Evaluation

Front cover:

In my front cover production I have decided to use a background picture of two students at the ‘May Ball’ who look like they are having a good time. There smiles and the fact that their at the ‘May Ball’ give of a good impression of the school showing that it is home to happy students and it also shows that  the school runs events for the students to attend. I have decided to use the fonts ‘Bodoni MT Black’ and ‘Arial Black’ because they stand out from the picture background and would catch the readers eye. The masthead is in the ‘Bodoni MT Black’ font, I have decided to put it in this font because this font is bolder and would stand out more than the ‘Arial Black’ font which I have used for the coverlines. I have used the colours orange and yellow because they stand out from the picture background and also they have connotations of being associated with happiness and good moods. The root of the eye starts of with the title and then moves diagnolly downwards through some coverlines and across the picture which suggets neale wade is a happy place. I have used the principle of thirds, the primary optical area is the students faces and some coverlines, I have put these things in the primary optical area because the students faces are important for the image of school and magazine, and also the emphasis on the coverlines would catch the readers eye and make them read on. I have decided to put coverlines in 3 out of the 4 hotspots because I belive these too be very important in trying to make the reader read on. In the terminal area I have put a coverline which would be the last thing the reader see’s and would entice them to read on in to the magazine.I have used some coverlines like ‘Science Club’, ‘ICT Software’, ‘Eco-thing’ and ‘Homework help’, these things are all good things to be associated with a school, they connote that Neale Wade is a good place to be and offers good learning facilities and is interested in the protection of the environment. I have also put a checkered yellow border around each text box which I feel adds to the desired effect of my magazine which is associating Neale Wade school with happiness and good things.My target audience for this magazine is students of Neale Wade and maybe people thinking of coming to Neale Wade (Year 6’s), I have decided to try and appeal to this audience by using a specific mode of address, this is informal and I believe that this is the best way to appeal to a younger audience, and also text like “Check the sports day pictures” and “Gossip” suggests that this magazine is aimed at youngsters and I feel that my choice of mode of address would succesfully appeal to them.

Contents Page

In my contents page I have decided to use different bright colours to carry on with my happy image of Neale Wade, these colours are orange,green,yellow and red. At the bottom of the page I have also used 2 pictures of students at ‘Freshers 08’ and this succesfully contributes to the good image of Neale Wade school, it also shows another event which the school puts on and promotes the image of the school further. The masthead is in a blue font on an orange background which helps to catch the readers eye and entice them to read onto the informtation below the masthead. I have also used two other main headlines on the page, these are ‘School events’ and ‘School sports’, both of these headlines are followed by the page numbers of stories and articles associated with these two things. The story titles under the main headlines show articles like ‘Upcoming events pg. 2-5’, ‘Year 6 induction day pg. 25-30’,‘Sports day pictures pg. 14-19’ and ‘Interhouse results and pictures pg. 54-57’, all of these stories help to enhance the image of the school, this is because it is showing things that the school puts on for their students, like an induction day for new students to help them get used to their surroundings and also sports days. Both of the fonts of these main headlines are in ‘Bodoni MT black’ which helps to stand out and the following stories are in ‘Lucida console’ which I belive complenments the ‘Bodoni MT black’ and makes the whole page more pleasing on the eye. Around the text box’s I have put different colour borders, and like the front cover this helps with making the page more pleasing on the eye. In the contents page I have put the picture of students at ‘Freshers 08’ in the terminal area, this would be the last thing the student see’s and would maintain the good image already built up of the school through the front cover and text in the contents page. As I have said previously my target audience for the magazine is students of Neale Wade and people thinking of coming to Neale Wade (Year 6’s), and I feel that all of the techniques used in the contents page maintains my mode of adress from the front cover which was writing in an informal way and maintaining the interest of the readers by bright colours and interesting pictures.

Skills I have learnt

The skills I have learnt through this preliminary task range from analysing and reviewing past school magazines, which helped me to get ideas for my school magazine front cover and contents page. I also learnt how to efficiently analyse articles in a magazine. I believe this experience would help me in the future with my main task as I would have more ideas to put into it. In the preliminary task I also had to design a front cover and contents page, I had already done this in the past and this further experience can only help me in the future as I will have to design a music magazine in my main task. I have also learnt how to choose fonts and colours to gain an eye catching effect, this would help in attracting readers to the magazine. This will help me in making my main task magazine more pleasing on the eye.

My Magazine Contents Page

My Magazine Front Cover

School Magazine Analysis 3

This magazine front cover tries to show the students having a good time at their particular school. It also tries to show off the high quality computers the school has to offer to their students. The editors do not use a background, they just use a picture from the school which covers the whole front cover, but they have a picture of an eagle at the back of the room which shows the high quality standard of the school. The primary optical area is filled with the eagle picture; this tells us that the editors are trying to show off what their school looks like. In the terminal area there are the computers, the computers are put in the terminal area because this will be the last thing the reader looks at and leave them thinking what quality facilities the school has to offer. The hotspots are placed on the children’s faces; this shows the students using the high quality computers. The computers are also in a hotspot which helps the editors to show of their computers. A cover line is also in a hotspot, the cover line says “Empowering students for a new future”, and this shows the intentions of the school and would make the school come off as ambitious and capable of helping the students achieve their goals. The picture of the eagle is also in a hotspot which helps the editor’s show off their general décor. The root of the eye starts off by showing the title of the magazine and then moves onto the cover lines and the children’s faces using the quality computers, and it finally goes on to the computers which helps the editors show off what their school has to offer. The masthead is in a black bold colour which catches the reader’s eye and entices them to read more of the magazine. The cover lines used use words like “Empowering” and “Celebration” which helps the editors make the school come off as a positive place. The cover lines are in a black and white font which makes them stand out from the rest of the magazine and might make the reader read on into the articles inside the magazine.

School Magazine Analysis 2

This front cover tries to represent their school in a colourful manner, hence why the background is yellow. They also use different images on the front cover to denote all the different things the school has to offer. They also put the main bulk of the images on the front cover in the primary optical area, this would catch the readers attention and possibly achieve the target I previously mentioned they were aiming for which is representing their school in a colourful way. The root of the eye is used effectively to first show the title, ‘evolve’ and then all of the images down the middle of the page and along the bottom, their attempts to make the images the main ‘eye catcher’ simply shows their main aim which is to get the reader to identify the images used with the school; which would in turn produce a good image of the school. The terminal area is also used to show more images. The masthead is a bold black colour which stands out from the yellow background, it also has a quite modern feel about it which reflects the image the editors are trying to create; the masthead would be the first thing which catches the eye of the reader according to the root of the eye rule, so this underlines the importance of the masthead catching the audience’s attention.

The content of the magazine generally covers various subjects involved with the school, for example there are articles on the talent contest the school hosted and the charity campaign they are running. The articles included in the magazine are chosen to reflect the school in a good light and make the reader build up a good opinion of the school.

The following is an example of an article in the magazine:

Q: Will you visit the school in the future?

A: If I am invited. When you‟re a head teacher

its not a good idea to come not invited.

Q: How do you think the parents are reacting

to your leave?

A: To be honest I don‟t really know but I think

that they know what I have done with the

school, and I also think that they know that the

new head will do wonders as well. But anyway,

whatever people think it doesn‟t really matter, because the school isn‟t about head teachers like me it is about students like you.

Q: Do you think the think the school will

change after you leave?

A: Definitely because a school will always develop

and get better.

Q: In the recent vote for next years’ charity,

which would you prefer?

A: I didn‟t have a personal favourite because all charities are good. I did not vote as I felt

that the whole point of it was so it was the students chose the charity.

Q: What was your favourite subject at school and why?

A: Geography, because my teacher was very good, I found it interesting. The one thing I enjoyed

the most about it was the fieldwork and how people have adapted to different ways of

life.

Q: How are you planning to spend your retirement?

A: I have a granddaughter in Denmark so I will visit her regularly and play more golf and I

would like to still do some part time teaching.

Q: Have you got any hobbies?

A: I like playing golf, walking up hills and reading.

Once again we wish Mrs Welsh the best ofluck in her retirement.

This example shows a student teacher interview, this reveals that the magazine is written in an informal manner, and tries to be comical in its articles. The background for this article is a light blue which shows the school to be a bright and happy place. This article’s mode of address is comical and is aimed at students to give them an insight into their teacher’s lives, an example of the article being comical is the question asked; ‘Have you got any hobbies?’, the reason this is comical is because students rarely know what their teacher’s hobbies are the answer to this question could be comical to the reader. The use of pictures in this article helps the editors to make sure a personal relationship is built up between the reader and Mrs Welsh because a picture of Mrs Welsh is used.

School magazine analysis 1

This front cover along with most school magazines is used to try and represent their school and their students in a good way, they use many different techniques to achieve this; one of the techniques is, using the layout to make the magazine more eye catching and therefore more people are likely to read it. Other features of the layout include using the primary optical area to show the two students, possible reasons for them deciding to put the students face’s here is it gives an impression that everything at their school is happy and very enjoyable for students. Hot spots are also used to emphasise each of the student’s faces and also the cover lines at the bottom right of the page and the middle left of the page. Root of the eye is also used to firstly show the masthead and then the female students face and finally the cover lines in the bottom left of the page, they have possible placed these things in the root of the eye because they believe them to be the most important things on the front cover. The mast head is shown in a very large font and in bright colours; this connotes happy emotions which could be associated with the school. The cover lines are in a slightly lighter font but also stand out from the rest of the mainly white background, they are made to stand out because these are the things included in the article and may make the reader read on. The representation of the people is very happy because they are seen to be smiling; this feeling of joy can be associated with the school and therefore make the magazine more appealing to the target audience which is mainly students.