Evaluation

Evaluation of my preliminary task; school magazine
Before starting any work on my own school magazine, I analysed a variety of different style of school magazines. I considered a relaxed format which would be aimed at students, or a more formal approach which will relate more to the parents. After a lot of consideration I decided on a relaxed informal format which would appeal to students and encourage them to read about their school and the goings on.
Whilst making my school magazine I used developed and challenged the conventions and forms of a typical school magazine. There were many elements of a typical school magazine which I wanted to remain in my own magazine. For example the idea of having school pupils on my front cover. I used this idea and edited it in such a way that it fitted in and looked realistic. I felt this element was necessary if I was going to make a believable successful school magazine. In most school magazines the heading (title) font is very bold,clear and obvious. I felt it was important to carry this on into mine; however I wanted something different and original. To develop the font I used an unusual sketchy font which remained bold. I was very happy with my font and felt it developed an ordinary serif font. In most school magazine front covers, the image of a school or its surroundings are in the background. However my front cover completely challenges this effect. The use of a pin board is my background and I used the style that every extra detail looked as though they were pinned to the board. I like this effect and felt the final product was successful and represented the look I was aiming for. I think the use of a pin board as my background was a big challenge and I was worried it would not look effective; nevertheless I worked hard to ensure the challenge was successful.

My school magazine does not represent a particular social group nor does it represent a wide variety. Whilst taking the pictures I was always thinking about ways in which I could get the message that our school is multi-cultured with a variety of social groups. In many of my photo this message is shown. However when I picked a photo for the final front cover, the one which worked best happened to have a limited amount of ethnic groups. When I was taking to photos I wanted to ensure there were different styles portrayed within both girls and boys. Although I did not use a variety of groups, I feel the clothes and hair style of each model is different which portrays a wide mix of styles within one school.

The kind of institution which would distribute my magazine would only be the school it's self. No media institution would sell it as no audience except students and parents at Fortismere could relate to it. However occasionally the local shops may sell some so the community can read about their local school even if they don't go there. Furthermore occasionally it may be necessary to distribute the magazine to local primary schools so they can see the type of things Fortismere does and encourage them to come there in later years.

The audience of my school magazine would be pupils and parents at the school. They will be able to relate to all the topics and articles and may even feature within it. However I specifically aimed at the students. I know some students at school don't like to read their school magazine but I wanted to make sure every student would enjoy reading theirs. To ensure this I came up with a survey which was specifically aimed at students. I asked questions which would give me responses to help make a successful interesting magazine every student would want to read. There is no specific ethnic group or gender that I aimed at because I think a school magazine is something which every student no matter there gender, age or background should want to and look forward to reading.



I attracted my audience through the content and format of my front cover. With help from my survey results I saw and understood the kind of articles students enjoy reading and which would be pointless to publish. I addressed my audience on the front cover by relating to them. I showed an image from a homework diary which every student has and understands what it's like to open up and see "Exams". By talking about common fears and ways to deal with it will help all the readers. The style of a pin board makes the magazine casual and a common sight within bedrooms and offices. The content of the magazine is shown mainly through the contents page. By analysing the survey results I made sure the article would appeal to the students. I put mini heading under some pages to attract the audience and want to read on from the teaser. I feel that the visual appeal is successful and reaches out to all the students. The content and teasers displayed on the front cover and in the content page help address the audience with a suitable manor in which they can relate to.

When I started this media task, I already felt comfortable with Photoshop. I had used it many times before and enjoyed the process of making something plain into a professional detailed publishing. However I did learn some more tricks to Photoshop and as I hadn't used it for a while I enjoyed familiarising myself with it again and experimenting with lots of different styles and formats.
The blog in which we post all our publishes and experiments was not always simple to use.Whilst creating detailed word documents, we were then not allowed to post it on the blog. Nevertheless I managed to work around this issue and still create detailed analyse. I feel that I know understand the use of blogs and can relate to others when they use them more frequently.
I love photography and thoroughly enjoy taking pictures. I was very happy experimenting with different models and poses in order to get the natural, happy picture I was aiming for. However in order to make the lighting suitable for my front cover (even with editing) I found it interesting to experiment with different times of the day to get the lighting and brightness I needed.

If I was to change or improve any part of my front cover or contents page I would try and get the background to blend in more. Whilst editing I tried to make the darker patches lighter and I now feel I could have done a better job. I would also try and make the football heading bolder and more effective. I feel that the writing doesn't stand out particularly well and although I tried with many different fonts and colours, I could have made it slightly better. Furthermore, I believe my contents page could have been made more imaginative in terms of font and layout. I like the background but feel that the writing could be more effective.

In conclusion I am very proud and happy with my final front cover and content page. I like the idea of a pin board for my back cover and am happy with the way it looks. Before starting I was very weary that it could not look effective of like a pin board at all. I like that I used original photography for my contents background but also that it was a picture I was experimenting at the beginning of the designing front cover. I feel that the format and language on both really speaks to the students and it is the type of magazine they will not only read but want to read.