Evaluation

My magazine is similar to other teenage girl magazines. My front cover layout follows the same conventions of many other girl magazines I did this so that it would apply to a particular target market. I think my media project represents a particular social group quite well as I have used bright feminine colours that draw the reader in. I have also included 5 different stories that the reader would enjoy reading. I showed examples of these on the front cover making the reader aware of the content helping to encourage further interest. I carried out much research to make sure that I reached my target audience however; I feel this magazine would attract the younger half of my target audience as the colours used are quite young and not very sophisticated. As I my target audience wasn't only aimed at 6th formers I therefore didn't do any research on collage magazine which I now felt I should have in spite of this, my research did show that people in years 12-13 did like these colours. The picture I chose has gone well for this magazine as it is a young teenage student who goes to Fortismere. She is not wearing much make-up this is important as one of the stories is about make-up and how you don't want to wear too much (Fashion and beauty at school, more is less).

On the other hand I do not feel like I quite met the target audience set by myself as I think it would appeal more to a younger, if I were to do this task again I would set myself a narrower target market so that I reach the target.

I think the text I have chosen to use on the magazine cover goes well as it is soft and easy on the eye and will be recognizable if seen again. The text used on stories is clear and easy to read which will encourage the reader to buy the magazine. However I have not used the Fortismere font on the magazine as I feel it would be nice for the reader to get away from something the see every day e.g.. on there homework diaries and around school.

From this project I have learnt a great deal about Photoshop, although I do not full understand it I now feel confidant to use it again. However I feel if I had learnt more about Photoshop and had more to practice and make more mock ups then my final piece would look more professional and neat.

I feel my hard effort can been seen in this project however again if I had had more time I would have made the front cover look more expensive and professional I shall therefore use this to help me with my up coming project on music magazines.

Creating the Cover and Contents

Sticking to Fortismere's slogan 'On the Hill' I made a decision to use 'Girls on the Hill' as it is clearly directed at females at Fortismere, I used the second most popular colour, pink and yellow for the font, this was good as I felt it made the text stand out.

I made the text behind the image, making it a regular part of the layout, I also included sub headings to draw in attention of potential readers and used parts from text making them curious as what what happens.

On the text I used tools on photo shop to create a back shadow making it stand out and more eye catching.

For the contents I used the same colour schemes to make the magazine feel familiar. I also used similar techniques to create the effects.

The Covers Photograph

After deciding on my magazine choice I took photographs. I choose this one as I liked the angle as it is not a full front but from the side, I also thought the hair looked and suited a magazine. After selecting this photo I went on to editing it using photo shop.

Firstly I focused on the face, removing the red eye from the camera and altering the eye colour from a dark green to a blue, which I felt made the models

face stand out more.

I gave the models face more colour by remove redness and brightening the photograph giving the skin a flawless finish, which is similarly used in

most magazines.

I then added some eye-liner and mascara to

her eyes again making them stand out.

After editing the photography itself I played around with the back ground colour and chose to use one of the favourites from my questionnaire, baby-blue. I then used a tool to soften the edges reducing sharpness and helping the photo blend in,

Ideas for my Magazine

My magazine is goin to aimed at teenage girls aged between 14-18 (years 9-13), living in North London who go to Fortismere school. Their interests would include music, friends, shopping boys. They would also like to keep up with what is happening around the world, and real life stories ( embarrassing stories, shocking stories, advice on real problems)

As it is going to be aimed at teenage girls the colors i will use will be bright and will have typical feminine use of pink.

Storys that i might include on contents page and front cover:

- Events happening in and around Fortismere.

- A problems page.

- World news summed up in a page so that readers stay intrested in what happening around the World.

- Pictures of things that have happened around the school each month.

- 10 things you never knew about Fortismere

- Interview with a celebrity from Fortismere

- Fashion and beauty at school, less is more.

- An interview with a diffrent teacher each month, so that students can relate to their teachers.

- How to keep safe when out of school

Stroys that could be on the front cover:

- 10 things you never knew about Fortismere

- An interview a teacher

- A problems page

- Events happening at Fortismere

Possible titles:

- Girls... on the hill

- f.s girls

- FFF (for fortismere females)

I have included the fact that its a girls magazine in all the possible titles, this is so that it is clear who the magazine is for. i have decided to call the magazine 'Girls... On the hill' this is because '...On the hill' is Forismere's slogan and is used on most things to do with Fortismere.

Analysing My Photo

I will now also analyse my covers selected picture using connotation and denotations showing what I wanted to accomplish from my picture and what the readers can see.

I shall now create and carry out a questionnaire asking my target audience what they think about my ideas. I handed out my questionnaire to 15 Fortismere pupils and 5 pupils from other schools all within my target audience (years 9-13) here are my results:

What would you most like to have a school magazine based on?

Sports:1

Music:3

Stories about Fortismere:6

Fashion:5

Stories of pupils in Fortismere:5

As the last 3 options are most popular I shall included all of these so that there is some varity to the magazine

Favorite colors for a school magazine?

Pink: 5

Baby Blue:5

Orange:

Yellow:6

Green:

Purple:2

Black:2

The most popular colors were pink, yellow and baby blue as these are all bright colors and all very famine i shall include all 3 on my front cover.

How often would you buy the school magazine if there was one?

Monthly: 8

Weekly:4

Every 2 weeks: 4

Every term:4

Monthly was the most popular, I think this is the best times for the magazine to be made as it give time for stories to happen and be written.

Analysing a Teenage magazine

I have I have chosen to analyse Sugar closely as it is a female teenage magazine being a teenage girl myself I shall be looking out for what I think is a fair representative of what teenagers want in magazines. It is also one of the best selling teenage magazine inBritain, and is aimed for 13-17 year old. In depth I am going to evaluate this magazine cover, using my knowledge of semiotics to discuss my ideas.