Evaluation of my school magazine

Evaluation

For me to be able to create a realistic and well designed school magazine, I looked at and analysed existing school magazines for inspiration and technique. This included ‘ChiLL’ magazine, the title being an anagram of the school’s name, which I also did to name my magazine making it clear on what school the magazine was about. Alliteration was also used on the front cover of the existing magazine I analysed so I also included it on my front page. This technique was to make it more informal and more fun to read. I included tag lines to interest and connect with the students and parents reading the magazine. The main image was of an existing pupil, which would also create a keen interest to the pupil, especially if they knew the model for the magazine cover. Another smaller image also features on the front of my magazine to go with one of the tag lines, to help the article look more interesting and to catch the readers eye. The mast head is the largest and clearest piece of text on the magazine so I incorporated onto my magazine. I used a soft, bubbly looking font for the text to make the writing more welcoming to read. I chose the two pastel colours so they would not only stand out, but also compliment the colours on the image. The background I used was just a pale gray colour so it was something other than white, but did not clash with the other colours on the page. I kept the colour schemes the same on my contents page but added another curly, more sophisticated looking font on to make the contents look slightly different to keep the readers interested. I also inserted another key image on the contents page, which is again of two students attempting to revise. One of the students looks like he is struggling to revise but the friendly pupil next to him has a happy to help expression on her face, making the school look friendly and less daunting.
My magazine features images of stereotypical happy students at WBHS. Both models featured in my magazine are from a white British ethnicity, which definitely does not represent the whole school being just a white British school. My magazine however, does represent both genders. The main front cover image is of a rather happy student with possibly an over exaggerated smile and smart tie and hair. This was to bring a bit of humour to the magazine and to show it does not matter what style you have or what you look like, and to not be intimidated. The image on the contents page is also a little bit exaggerated with a rather distressed student trying to revise. The message of how important revisions for exams are is still portrayed in this photo, with the added touch of humour.
My magazine does not focus on entertaining one specific social class, but to anyone and everyone wanting to go onto further education and to learn at Whitley Bay high school. My magazine could be distributed not only around WBHS itself for the existing students to enjoy, but to feeder schools to help pupils decide themselves whether or not WBHS is the place for them. Local newsagents around the school or at opening evenings could only be a good place to distribute to make sure adults and parents are viewing the magazine.
My magazine is for the majority of people who are interested in WBHS, so existing students and parents but also pupils thinking about attending Whitley high in the future and their parents.
I have used Standard English throughout my magazine so that people of all ages can read and understand the magazine. However, some English techniques such as alliteration and short snappy headlines make it more exciting and quick and simple to read. The images all have some light hearted humour towards them, but each have a more hard hitting literal meaning behind them.
When making this magazine I have learnt properly how to use Photoshop and all the skills to making the images suitable such as using lasso tools to cut out parts of the images I needed, and making the images more attractive and eye-catching by adjusting things like the hue/lighting and saturation of the photos. My magazine was also created using layers on Photoshop. Although it was hard to get my head around firstly, the layering effect overall came across very useful – especially when mistakes were made. When using the cameras, I attempted to put into use the rule of thirds to help create a more successful looking image. Taking a medium shot, once having a few attempts was pretty simple with the flash automatically being used when needed. This preliminary task has also showed the importance of hitting deadlines and completing and organising your time to do it.