Evaluation

My final front cover was produced by a lot of research to find out the best way to plan out what I was going to include into my college magazine. I used many resources on the internet such as Google and existing As Media student’s magazine covers to see what the magazine were to look like for example the masthead, sell lines and images. I went on to use myself an image of a student from Wyke carrying a folder and smiling to give the audience a sense of how students feel when studying at Wyke. For my background I used an image of Wyke its self from the front of the Oak building to show students who may not attend Wyke but want to in the future, what Wyke exactly looks like, but this also helped to make the sell lines stand out. Also instead of using a plain background, which I was intending to do at first, students who attend Wyke would know straight away which college the magazine was referring to. I took into account that students also don’t have a lot of money therefore didn’t use a barcode on my front cover as the ‘COLLEGE Wyke Lifestyle’ magazine would be given out every other month to students at Wyke and Year 11’s to keep them up to date of what is going on in and around college.

The target audience I am aiming for is students who attend Wyke and year 11’s as it will inform the students who attend Wyke what is going on in and around college and keep them up to date with the latest. Whilst for Year 11’s who are looking to go to a college in the September arriving they could find out all the goings on at Wyke aswell as how study works and Wykes expectations which could persuade them to attend Wyke rather than a college they might regret. I believe my magazine appeals to this audience as it’s a full front cover with all different things going on for girls and boys the use of Wyke as the front covers background could also connote as you are reading into Wykes background as that’s what the magazine is all about. The use of purple for the masthead is the Wyke colour for its logos up around the college so therefore I knew this would be a recognisable colour to students who already attend Wyke with the masthead being big and bold to stand out and catch my target audience eye if were to be sat next to them on a desk as such.

The denotations of the colour purple I used for the masthead and a few sell lines are the fact it is Wykes logo colour and therefore I used this to be a recognisable colour but this could also connote as a mysterious colour which could lead the magazine to be mysterious and want to pull the reader in to read more than just the front cover. The student is carrying a purple folder which is also the same colour as the masthead but with the folder being purple this could also connote as a mystery in the folder and the way she is holding it in a secure way for no one else to see but if you study at Wyke you can be a part of the mystery. The student is also wearing black on top but red on the bottom this could connote as the love she has for her studies at Wyke and enjoyment of the college. The connotations of using  Wyke from the front of the building but not the inside is also linked to the mystery of you wanting to know and see more especially if you aren’t a student at Wyke but are a year 11 who has never visited before this could be seen as unless you come to visit and see around Wyke you won’t quite get inside but the reader will want to see inside the building but this could also connote as wanting to see inside the magazine and also the entrance of Wyke is the entrance of the magazine. I also used a slogan “the guide to everything Wyke and wonderful’ this is also fairy tale like and again has that pinch of mystery to it and gets the reader to ask themselves why is Wyke wonderful?

I took many pictures of Wyke and a student who attends Wyke which I used and some which I didn’t use. I made sure the student was on a white background when taking the pictures of her as I cut round her and placed her in the bottom left hand corner  next to ‘TGIF why Fridays are now even better at Wyke’ all students hate Fridays and are always dreading them as it’s the beginning of the weekend and the last thing they want is college but because the sell line of the Fridays are even better at Wyke I felt placing her next to this sell line and smiling represents how you can now feel at Wyke which brings my target audience into the magazine by wanting to know why. I used photoshop to create my final front cover taking ideas off a draft I did in photoshop before starting my final front cover which I used transform to change the scale of the images such as making my image of Wyke from the front of the building bigger to become the background of my magazine and also cutting out the image of the student which I also used the blur tool on. I went round the edges of the student with the blur tool to define the edges from cutting out, then when zooming out you are unable to see that it has been cut out and appears to have no zig zag edges but defined and smooth edges this helped to make the magazine more professional and less like it shouldn’t be there. I kept saving all of my drafts and work as jpegs so that I could upload these onto my blog for people to see.