Action Plan

For my first media course work project, I have been asked to design and create a front cover and contents page for a student magazine. To ensure I will be aiming for the right target audience, I will research existing magazines to take into account what kind of layout, colour and context is being used. My main task later on, is to create a music magazine, therefore I don't want to use all of my ideas on this task, so i will have to be careful which elements I choose to include. I have four weeks in total to finish my front cover and contents page, and here is my action plan to ensure I will keep up to date, with the task given.

Week 1

In the first week I will research existing student magazines to give myself ideas and inspiration for mine. I then need to decide on a target audience to ensure I attract the right type of people. I will also create an audience questionnaire, and ask people to fill it out, in order to know what people will want to read about in my magazine. If I still haven't thought of a name for my magazine, I may also create a poll with various magazine names I could use and see which name receives the most votes. If I have time I will look through some mock designs so I know what to expect in my final piece.

Week 2

This week I will begin to design my front cover and contents and experiment with different fonts and layouts. Once I have decided on what image I would like to be on my front cover, I will need to organise a photo shoot perhaps with my friends, so I have a number of pictures to choose for my main front cover picture. I will then probably have to edit these photographs in a computer programme, tweaking them and making them how I want them to be. In addition to this, I will need to decide which colours I will use - complementary or clashing, however this will depend on which colours are in my photograph.

Week 3

By week 3 I will have hopefully completed my first draft. I will then ask for feedback from my decided target audience and make any necessary changes to my front cover and contents. By the end of this week my aim is to be completely happy with my designs for the cover and contents.

Week 4

In the final week I will finish any unfinished work and also I need to evaluate my final piece, and answer any questions about the task that I will have just completed. I will read over all of my research and work and make any necessary changes. I have now completed task 1 :)