information on media (television and film)
• Information on what to expect in the next issue

This magazine contained some elements that adults may find interesting but was mainly aimed towards students (around the age of 17-18) as most of the articles were trendy but at the same time mature enough for slightly older audiences (hence why I have said it is aimed towards students aged 17-18)

So from my Content Analysis I have seen 3 magazines, all of them quite different as they are all aimed at slightly different audiences (even  though the third magazine does include some aspects that adults may enjoy).

Anyway that's all from me for now, cya next time :3

THE ACTION PLAN

TASKS

Set Up Blog - DONE!

Write ACTION PLAN - DONE!

Analyse at least 2 student magazines (conduct textual analysis) - DONE!

Create Questionnnaire - DONE!

Analyse Results - DONE!

Design Draft Layouts - DONE!

Organise Photoshoot - DONE!

Take Photos - DONE!

Design + Draft Pages - DONE!

Test Pages - DONE!

Evaluate Final Pages - DONE!

THIS IS THE PRELIMINARY TASK
DUE IN - FRIDAY 2ND DECEMBER 2011 4:30PM

Week information

7th - 11th (mon - fri)
12th - 13th (sat - sun)
14th - 18th (mon - fri)
19th - 20th (sat - sun)
21st - 25th (mon - fri)
26th - 27th (sat - sun)
28th - 2nd (mon - fri)

These ACTION PLAN dates are of course rough as some work will take longer than others, but looking at the amount of tasks and the time given this is how I will lay it out.

I will keep posting on my progress :3

Till next time :)

(this was last edited on Friday the 2nd of December)

The first post of many :3

sup?

so this is my blog, I set it up so that my progress during my media coursework can be followed by anyone that wants to follow it :3

The first major thing we've been asked to do is make a front and contents page for a student magazine, my 2nd post will be an action plan of the tasks I have got to do and when I will do them by :)

so yeah that's about it :3