Evaluation of final magazine

     After completely our Misbourne magazine cover we are able to look over the successes and what changes we made from the template. The finished product has been changed in a few ways, firstly, less text has been incorporated in the cover as this was picked up on through our peer assessments.

     Furthermore, instead of having a large block of text we decided to use a pull quote that linked with the main image. The quote links to an upcoming sixth-form trip that is of interest to both students wanting to find out more about the experience from previous years and parents wanting to know what their children will be going on. We changed the image layout as we realised that the main image needed to be made clear to the readers. It is a medium close up of a student with a mode of address looking directly at the camera, we did this on purpose to engage the audience but also to present the school as a happy place of learning. This ultimately makes the magazine seem more relatable for students as the image represents the year group who will be going on the trip.

     Moreover, we kept the idea of having three images on the page but instead they are now at the bottom. This enabled us to have a less crowded page to make it look less like a contents, which was a negative feedback from our peers. The other images we used were of the schools logo which was a noticeable norm in our format research. Also, we used an image of the school which was something that hadn't appeared in our research, this makes the magazine stand out and more interesting compared to the others.  

      One feature that we kept the same was the masthead with the vertical text,  this was because we got positive feedback from our peers. This a successful aspect as it is unique and stands out on the cover as it defies convention. Moreover, being different it makes the cover more appealing to students as it is noticable. At the same time we wanted to make sure that it still looked professional, we included a footer and borders around images to help this. However, it still may not be as professional as other school magazine covers we've seen from our research. 

     As a whole I believe that our magazine was successful in standing out. Both myself and Sasha took the peer feedback into consideration and changed the layout in order for there to be more space. However, the masthead font doesn't benefit the layout and the overal cover maybe doesn't look as professional. Also we found it difficult to meet the aim we set ourselves to target both the parents and students, in the end we aimed it mainly towards sixth form students as it was a more specific audience. In the future I will experiment with indesign more to help find text that works better with the final image of the cover.   To conclude I am pleased with the magazine cover we have created and will learn from the negatives, hopefully benefiting me in the future. 

Final magazine cover

Final Misbourne magazine cover from ellisputnam

Magazine design template

Magazine design template from ellisputnam

This is a mock up of a possible contents pages that we could use for our school magazine, we have kept to a simple layout after researching other common content pages for school magazines. The majority of the page will be used for page numbers as it is most important and we do not want to distract readers from key information. However, we have included some images to make the page more appealing, with flashers and pull quotes displaying other information associated with the school. This is just a design that we could use if we wanted to create a contents pages, being a draft changes can always be made. 

Evaluation of magazine design template

Self evaluation of design layout:

The following template cover was created by myself and Sasha, who I will be working with throughout this task. Our design has incorporated some features of real school magazines however, it has been developed to make it more current and stand out from the others. This will hopefully generate a larger target audience including students as well as the parents. We have done this with the masthead, using vertical text to make it different from previous magazines, this challenges conventions.

     Furthermore, our design includes more photos to make the cover more eye catching and again  to make it more relevant to students as it avoids having too much text. However, we have tried to keep a good balance by still having some text, this will hopefully make sure we still have interest from parents with information on what they want to read. We have decided that the text will be about the schools new uniform to demonstrate creating a good first impression and having pride in their learning.

    Moreover, the research has helped us in designing this cover as we've been able to identify the norms from it and use it to our advantage in making ours unique  compared to the others we've seen. 

Peer evaluation: 

We were also asked to get feedback about our design from our peers. It included many successful comments about the masthead standing out from the rest as it is original and different from others they had seen. They also commented on the idea of knowing instantly the target audience included students as well from the modern layout. 

      However, some unsuccessful points were also mentioned, this included the page being overcrowded with text. They thought that it looked more like a contents page and there needed to be more space in order for the unique features that will attract attention to stand out. 

         From hearing this it has made us look over our design more closely, making us realise that we have tried to include too much on the cover page. We plan to make a few changes in order to make it more spaced out and may consider a new story that will hopefully be more appealing to both target audiences as it was another comment made by our peers. This was a useful task as it meant that unsuccessful parts that we had not noticed were picked up on, which overall meant improvements could be made.

             

              

Evaluating school magazine norms identified through format research

From my format research of the three different school magazine front covers I am able to establish some idea of what the norms are, however some defy convention.  I found that one of the three covers defied convention more than the others, this was 'The Messenger' for Thornton Grammar School, firstly it didn't use the schools name in the masthead which was an obvious norm of the other two. Furthermore, throughout the research schools would use a colour scheme which related to the schools colours, however this was not used by Thornton's school and overall it gave the cover no true perception of it being a school magazine.

     On the other hand, the other covers supported the more obvious norms found on a schools magazine. This included there being a school logo at some position on the cover, generally located next to the masthead. Mastheads would most typically be thought to be at the top, however the Hampton's school had a masthead vertically down the left hand side of the page and St Mary's was directly in the centre, these both challenge convention. I think the vertical masthead is effective because it's different and stands out, I plan to apply some vertical text  to my own cover.

     Another defied convention includes there being no mode of address in the main images, the people in the photos have no norms of where they are looking, they aren't always facing forward and most of the covers have more than one photo. I think that the covers that work best have one larger image but with other photos as well, this means that people get a better idea of what's the school is like. I hope to achieve this in my own work and may include images of the school site not just of students, this would make it different and give readers an greater insight of school life.

      Straplines are another feature of the school magazine covers that I haven't found a norm for through  my research, however one general conclusion made from reading them is that they are dull and are very specific to the school and advertising it. For example, Hampton's schools strapline is 'Record numbers gain DofE award' this is directed to the target audience of parents as it is advertises the increased interest in the extra curriculum activity and how it improves the school profile. They are found at different positions on the page with no specific location. Furthermore, the text on the cover is very basic using simplistic language which is straight forward and easy to understand. After discovering this I plan to make my straplines standout more making them appeal to students as well, however I want to keep text simple to avoid over complicating it and putting off readers. 

    To conclude from the format research I have found that most of the school magazine covers have a basic layout, I plan to use this knowledge and make my cover more interesting and appeal to the pupils as well as the parents. This research has given me a better idea of how I want my own cover plan to be using the space on the cover more effectively. 

Hampton School Magazine Front Cover Analysis

'Messenger' School Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Messenger school magazine analysis from ellisputnam

St Mary's School Magazine Analysis

My first media studies task has been to analyse some school magazine front covers, this is so that we get some idea of the common features and what works well, preparing us for when we create our own. Hopefully the analysis and research that is soon to be posted will benefit us in successfully completing the first task.