My Finished Contents Page

My Finished Front Cover

analysing magazine contents page

Target audience – the primary target audience for heat magazine is 16+  as I think that people below the age of 16 wouldn’t really care what celebrities are getting up to, however people seem to think that it would be more middle aged woman who read it as they have nothing better to do with there time, but most teenagers probably want to catch up on the celebrity gossip just as much as middle aged woman do. The majority of people reading this magazine will fall into the audience demographic at band C1 - E

Layout – The layout of the contents page is simple but effect with the background of the writing in yellow which stands out so the reader can see it as soon as they open the page, it has two colums going down the side and one running across the bottom of the page. They’ve put the contents into sections with ‘news and stuff’, ‘features’, ‘starstyle’ and ‘tv reviews’ this is helpful to possible readers because if there is only one section they want to read they can easily find it, the image is in the centre of the page which makes it stand out it also links to the story inside.

Colour – The basic colour scheme stays the same as the front cover using red, white and yellow which makes it look professional and looks like a lot of time has gone into making it. The picture doesn’t have any of the colours from the colour scheme on it, which makes it stand out on the page. They have out the actual contents on a yellow background which is eye catching and forces you to look at it as soon as you open the magazine. They have used bright colours as it wouldn’t be eye catching with dull and dark colours, it also makes it look as if its full of good things instead of bad.

Typography – the typography in this text is effective because all the fonts that have been used are quite similar to each other which makes it look professional and neat, it also makes the contents page look less in your face, and therefor easier to read and look at. They have used different colour text for the headings and titles which makes it easier to read as it doesn’t just merge into one, it makes it easier for the future reader too see where each different section is so that they can see the information that they want to know. This links back to the target audience because this age group wanting to read the magazine in there spare time would find it easier and as this magazine is being used for entertainment they cant easily go to the parts that they want to read.

Images – The use of images Is effective for the reader because they have stayed to the common convention of having a main image in the center of the magazine and little ones around the edge. The smaller images around the edge relate to the stories that are inside the magazine, they are also quite spaced out and not all squished together which also makes it easier for the reader to look at, and if you have a quick glance at it you can have a guess of what the stories are inside. On the main image in the center they have enlarged there heads which is eyecatching as you notice that something isn’t right, the man is holding a book which says ‘jordans divorce demands’ which speaks for itself, If you didn’t read the contents and just looked at the image you could tell that that story would be inside the magazine.

Conclusion – overall I think this contents page ticks all the boxes as it has all the necersary information that is needed, but it isn’t to cluttered, its been clearly thought out and doesn’t look over powering. The use of the colours and images works well and professional, this contents page look quite vibrant and happy and catches your eye which fills its purpose, to improve this magazine they could highlight the main stories which the readers would like to look at as they have just focused on one story for the image.

Target audience – The primary target audience for the GQ mens magazine is 16 -30 as its mostly young male adults that would be interested in this magazine. The demographic bend would be A – C2 as the fashion in it is expensive so there wouldn’t be much point in someone in a lower class purchasing this magazine.

Layout – The layout of the contents is very simple as the page has been divided into two with the contents on the lower half with images on top and writing on the bottom half, by doing this they have managed to not make the page look harsh to look at by over crowding it with pictures right next to the writing. they've also set the actual contents into three section, a red section, green section and blue section they've probably done this so its not boring to look at, and to colour co-ordinate to different things.

Colour - The colour scheme is pretty basic - with a white background and black text, and they have used colour for the headings and bullet points. they have done this to make it look proffesional and tidy. they've colour coded each section which makes it helpful for the target audience to read the magazine as they are probably busy doing different things and as its colour coded they can easily flip to that section to quickly read it. 

Typography - The typography that is used in this contents page makes it look more professional and readable. all the headings are the same kind of fonts, all the subheadings are the same fonts and all the rest of the text is the same font this makes it easy for the reader to read and just makes the page fit together perfectly, the colour of the text stands out and as they have used a black font on a white background it doesnt make the page look to over crowded and harsh for the reader to look at. 

Images - The use of images goes well on this as they havent completely over loaded the page full of images they have used 3 simple but effective images that link to all the stories inside the magazine, they have use completely different sizes and shaped images so they dont all look the same and too boring for the reader to look at. it also means the target audience could be attracted as not all the images look the same - as they have some food, a man on a motor bike and a middle aged man in black and white, this shows that they have a wide range of topics that could include a wide variety of audiences.

Conclusion - Overall I think this contents page works well and serves its purpose by giving the reader the apropriate information that they would need before they look any further into this magazine. They have used the space, colour and texts well and made it look very professional and easy for the reader too look at and if the reader wanted to skim through it to see a certain thing they easily could. However if you took a quick glance at this you would probably think it looks boring and nothing on it really catches your eye, however if you look it does everything it needs to, and looks really professional. 

Analysing College Magazines

'The making of the new and rearranging of the old' (Bentley, 1997)

'Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed in three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who bring novelty into the symbolic domain. and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation' (Caikazentmihalyi, 1996)

As the above quotes connote, he creative process involves understanding and conforming to certain genre codes in order to clearly show the audience the genre of the product. With this in mind, before creating the college magazine covers and contents page, I wanted to look at existing magazine covers to distinguish what common convention I need to incorporate into my work to ensure that it represents the needs of my specific chosen target audience. 

Preliminary Task

Before venturing into the main task I first need to complete the prelim task that requires creating the cover and contents page for a new college magazine. This task sustains an excellent opportunity to expand skills I began working with during GCSE Media in Photoshop, photography, critical reflection, audience research, media language and preproduction. I am looking forward to striving into this task as I will be able to pick up a greater understanding of professional magazine conventions and be able to make a more sophisticated product than those I created at GCSE and site any advancement areas before beginning my main task.

My AS Coursework

After Carefully looking at the various foundation portfolio briefs, I made the decision that the most useful and engrossing brief for me to use in the coursework was the print brief. I created a magazine at GCSE level, though it was not very practical and neither did it contain many of the specific conventions required for magazines, and through this I intend to advance on my skills concerning production of magazine and understand how they attract specific target audience; this will give me solid knowledge when it comes to media production. personally, i am very interesting in music (i use it everyday), youth culture and creative design for print and photography. I am very excited to start this project.

The Brief: