Research target audience

I asked 3 people what they thought the magazine should look like and this is their response.

What kind of title should i have?

1.A big title because its normally the first thing you look at.
2.Use bright colours to make it stand out from the rest.
3.Make it student 

Layout

1.Do it like Kerrang because the central image really pops out.
2.Use a big image, with smaller headlines.
3.Make it easy to read and understand.

Content

1.Things a student can relate too.
2.Money problems and food problems
3.Jobs and college/ uni work.

Price

1.Free
2.Free
3.Free

They all said the magazine should be free as they didn't think that a student would happily pay for a weekly/ monthly magazine.

Colour scheme

They all said use of bright colours would make it more of a student magazine. Also to use pictures in the title which a student would normally have in their bags.

Images

We thought that a casual image of a couple people from college would be best, as we can do this every week or month so eventually everyone would have their face on the cover of the magazine.

Initial ideas

House Style

My colour scheme will be blue on blue or yellow on black as i think these colours will stand out and catch your eye in a group of magazines. The black or dark colour would be the background where the yellow would pop out from it. The yellow in the colour scheme would be used for the headlines and coverlines, whereas white will be used for the main text throughout the magazine.

Mode of address

I will be using a more laid back cover image rather than a posed shot as i think it looks more natural and can relate to a younger audience. This combined with the font style and colour scheme will create more of a student themed magazine.

Central image

For my central image i will attempt an image with something more recent, such as students from Ludlow College, casually walking or sitting at lunch time, to portray a laid back image.

Content

For the content of the magazine i will include things such as, a student survival guide, to help with the stresses of student life. A media page for things like music, movies and games, as i think these are a big factor in students lives. I will also conduct an interview with someone relevant to student life.

Use of Language

For my use of language i intend to write it in a very informal manner, using words that a student would use in their every day lives. I want parts of the magazine to be fun to read, so providing joke language and comparing something to someone totally ridiculous, would get the reader enjoying the magazine.

Colours and fonts

A darker background with yellow headlines and cover lines, with white as the main text.

Mock Designs for magazine front cover and contents page

Magazine names

I played around with some different names to try and find what i was looking for.

Experimenting with different fonts and colour schemes

Generic conventions of a student/ college magazine.

Textual analysis

Introduction to preliminary task and action plan for preliminary task

Action Plan

• For my preliminary task I have to research and analyse other student magazines on the blog, to then create my own student magazine cover and contents pages. I have researched target audience, colour schemes, writing styles, photography and fonts all from the magazines on the blog, to try and find a similarity between all the student magazines.
• I will then plan the layout of what i want my student magazine to look like on publisher, to structure it how i want the magazine to look.
• Once i have mocked up my magazine on publisher i will organize a photo-shoot and take photos for the magazine.
• Complete the front cover and post on blogs.
• Begin designing the contents page
• Complete design of contents page and post onto blogs.
• Start drafting the evaluation and complete to add to blogs.