Initial Ideas

Brand Identity: Big, Bold possibly Red? Because to me, the colour red connotes fun and excitement. This colour also connotes help and security, therefore this may attract the audiences attention.

Colours: Bold, eye-catching (yet not too many colours because then it may make my student magazine look messy.) From my colour scheme experiment I decided to use colours Red, Black and Purple because these colours connote fun, yet sophistication.

Images: I'm going to use multiple images to attract the audiences attention. As well as this, the use of images give an insight to what articles are going to be found in my magazine, therefore resulting in more people wanting to pick up the magazine to read.

Central Image/ background: Relates to the audience in some form (for example, maybe a student reading a book?) Or maybe a student looking directly at the camera, therefore resulting in the reader feeling as if they're being directly addressed.

Language/ mode of address: I'm going to use a chatty, informal style of writing, therefore the audience feel as if they can connect to the magazine. As well as this, I think writing in a chatty form helps relax students as it means they can sit back and relax as if they're talking to one of their friends, other-than feeling as if they're still in lesson.

My mock of my front cover and contents page

This is my general layout idea for my student magazine. I decided to use this layout because it's reasonably simple, therefore the audience may enjoy reading it more. I also decided to use many secondary images, because from my target audience research I found that they enjoyed looking at multiple images, other-than reading lots of text; as well as this, seeing these images attract the audience's attention.

Researching Target Audience

In order to get an insight to what my audience want from my student magazine I decided to ask them 5 questions:
 1.  What catches your eye the most when you’re looking at a magazine cover? Why?

-           2-  Do you think the use of multiple colours is effective when reading a magazine? Or do                          you think sticking to a range of 2-3 colours are more effective?

         3 What images would you be more interested in seeing? Posed images, natural images,                            celebrities?

-            4. How much would you say is a reasonable amount to pay for a student magazine?

-            5   Do you have any suggestions for what I should call my magazine?
6      6. What colours do you notice when looking at magazines? Do any particular colours stand out to          you?


     From asking these questions I found that the majority of my audience agreed that the pictures and the colours catches their eyes the most when looking at magazines. My audience also agreed that keeping the magazine at a consistent few colours would make it look more professional and less messy. From this I decided that I'm going to use Black, Purple and Blue. As well as this my audience suggested that a mix between natural and posed images would look most appealing to them. My target audience suggested that the highest amount of money that they would pay for a student magazine would be £2.50- however they said they would prefer if they were free, because then more students may decide they would want to read it. And for my final question I had a range of suggestions from 'student's pocket pal', 'studon't stress', 'unwind'.

Colour Scheme Experiment

Here are my colour scheme ideas. I decided to use bright, bold colours which stand out in order to attract people's attention. I'm going to ask my target audience which colours they prefer from the above so I know which colours the students would find more appealing and attractive.

Font Ideas

MY TITLE

For my Title I’m considering using the font ‘impact’ as it’s big, clear and bold, therefore it should be successful in attracting the audience’s attention.

Showcard goth is another font that I’m considering using for my title.

I may use ‘Kristen ITC’ as my title as it connotes fun as it looks similar to a childs handwriting due to it being slightly wavy.

MY MAIN TEXT

I’m considering using the font ‘Berlin Sans FB’ for my main text as it’s easy to read and it looks similar to a students’ handwriting, therefore a student may feel reassured and relatable when reading my magazine.

I may also use this font (Comic Sana MS) as my main text as similarly to ‘Berlin Sans FB’ it’s clear and simple to read.

MY SUBTITLES

I’m considering using this font (Bauhaus 93) for subtitles as it’s bold and eye-catching, however I think the audience may have some trouble reading it due to the letters being so close together.

Berlin Sans FB Demi is also another font I’m considering to use for my subtitles- I prefer this font a lot more than Bauhaus 93 because it’s a lot easier to use, yet it’s just as bold and eye-catching.

Cooper Black is yet another font I’m considering using for my subtitles, this is because it’s bold and it’s easy to read.

Preliminary Task- Student Magazine

This is some of my research on the generic conventions of a student magazine.I studied multiple magazines and looked at similar things that they had in common- this is what I came up with.

I will be making a student magazine for my preliminary task; in order to do this I have to research and analyse student magazines- to do this effectively I made a mind map listing all of the generic conventions that are commonly used in Student Magazines. In order to successfully make my front page and my contents of my student magazine I will continue with research.

Week 1
- Blog post on the generic conventions of a student magazine.
- Complete textual analysis of a student magazine.
- Blog post on initial ideas for student magazine.
- Research target audience and post findings to blog.
- Experiment with colour schemes/ fonts and post on blog.
- Experiment with mode of address name ideas and post on blog.
-Produce a mock of front cover and contents page.

Week 2
- Organise photo shoot and take photos for magazine.
- Complete front cover and post on blog.
- Begin designing contents page.

Week 3 
- Complete designs of contents page and post on blogs.
- Start drafting evaluation and complete for homework.

Week 4
- Continue evaluation.