Planning my college magazine

Before making my magazine, Bishbosh, I looked at other college and university magazines to see what worked and what didn't. From these magazines I took note of colours used, language, target audience and images. An analysis I did of an existing college magazine is included in this blog.

In order to find out what would be a good idea to include in the magazine and how to price it, we created a questionnaire for the target audience and randomly selected people to answer. From the results of this questionnaire I found some important points, for example the majority of students would be willing to pay no more than £1 monthly for the magazine, and that they are more interested in sport, music reviews and game reviews being in the magazine. I also found that the majority of students would rather the magazine had a mixed tone of serious and humorous, and that an image of students should be on the front. From this research I decided to include cover lines such as "Sound track to college life" and "College football team set to win league" because I thought students would find this interesting. Before even taking photos for the cover I drew a rough plan of the front cover and contents page to give me a guideline to go by, and although I strayed from this plan it gave me a good idea of what to include. 

College Magazine: my original photograph

My finished contents page

For the contents page I used an existing contents page from a magazine as a template, changing some elements such as colours, text, and image placement. If I were to really put this contents page in a magazine I would take photos for it, which as you can see would be placed at the top and bottom of the page. There would be two large images at the top of the page, which would attract attention and be the first thing the viewer saw. At the bottom there is one large image and two smaller images overlapping it, which makes the page look less rigid and strict and gives it a fun feel. At the top of the page is the magazine title, Bishbosh, almost identical to that on the front cover, minus the glow. I didn't feel the glow was necessary on this page as I liked the mirrored effect of the words "Bishbosh" and "Contents" directly underneath, in black and white. The content of the magazine is written on individual different coloured lines, which start faint and gradually get more solid. I like this idea as personally I feel it makes the page easier and more interesting to look at, especially as I made the black writing have a shadow and therefore stand out of the page and not blend in which the colours. The colours work well as they are predominantly pink yellow and blue which co-ordinates with the front cover, yet the other colours such as green and purple mix it up a bit and keep it exciting.

My finished cover page

From the target audience questionnaire I found that the majority of students wanted to see fellow students on the front cover, so I used a picture of a typical student, Richard, with a smile on his face. His smile is subtle and not broad which I thought would make the cover look less cheesy, and he is not looking directly at the camera or the viewer which makes it look more natural and less specifically to do with him. I used a close up shot of Richard as this makes the cover seem more personal. The original background of the image was a notice board so I changed it to plain black, which adds a sense of mystery and also eliminates subconsciously associating the location of the shot with somewhere the audience may know, such as a classroom, as this may not be too appealing.

I used a soft rounded font because it looks friendly and inviting, with an edge of childishness which I hoped would appeal to younger readers, while the serif on the font helps it keep a smart look. 

For the main head I made it white and look as though it's glowing. I done this so that it is the first thing the reader notices, which is important as it is the magazine's title. The words "Bishbosh" are random and don't imply much by way of what the magazine includes, it almost suits the phrase "mish mash" which gives the idea that the magazine would have a lot of different information and articles rather than all the same thing which would be boring. "Bishbosh" is also quite playful which again goes with the idea that students don't always want to have to act grown up.

For the cover lines I used the colours pink, blue and yellow because they are bright and fun, attracting attention as they stand out from the black background. Pink is stereotypically a girl's colour, as is blue a boy's, so by combining the two and adding a unisex colour of yellow I thought that the magazine should appeal to everyone not just of one gender. I positioned the cover lines around Richard's face and at various angles so as to look interesting and not strict. Some words covered his face but I couldn't change that without making the writing too small or distorting the image, but it doesn't affect the image too much and from research I found that many magazines in fact do this.

To advertise the price I put it in a star shape with lots of points which made it look like a sticker, again using the colours pink, yellow and blue. The word "only" is emotive and enticing and makes it seem affordable and possibly even a bargain. The "£1" is bold, large and yellow which stands out from the page and could be one of the first noticed things.

The language codes I used are quite informal and I used exclamation points which isn't particularly formal on a magazine cover. Words such as "revealed" and "find out inside" entice the reader to want to read more, therefore buy the magazine. "Top 176 songs chosen by you!" personalizes the page to the reader in an appropriate way, making them feel a part of the magazine and again making them want to buy it to find out if their choice matches that of the "Sound track to college life".

I think the cover is successful in that it gets across the messages I wanted to, and they stand out. However I would choose a different font next time as I feel it is slightly too childish and may seem too immature for some students. Also, although I enjoy the colour scheme as it is bright and fun, it may not appeal to everybody as it doesn't look particularly sophisticated or "cool". The image I used is good I think but possibly could do with out having a designer label on the jumper as it may subconsciously present the idea that "cool" students must wear designer or high fashion, expensive clothes, and therefore not appeal to everybody.

Before this task I had never used Photoshop before so it was good to have some practice using it for this task as I gradually got more used to it and will continue to get to grips with it and find it easier to use. I learnt much about target audience and styles of magazines and what they subconsciously and consciously represent, using stereotypes, images, font and language. This is good to know as having an understanding of how magazines work and why they are made the way they are has given me an insight into what I am doing right and wrong.

College magazine cover analysis

This is my analysis of a college magazine.

college mag soup
Originally uploaded by Krysia Burns

Click the picture to read my analysis.