Evaluation

I first looked at common conventions of similar magazines before I began to create my own. It has been stated by Bentley that the creative process is ‘The making of the new through the rearranging of the old’ (Bentley, 1997). Using this allowed me to gain a better understanding of what should be seen on my own cover and the rules that should be used. I started my research by, first, looking at the Bodmin College magazine. In this I found that this magazine did not work too well as it did not follow the interests of the magazine’s target audience. This cover did not follow the common conventions and it looked busy and was not very professional.  Because of the poor look and quality of the cover I decided to not follow the conventions used in the magazine. I also looked at another magazine ‘Skive’. This cover followed the common conventions much more closely and looked a lot more professional. It also follows in the interest if the primary target audience, unlike the college magazine. Because of this I decided to follow the conventions that are shown on the Skive magazine. I then created a survey for the target audience of my own magazine. Using this survey I found that the target audience liked the name ‘The Zone’ for my magazine and they also liked the warmer colours like oranges and yellows. Finding these were appropriate for what the target audience wanted to see I decided to use it for the creation of my magazine.

My magazine is used to represent, primarily, the students from the college who would be aged 11-19. I wanted to make a product that would be appealing to this target audience. To find out what the audience wanted and to find out how to best represent them with the magazine, I conducted a survey. I used this survey to find out more about the target audience themselves and to find out what they wanted to see. After looking at these results I designed the cover to best suit these results and so would best appeal to and represent the target audience. One of the main things I found was that they wanted warm colours for the cover’s colour scheme. As this was the most popular choice I decided to incorporate it into the final product. I also found they were of a mid-lower social class and so I decided not to use long and complex, sophisticated words.

As my target audience were primarily students of the ages 11-19, I had to find stories that would appeal to all of these people rather than just of a smaller subgroup of the target audience such as younger males. These people would mostly like sport stories and so I would incorporate this into the magazine, however, I would also have other stories that would appeal to other people, such as older females. This would then mean the final product would be appealing to the whole of my target audience.

I think that the magazine uses good typography that is clear and easy to read, but is also bold and stands out on the page so that it is easy to see from further away. I also followed the same typography throughout the product, much like its cover palette. I also used typography that is much more interesting than some other texts. This allows it to be more attractive.

I also used interesting and clear images of students, people of the target audience. This allows it to draw in the target audience and to represent them across the product. Using these images allow the target audience will be drawn in to it and continue on reading it throughout. It also would mean they will be more likely to pick it up and be interested in the cover if they see someone in the target audience.

From the creation of this cover I have improved my skills of designing magazine and of my skills in using Photoshop. I have also learned more of the common conventions that are needed for a magazine cover and for a magazine contents page.

I think that, overall, both my cover and contents page was good for its final product and that it is appealing to the whole target audience. I think that it’s a big improvement on the previous college magazine and that it is more appealing to the audience than the other one is. It has a much more creative idea and design, especially the contents page, than the college magazine design has. I also think that my product uses much better, clearer images than the college magazine and so would draw more people in and be appealing to them. It also represents the magazine’s target audience much better than the other one does. I also feel that it is a good cover to attract people of both genders and ages and so would attract them and draw them into reading it. I also think that the colour palette and the images work well together and allow the cover and contents page to flow and look good and be effective at appealing to the audience. Some improvements that I could make are to have more content on the cover page as well as to have a wider variety of more interesting images and stories featured in the magazine.