Evaluation

Evaluation

My magazine front cover uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products, for example I have a main image on my front cover, then I have a puff that advertises a free calendar which is used as anchorage to get more of my targeted audience to buy the magazine. Adding to this I also included on my front cover a Masthead which is the title of my magazine which was 'the College life', also down both the right and left hand sides of the front cover I added anchorage text which included information about the articles included within the magazine. Traditionally the skyline is at the top of the magazine above the masthead however I decided to challenge this and but my skyline and the bottom of the cover as I believed I looked better. Finally the last convention that I added to my front cover was the date and price at the top right hand corner and the barcode in the bottom right hand corner.

My media product represents particular social groups firstly it represents students however the sub group that my magazine front cover represents is more creative students such as art students or photography students this is because the main image is of a student on a sewing machine in a textiles environment which immediately attracts the attention of creative students. Also another point on how my front cover represents creative students is the anchorage text around the cover and especially the skyline as it states 'College is not just book'.

The overall targeted audience for my magazine front cover is college students, both female and male, what indicates that this is my target audience is straight off the masthead which is 'the College Life' this immediately attracts the attention of college students because the word 'college' is in the title. I attracted my target audience firstly by the image I used as my main image, I choose a college student at the age 17 to be my model for the front cover, also to attract my audience I used a specific colour scheme to make it stand out and the anchorage text was not just about the work at college but the social life outside of college hence the title 'the College life'.

From the process of constructing this I have learnt various technologies, firstly I learnt all the different conventions used to create a good magazine cover. Also I also developed my skills in Photoshop to my the magazine cover more realistic, when it came to creating my magazine cover I first to the main image I wanted to use luckily enough I did not have to edit the background or take anything out of the picture because it was took in the correct setting that I wanted to use, also all the objects within the picture where needed as it made it look realistic and it was in an actual classroom rather than a studio classroom. On another had I did have to alter the brightness and contrast of the image to fit in with my colour scheme which was white and red. After altering the main image I added my text to create the cover and the puff which made it stand out. Therefore overall I believe I have expanded my knowledge further on the correct terminology for analysing media products.

Looking back at my perfume task, I feel I learnt in the progress of creating this finished magazine cover various new terminology for analysing media products and my confidence on using Photoshop has increased greatly, as I have become familiar to the tools on Photoshop and how they all work affectively to create a media product. I have also learnt the specific layout of magazine front covers and contents pages and how they are put together.