Preliminary evaluation

Preliminary evaluation

As Bentley states the creative process is “The making of the new through the rearranging of the old ” (Bentley 1997). I applied this to my production through looking at common conventions of magazines before I started planning my front cover and content page. Firstly, I looked at the Bodmin College magazine; I observed that it was not fit for purpose because the pictures are long shots, very poorly taken and I can barely read the writing. Due to this being the case I challenged and broke existing conventions through making my magazine and resemble magazine styles my target audience said they liked in my Survey Monkey. My target audience preferred the styles of the Vibe magazine with empire coming a close second, so I followed some conventions like having one main image, having teasers around the edge and blank to represent the needs of my target audience. However, I did break some conventions because my magazine was from a different genre and I wanted to be original. I broke conventions through having a background and not removing it and having a medium to long shot instead of a medium shot for my image.

My magazine design represents the social group of youth. Stanley Hall said in short, “Youth never changes”. My preliminary task represents this group, as it is a College magazine. The cover and content page use gender neutral colours thus making the magazine have a wider target audience. My image can also be seen as a role modal for the school especially for younger students. This helps it represent youth.

I made a Survey Monkey asking my target audience which front covers they preferred and topics they would like to read bout in my magazine. After making this I posted on Facebook for people to answer it. I got ten replies from it. From my replies I found out what my target audience would like to see in the magazine. The results showed their favorite topics to add in to the magazine. The results also showed which front cover they preferred. They picked the Vibe magazine thus telling me to use it as a style modal.

From making this product I have learnt how to use Blogger, Survey Monkey and more on Photoshop.  I had never used Blogger or Survey Monkey, I picked up the skill really quickly as both programs were easy to use. I have also learnt more about Photoshop’s tolls. I now found it easier to edit images on the program. Finally, I have also learnt about how a magazine is presented to its audience and I can now see that the College magazine that we have isn’t up to the correct standard. Having these tolls at my disposal made it easier to present my product to my audience.

Making my preliminary task had its ups and downs. Firstly the good parts were learning how to use different programs. This will help me in my project for editing images and distributing it to my audience. Another good part is that the image is very well taken and I found doing this easy. When making my project this skill will come in handy for the front cover and the content page. However there are things that could be improved, one of these is that the titles have backgrounds. If I were to do this again I would make sure that it was just the title and have no backgrounds on them. 

Preliminary front cover and contents

Here is my front cover for my preliminary task. It is a design for the school magazine.

Here is a contents page for the preliminary task. This is the inside cover for the school magazine.

Original images

Original images

Here is an image that I didn’t use. I didn’t use this one because the person in the photo is looking at the camera and not the book, which would make the photo look more natural.

 Here is another photo that I didn’t use. I didn’t use this photo because of the light reflecting off of the screen. This makes the photo look rubbish as the light directs your eye to it.

 Here is a photo that I did use. I used it as it has a good background that makes the person stand out with her red jumper. It’s also a medium shot, which suits the image and it isn’t blurred.

Here is the image I used for the front cover. It stands out to my target audience as it relates to everyone. It also isn’t blurred which made me not have to edit and just leave it to be natural.

Flat plans

Front cover

Content page

Target audience research and results

The two magazine front covers that I analysed were not very helpful to my project. To ensure that I have more success when creating mine I have made a survey monkey to analyse what my target audience think. I have put the survey monkey on Facebook and here are my results from survey monkey:

 Here is my how old question this tells me how old the audience were who answered the questionnaire. This will help me for my magazine as if I follow this research it will give me my target audience. For this questionnaire most of them were 17-19 years old.

 This is to see what genders prefer. Most of my audience were males this shows that my target audience for my magazine could be for males.

This question was to see if people  read the College magazine. This shows me if people are interested in reading it or if they don't read it. Most of the audience read it making it easier for them to answer the questions below.

 This question was to see what personality my audience had. From the results it shows me that most of the boys picked sport thus telling me that they would want a sports column. This result also shows me that non of my audience find Drama interesting.

 This question helped me to pick what style of magazine the audience will like. This gives me a style modal to work around and design my piece. The results show that Empire is most popular.

 This question was for people to add there own magazine but no one answered it.

 This question shows me what subjects people would like to see more of in the College magazine. As most of the audience were boys I can see why the sport section is so highly rated. There are other subjects to that scored highly apart from education and Science.

 Here is the other column which people could write their own ideas for stuff that they would like to read about in the College magazine. Two people answered it one saying they would like to read about Media and the other saying more subjects.

 This was to find out if people like the school masthead. The scores were tied at 50% each. This shows that people have different views on it.

 I then showed them four ideas for my masthead. The second one was most popular. This will be the one that I use for my magazine.

 I then asked people if they preferred mine over the school one and 80% agreed that they did. This shows me that even though people liked the school masthead they changed there mined to suit their choice.

 I then asked my audience why they choose that answer. All of my audience answered this question and most of their answers were that the colours are more gender neutral and are more up to date with a better style.

This is the last question of the survey it had four images of different magazine front covers. They had to choose what front cover they preferred. This tells me how to layout my own magazine front cover. Most of the audience said the best one is Vibe with Empire coming a close second. However the Time didn't get any votes this may show it is to simple and doesn't give away much detail of the content.