Evaluation For Bodmin College Magazine Of Mine

As Bentley states in 1997, "The making of the old and the rearranging of the old." This will apply to my magazine front cover and contents page because this creation is basically looking at the old version that was created by a member of staff within the school and developing it into a better production suitable for the target audience. Also, it related to the research I did of existing covers and content pages before starting my own planning and audience research. 

My target audience is students within Bodmin College aged from 12-19 years old, their social class at the moment would be C onwards because they are still living at home with their parents. Which links to another target audience this magazine cover has been designed to interest/attract to read, these people could range from E-C in the social class. This magazine will also attract people who work within the school; governors, teachers and others who will also range from C onwards in the social class categories. 

Looking at the existing Bodmin College Magazine cover I observed the current graphology and discourse layout wasn't suitable for the target audience. The magazine seems to have a dull 80's theme attached to it judging by the colours and images that were uses, also the typography was dull and seemed to have been taken off a word processing program. In other words, none of this appeared suitable for my target audience because a more professional vibrant look is needed to attract readers. My target audience agreed with this because when I conducted my SurveyMonkey through Facebook they said they did not read the college magazine and were put off by the cover. The majority of those surveyed said they preferred the design style of magazines like Vine, due to this being the case I followed the conventions of Vine but adapted them for the genre I was working in. 

Improving on the Bodmin College magazine was quite easy, I broke existing conventions through actually taking images that were in focus; the 3 images chosen for the Bodmin College Magazine were  poorly taken and then just zoomed in, this could explain the effects of the blurring appearing. But on a whole this shows that this magazine cover wasn't suitable for the target audience because the images are all basically related to dance and may put off some of the 12-19 year olds boys and female girls who are not taking dance (this could relate to the Laura Mulvey theory who connotes woman are portrayed as objects).

I improved on the masthead through basing positioning on the Vine magazine I looked at; the masthead for the Bodmin College existing magazine isn't in the right place like any magazine you'd purchase in a shop. Its more placed one eighth down the page, this may put off target audience by the poor effort as well as it being the Bodmin College Logo that is applied everywhere within the school, on uniforms, website and on news letters, also the colours that are used don't help the masthead to stand out because of the inappropriate bright wheat/corn type plant image behind it. Again this could be the reason why many of the target audience refuse to read it. 

In short, my version of the Bodmin College Magazine front page is much more effective because it follows professional conventions such as; a stylish masthead, big bold title that has purposely been designed to stand out, catchy teasers that will attract my target audience because it will personally apply to them. 

In terms of representation, my target audience for the social class of youth, will fall under the theorist of Stanley Hall, who claims within media teenagers aged 13-19 are moody people involved with crime, sex and drugs. This will also affect the appearance of my magazine of having to make sure it is suitable for my target audience. But in this case, a particular group of my target audience may go against this theory (6TH Formers) due to how their involved in further education doing their A Levels. To successfully represent my target audience through the masthead I borrowed from graffiti, a 'youth form of art because it is considered rebellious. 

The text alone immediately indicates that "BC VOICE" is aimed at students attending Bodmin College as well as parents and Governors because it connotes students will be given a voice, personalising the magazine to their needs of a collective identity (Uses and Gratification Theory Katz and Blumer, 1974). 

This beneath is the final result of my magazine designing of the front cover and contents page. On a whole the whole design was chosen and made suitable for my target audience and does fall under the stereotype of theorist of Osgerby because of the main headlines that will attract my target audience between 12-19 "Tuition fee headache." The theme runs through out the magazine and therefore this may affect more results on my surveymonkey if I were to ask if people were to read this version.  

In terms of technology I have learnt how to use photoshop as I had currently never been able how to use it before. From Photoshop I have learnt how to use patterns and shapes by applying the theme through the magazine. Adding pictures of the appropriate age group was also applied to show my target audience was appropriate for them.  Also I discovered how to find such fonts that will apply to my target audience, these fonts were made from FreeUrbanFonts and coloured to apply to the theme of my magazine.

Overall I would personally say that the theories of Stanley Hall can be applied to the representation in my products because the image of the 6th form student upon the front page of the magazine looks very 'stressed' and can relate to the main headline of the story, 'Tuition Fee Headache', yet the masthead of the magazine could also relate to the magazine because of type of colours chosen, black and white, which could connote moodiness. 

In short, I personally would say I prefer the work on my front cover compared to my contents page because my contents page could need a variety of improvements. I understand how a contents page could be laid out but I think I could have spent more time on re-arranging the images and fonts placed making the presentation look more attractive to my target audience. Also in terms of improvements I think I could have chosen a better category of font to chose than the boring computer typing type.