Final Design

Here are my final designs for my front cover and contents page. :)

Final Evaluation

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The key purpose for a student magazine is to entertain students, and to keep them up to date with useful information. There needs to be a variety of different issues in the magazine, ranging from humour and education to music, which may be advertised using cover lines. The front cover needs to include a catchy title, in an attractive font. The colour schemes of the cover must be eye catching and appealing, to make readers want to pick it up. The magazine cover picture needs to be either funny, or something that would relate to a typical student; for example, a picture of some students on a night out would work well because that is what most students do on the weekend. When researching different magazines before I produced my final design, I noticed that there was a lot of information on the front cover and especially the contents page, which I decided against as I didn’t want to clutter my page with information that wasn’t needed. In my magazine cover and contents, I have tried to include all of these conventions to ensure that students would want to pick up my magazine and buy it.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

Both my front cover design and my contents page are very simple designs, yet effective and would appeal to my suited target audience which was 16 – 18 year olds.

I think if my target audience was to just girls then I would have used perhaps fashion, boys, and make up and cover lines. However my intended audience was simply 16-18 year olds, therefore I had to decide on subjects that would relate to most students.


• How did you attract/address your audience?

It is important that the contents of student magazines are again striking and interesting. If a student has picked up your magazine, then that means that they were attracted by the cover, if they then open it to find a dull and tedious contents page then it would be a waste of time. The contents should be well laid out and organised, but not in a boring list. It should also include the same or a similar style to the cover, and it should perhaps include pictures about what is included in the magazine.

I wanted to include a bright colour on the front cover to make it stand out, so I chose the colour orange. I then decided that I didn’t want my magazine to come across as childlike and immature, so I chose a more sophisticated colour to use with orange, which was purple. These contrasting colours work really well together because not only do they catch your eye when looked at, they also compliment each other, which gives my magazine cover a stylish and classy look. I have used the same colour schemes and layout style for the contents of my magazine which I think gives a neat and organised appearance. I have used a simple bold font for all of the writing, which is easy on the eye and doesn’t over complicate my page with fancy writing, and gets straight to the point.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The company that may be interested in distributing my magazine could be the college or student council for students to buy.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents a variety of social groups, which I ensured by including a range of cover lines that would draw in a collection of different types of teenagers. For example, my cover lines cover real life, love and romance, and exam stress – ‘how to prepare for exams’.

I have included pictures of the college bash on my cover, which I think would automatically make any student want to pick it up just to see if they were in it, so social groups was not much of an issue whilst designing my cover. I didn’t want to put too much writing on my cover so I just chose a few main headlines that were the most interesting; I think that if the cover was full of writing and information then it would bore students and make them not want to read it.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I only used Microsoft publisher to create my designs, and then obviously a camera to take my images. I also used the internet to get some images for my contents page (love hearts etc),

and to research existing student magazines. I have also recorded all of my findings and research onto a blog and asked for audience feedback, to ensure my magazine front cover and contents are as good as they could be.

Final Contents Page Design

I decided to choose the first design, as it is easier to read the information and has a much more neat layout. The second design has too much colour in it, and the numbers on the contents do not match with the writing. Also there are no pictures in the second design, and I like the idea of pictures to attract the audiences attention into reading it. I thought that there may be too much white in the background, but I think it makes the page looks much more fresh and easier for the eye to read. The first design looks far more sophisticated and organised, and I am happy to use that as my final piece.

Contents Page Designs

I need to keep the same colours and style for my contents page, as my front cover. Here are some initial ideas, any feedback about which ones you prefer and why would be great! Thank you!!

Front Cover Final Design

I decided to choose the second design for my front cover, as I think it looks more sophisticated and the other design was perhaps a bit child like. I like the contrast of the orange and purple and I think it makes the magazine cover really appealing and would hopefully attract alot of students. I also think that there would have been a problem trying to find a picture that would fit into the first design.





The cover lines that I have chosen, could relate to many teenagers and I have tried to use a range of topics to attract as many people as I can - love, humour, exams etc. I have used a black and bold font because I want the covers lines to be noticeable and readable for the audience.




I am happy with my front cover design, and now need to create some ideas for contents page designs using the same colour schemes and style.