Print Prelim Product and Evaluation

Comparison to professional magazines

• My magazine front cover is different from Kerrang and Rock Sound magazine's front cover as their magazines include a group of people (a band) on their front cover, whereas my magazine front cover includes one person.
• The layout of my skyline and bar code are similar to Kerrang and Rock Sound's magazine, and the main sell line is similar to Kerrang's magazine as it has the main content of the main sell line in white and bolder than the rest of the main sell line and it is situated in the middle of the front cover.
• I used two of the same colour pallete scheme of white and black like in Kerrang and Rock Sound's magazine.
• The masthead is different to the ones on Kerrang and Rock Sound's magazine as it is brought in front of the main image, whereas in the professional magazines it is brought behind the image. Also, the font size of my masthead is too small compared to the professional ones.
• The layout of the sell lines are different to Kerrang and Rock Sound's magazine because in the professional magazines the sell lines are situated on the right hand side of the front cover, whereas in my magazine the sell lines are situated on both the right hand side and the left hand side of the front cover.
• The content of the sell lines are different compared to Kerrang and Rock Sound's ones as the content of mine are to do with college and the content of the professional ones are to do with music.
• On my contents page I included my magazine's name, 'Fresh', and 'this week' like in Kerrang magazine. I also included the subscription offer on the contents page like in Kerrang magazine. I only included one image on the contents page like in Rock Sound magazine.
• I think my magazine compares to the professional ones slightly, but I don't think it is like a professional one.

Audience

• My target audience is male and female college students aged between 16 and 18.
• Not aimed at anyone with particular music tastes as there are no music articles included in the magazine.
• Aimed at people with an interest in high street fashion as there are fashion related articles included in my magazine.
• The model included in my magazine is an example of the target audience.
• The colour palette scheme I used related and was suitable to my target audience.
• The language used in my magazine is informal which is suitable for the target audience of young people. 

Attracting/addressing audience

• In order for me to design my magazine front cover and contents page, I needed to know my target audience so I could address and attract them. Knowing who your target audience is makes it easier to design a product for them because I can base my content and images on things which will be suitable to my audience.
• The model on the front cover of my magazine is wearing high street fashion clothes and is also a college student aged between 16 and 18 so she is an example of my target audience.
• The insert of the image of the model on the contents page is a picture of the model wearing specific make-up in which there is an article included in the magazine about.
• I used the colours purple, black and white because purple is the main college colour and as it is a college magazine aimed at college students the colours need to relate to the target audience. I used the black and white colours because they are simple plain colours so the text is easily readable for students.

Technology

• To create my magazine front cover I used the Photoshop software on Apple Mac's. With this software, I learnt how to create new layers which made it easy to move certain parts of text around without moving the whole of the texts and images around. I also played around with the effects on the texts like to make the text have a shadow or blur effect.
• To create my contents page I used the InDesign software on Apple Mac's. InDesign allows you to create multiple columns so it was useful when designing my contents page as there was two columns needed.
• To take my photos for my front cover and contents page, I used an SLR camera. The LCD screen was split into sections so I could use the rule of thirds to take the photo. I also used lighting equipment in a two light set up so the lighting in the image would be produced evenly without dark shadows on the image.
• To convert my images onto the Apple Mac, i removed the memory card out of the SLR camera and transferred the images onto the Mac by putting the memory card into the Mac. I found this a quick and easy way to transfer the images.
• When I designed my flat plan, I had to convert my design onto the Mac. I used a scanner to do this. Like the memory card, this was a quick and easy way of transferring the design. 
• The final piece of new technology I have used in this task was Blogger. This was a new way for me of recording and evaluating my coursework. I found it a good piece of software to use as it is accessible from both home and college and posts can be edited and saved as drafts to come back to later.