Contents page Mocks

Contents page Mocks

 

I have now also began to mock up my contents page, I have yet to take the photographs for them and will do so this week, I also want to include a photograph of the school in snow on te contents page.

This is my first contents page mock up:

I don`t excatly like the layout of this page, this is because there are alot of empty spaces around the page which I feel is going to be a waste of space, I could make more use of this space by filling it with smaller photographs or other articles. I feel that I could also fill this space with christmas images; or a christmas border however I feel that this would give the mgazine a student made look and would take away the proffesional look to the rest of the magazine. I would like to use the school logo on the contents page and will do so at the top of the page.

I also only have seven articles, which will not take up very much space at all, I feel that I will have to change alot of this mock up when creating my actual contents page as I feel that there is so much space wasted on this page.

I could use the two spaces at the top of the page; the left one and the right one, and fill these with more christmas images.

 

I have found two images on Google.com, which I used to experiment with what my contents page would look like with photographs on it.

I quite like what my page looks like with the photographs on it, however I am still concerned abput what I am going to do with the spaces at the side. After thinking about this, I have found that I could put the school`s motto on either side;

On the left side I could have it in Latin;

'Altiora Sequamur'

 

Wheras on the right side I could have it in english;

'Aim High'

(This is what it would look like on my contents page;)

I am really starting to like the way my contents page has developed, I am going to keep the idea of having the school motto down the sides to fill the empty space; however I feel that the page still looks quite blank, I feel that I may have to change the colour of the background- However I will change it to a ligh colour (e.g. A light Blue) to stay with my theme as Blue is associated with cold and cold is with christmas, I also feel that this also fits in well with the school, as their main colours include Blue.

 

 

Language, Colours and Fonts...?

Language, Colours and Fonts...?

 

Today in class we have had presentations on;

Colours, Fonts, camera angles and language & Register.

As I have already taken my photographs and know what angles I want to take my group ones from and haven`t changed my mind on the angles/ how I want to take them and, I have decided not to write about the camera angles.

 

However I was thinking about the colour of my fonts that I am going to use on my finished magazine cover and contents page. I know that using a background, such as red with black font will be hard to read and detter my potential buyers and my target audience. I have decided that the best idea would be to use a light coloured background with a dark coloured fint; so that this will be easy to read. Also as my theme is Christmas I have to take in to account what colours would be most 'readable' on the backgrounds. I am going to use various shades of Green, Red and Black colours for my texts and need to make sure that they stand out on my backgrounds.

 

I also have to take into account what trype of fonts I am going to use for my magazine; ie. San serif fonts would be best for a magazine cover as they are blocky and will stand out better than fonts that have long flicks on each of the letters. I have also learn`t that the style of fonts used can affect how formal/ informal my magazine looks to my readers.

e.g.

This font style would be seen on a magazine cover as it is bold, easy to read by all and would catch peoples attention quickly,

Whereas this font style is harder to read and not as bold; so people would miss it, if it were on the cover of a magazine.

 

 

 

I will have to make sure that I am consistent with the style of language I use within my magazine because this could effect how my viewers/ readers register/ recieve the magazine. I want to go for a formal styled magazine as I feel that the magazine should be somewhere the readers can go to for advice; however one of my articles is 'Sixthform common room gossip' so I will have to use a less formal language style for this article however I will need to make sure that it fits in with the feel of the magazine and doesnt seem out of place. 

Magazine Mocks

Magazine Mocks (-Photographs)

 

 

I have begun to mock my magazine cover; I have created a plain mock so that I can see where I would like everything to go when creating my final cover.

This also allows me to move everything around when adding my photograph/s to the background, I like the layout of this cover and have decided what photograph I would like to be the background. I have a border around the photograph because I feel that this will help make the magazine stand out and I also think that the colour of the border will also show the theme of the magazine. I have used the 'Z' rule, so that the viewers eyes are drawn in a 'Z' formation down the cover, I feel that this makes my magazine cover look more proffesional and more like a real magazine.

 I have decided that I will also try editting my photograph further so that it really shows my christmas theme.

 

 

Mock with photograph (edit)

 

This is my plain mock cover with my chosen, editted photograph in the background, I like how the image looks with the writting around it, however I have noticed a few issues with using this photograph;

-In the bottom right corner, the black text cannot be seen, so I will have to change the fonts colour to white.

-The Title of the magazine is going in to my models hat- This will affect my text if I was to write in a red colour and it would also draw my readers attention away from the title, to solve this I will have to bring the image down, so that the mast head goes over the top of my model.

-There is alot of tree in this image and not alot of my model, I can solve this by moving the photograph over slightly so that my model takes up more of the cover instead of the tree dominating the page or I could include more articles in to this space, which will take my readers attention away from the tree.

 

Mock with photograph 2 (Edit)

I decided to use a different photograph all together as the one I used in my first photo mock couldn`t be moved around on the cover. This photograph has been edited to make it look more like a cold decembers day. I have found that this photograph works better and solves the issues of the tree dominating the photograph and the mast head going across my models hat, however I now relize that with this photograph the black text is harder to see, but I am going to try and keep my font to the Christmas colours which my audience voted for, red, green and gold.

 

In these photographs my model has a very serious facial expression and she is studying which contrasts heavily with the fact she is wearing tinsel and a santa hat, I have donw this because I want the viewers to get the impression that the school is fun and exciting however it is very serious about the education that its students recieve. I am going to incoperate and try to connote this with/ through my cover lines so that it is clear to the reader.

 

I am now going to use the second mock, I was originally set on using the photograph in the first mock but have realized that that photograph is not an appropriate choice for my magazine cover. I am now going to start adding on details to my secound mock and experiment with the colours of the font and border to see what works best with this photograph.

 

 

 

 



 

Mode Of Address

Mode Of Address

 

 

In class today, we looked at the 'mode of address' for magazines and also some video/ advertisement clips.

We watched a few advertisement clips for WKD and what they present to their audience and what is suggested in the advertisement to make us think this. This task then got us to think further about:

-Who our magazine is aimed at and what they particularly want for the magazine.

-How we wish to represent the school to our target audience and why,

and also

- The ways in which we plan to communicate these values and ideas to our target audence.

 

I feel that I have made it clear who my target audience are, the sixthform, and what they want from my magzine; I did so in my Questionnaire results. 

However I know that I haven`t explained how I want to represent the school and why I want to represent them that way. I would like to show that the school is a great place to be and a good place to make friends but I want to show that it is also a great place that teenagers that have left school could continue their studies. I want this to be represented in my photographs and my overall magazine because I find that I would also like to make a good impression for the school incase external teenagers or parents see the magazine. I also want the students who get the magazine to get a good impression of the school, even though they already go there.

I started to think about the way I could communicate this across to my audience. The ideas that I have;

-Photographs

-Texts

-Layout

I have already started to capture how I want to represent the school in my front cover photographs and I need to continue this when taking my group images. I also need to consider my layout if I want to represent a good image of the school.

 

These are just some thought I had on the 'Mode of Address'.

Photographs of my model

Photographs of my model

 

Over the past week I started to take photographs of my model for the font cover image of my magazine. As my theme is Christmas I used props related to this theme. When I asked my target audience about the props, they responded saying they would most relate Tinsel, snow and a Santa hat with Christmas, however I could not get snow in the photograph, so I used both of the other props with my model in the photograph.  

 

 

 

 

These are four photographs I took of my model, I feel that these are the best out of all the images I took and I am now going to rule out my ultimate favourite.

 I decided to try different camera angles in attempt to get a duller look to the background, as the magazine is to be themed around Christmas, yet keep the vibrant to the images, I found that this was very difficult to achieve and I then decided that I would have to edit the image to get the Christmas, cold, December feel to the image.

  My favourite out of these four photographs is the bottom right image, I feel this is because I like how it is composed; I like how my model is standing- casual, leaning against the tree, giving it a sense of peace and freedom to the image which contrasts with her formal clothing overall creating the feeling that the school is a great, relaxing place to be. I also like how my model is looking at the folder in her hands, the viewer is drawn to follow her gaze, which leads them to the Beaver wood school badge, highlighting that the magazine is for Beaver wood sixth form pupils.

My least favourite of the images is the bottom right image; this is because the model is looking at the camera. I like how the model is smiling and creating a relaxed happy atmosphere however I feel that this will take the viewers focus away from the folder in her hand and to her face; something that I wasn`t aiming to create within the photograph. However I do like the angle that I have taken this photograph from.

I feel that, in the top two, I have taken the photograph from the wrong angles as the viewer cannot see what the sixth former is looking at; making the folder seem pointless in the image, however because my magazine is for internal school release, it does not matter about the beaver wood badge- But I would still like to have this shown in the photograph. I have decided that I do not want to use these two photographs for that simple reason. I have also noticed that in the top left image, the sun is extremely bright in the background and I feel that even using a filter on the image will not let me get that cold, winter night feel.

 

So, the photograph I like the best is the bottom right one, I feel that this is the best image to use for my magazine cover and I also started testing filters on the image and found that they work very nicely on that particular image. I used a transparent blue filter on the image to get the winter feel. I have put the original image next to the edited one to show the difference. I feel that this filter has got me the effect that I wanted; however I am going to experiment more with the edited image to try and further that winter`s day feel.

 

 

 







Original




Edited





I will also be trying filters on some of my other photographs and also different filters on the image above, which I will upload soon.

 

I will also be taking my group photographs soon, which I would like to have interacting with the tinsel and Santa hat, studying or having a conversation with each other. I will also like to include some photographs of the school in snow, which I took last year when It snowed heavily. I will also upload these soon.

Magazine annotation table

Magazine annotation table

 

This is my completed magazine table, I have annotated three other covers within the table and have also put my own ideas into the table and what ideas my chosen audience have given me.

The three example magazine covers I used:

 

Example 1:
This magazine is a student made magazine; I felt that this magazine was very different to the proffesional one and decided I would like to look at a wider range of school magazines to get more ideas and a feel for what else I could include on my cover.

 

Example 2:
This is a Beaverwood school magazine, which is also student made, however they have gone for a more proffesional approach and it also looks like a newspaper layout.

 Example 3:
This is a proffesional magazine, which I feel contrasts heavily in details and typical magazine conventions with the other two student made magazines.

 

 

 

 

 

Magazine contents page reseach cont.

 

 

 

 

Magazine contents page reseach continued

This is another magazine cover I came across whilst searching contents pages on the web, however this one has actually been made by the school staff unlike the others I found which were made by students and were of a less professional quality. I instantly like this contents page as I find that the layout is very professional, eye catching and also interesting. I like the way that the contents page is laid out, the way the articles have been listed and each have an individual comment underneath them. I also feel that this magazine cover is aimed at both parents and students; as it has information about 'new uniform', mostly aimed at parents, (even though the title of the page is 'welcome back students') - so they know what their child needs for school, and then they have straight after, 'Worried? Stressed?' I feel that this has been aimed at the students who are going through their GCSE`s, A-Levels or are just having a hard time in general.

The colour scheme of this contents page is very basic, plain white with purple headings I feel that this makes it seem more professional as there are not loud, contrasting colours jumping out of the page at the viewer/reader. I am going to think about this when creating my contents and cover page because  want mine to be of a professional quality and not like it has been created by a lower year student.

I also like the use of photographs on the contents page, they are relevant to certain articles within the magazine and have the page numbers on the image, so the reader can find the articles, that go with the images, instantly.

Overall I like this contents page, I feel that it does look professional, however I am put off by the lack of colour and feel that this contents page would have benefited from some kind of border- I will be thinking about things, as simple as this, when creating my own contents page.