Appealing to my target audience

The Model
I am going to be using a male student for my model, and he is going to be wearing casual but nice clothes. I want him to look casual so we get the idea of him being a student, but the fact that he is wearing nice clothes shows the whole fashion part of the magazine as it is going to include tips on what to wear to college. It'll be a shoulder and head shot and he will most likely be smiling, or pulling a friendly looking face to invite people into the magazine.

Colour, Layout and Font
I was thinking of using the colours black and red for the text. I thought this would be a good idea as using all different can give a childish approach to the magazine, making college students not want to read it. Also, the red and black will stand out and catch the eye of the reader. I'm not too sure about how I am going to layout my magazine cover and contents, but I was thinking of having the model in the centre of the page, with text around the shape of his head and shoulders so it is easy to read. For the contents page I was thinking of having images dotted around the page with the contents pages listed down the side, or maybe shaping the pictures for a more fun, interesting effect for students that are looking for something a more exciting. I am uncertain of what font I am going to use at the moment, although for the headline I will most likely use a very bold, clear font that is easy to see but classy at the same time. I think this will appeal to my audience as the classiness but boldness is what students are attracted too.

Masthead
I was thinking of having the masthead black, but with a hint of red but I'm not sure. I want my magazine to be called 'student survival' so straight away you can see that it is aimed at students and the 'survival' almost gives the impression that you must have it to see what you might be missing out on when it comes to college. I like this colour combination because it's very sophisticated looking, simple, but classy. I think this will appeal to my audience because it's not too childish looking and I think students will be attracted to the classy, sophisticated look.

Use of Language
For my magazine cover and contents page, I am going to make sure that I do not waffle or write paragraphs of text in it, especially as students, including me, would not like to look at a magazine to find chunks of writing. I will most likely be using pull out quotes and coverlines dotted around the cover to keep the stories short but intriguing.

Content
The coverlines of my magazine cover are going to be in red and black, again because this looks classy and sophisticated and not childish. I'll make sure I don't write too much because this will feel like a drag for the students to read, whereas if it's short and snappy students are able to walk past and have a glimpse of what the magazine includes.

My Target Audience

My magazine is going to be aimed at 16-19 year old student individualists, either male or female.
If you were the type to read my magazine you would:
-Be very interested in how you look in front of people
-Listen to music more than the news
-Spend more time on the internet than doing exercise
-Find revision a drag but still do it anyway
-Listen to unusual bands, rather than the music in the charts
-You would rather be skint and have a good social life than be rich but a home-bug

Initial Research 2

I think the 'Indian Student' magazine suits it's audience well for various reasons. For starters, The title 'Indian Student' shows straight away that this magazine is aimed at students, studying abroad. The young woman used as the centre of visual interest also looks quite young, and she looks like a student herself. The fact that she is wearing a pink sweater and that she is smiling draws attention to people maybe aged around 16-18 as she looks that sort of age. The subheads are in bold capitals, and are in white so that people aged around that age are able to look and see whether it includes what they are looking for. The fact that she is leant again a wall and on the phone also shows a more casual approach to the magazine, which is what students my age may be looking for so they aren't too intimidated by the magazine itself and the information.

Straight away with the 'Student Society' magazine cover you can tell that it is aimed for students around 16-18 or even higher. The centre of visual interest is a picture of a boy, wearing his own clothes, so just by looking at him we can tell he is a student to a college. The banner also suits the audience as it is in bubble writing and in a rather large font, to draw the readers in. I think it suits the audience also because it states that it is a 'free monthly magazine' in a rather young/fun looking font in a bubble. This may appeal to students as they may be quite tight on money as they are young and so the fact that it is free may encourage them to read it. A pull quote is also used in the magazine cover -"how I got my grades!" this would definitely appeal to students as their grades are very important to them and getting them may require help and support. The fact that it is in a lighter colour to the background and the outline of the text is in black means it is easier to spot. All the text is to the left as well, away from the picture of the boy to make sure the attention is drawn to either the text or the picture, and not just a blur of them both mixed together.



I would say that this magazine is aimed at people aged 16 and above. However I think the people who are more likely to read it are teenagers, or slightly older. I think this because the centre of visual interest is a picture of a man, I would say aged around 19-20. I think this suits the audience as he doesn't look too young or too old so people won't think that it isn't really suitable for them because they are the wrong sort of age. The man is wearing a red and black checker shirt. Some may think this is because it is fashionable, however I think it is also used as a way to grab the readers attention. The fact that it is bright, and the most colourful thing on the page, means people are going to catch their eye on it, especially students. This magazine cover also uses reversed out coverlines, making it easier to see as the white text is behind a black background. The text itself I think appeals to it's audience as the first thing is says is 'Gamers Lounge - An inside look at assassins creed' which is a very popular game, mainly played by younger people.

This magazine cover I think suits it's audience for students around the age from 16-19. The centre of visual interest is a photo of a band, that are very well known by this age group at the moment, and so this is drawing attention to the magazine itself. The contents pages are stated nice and clearly in block capitals, with red page numbers so it is easy to read and people of that age will be able to spot it and have more understanding of what it includes. The short piece of text under each title of the page is also great for this specific audience as it gives them a quick insight on what the article/page might be about. The review on 'Nick Cave' is clearly shown using a smaller photo of the man himself, and the page number stated in red next to him. The 'Review' title is also made using reversed out coverlines, using the colour scheme of black, white and red. Sophisticated but still interested for people of that audience.

Initial Research

                                                                                                                                 

 All student magazines have things in common, to catch the viewers attention and give useful information about the things we may be interested in. These examples of student magazine covers definitely all have something in common, which is the Banner, the title of the periodical, that appears on the cover of the magazine. it usually appears in a large font or colour that stands out to grabs the readers attention. The 'Indian student' magazine cover definitely draws us in as the title is in bold colours. The word 'Indian' is highlighted in green so it is easy to see that this magazine is advised for Indian students who may be studying abroad. Whereas the 'Student Society' magazine cover uses quite a dull colour for the title but still stands out as it is outlined in black, which makes it appear more bold/striking. However, the 'Campus Life' cover decided to use white for the colour of the title, which I wouldn't really find striking however because the background image is a different colour it does. The fact that it is in a rather large font also makes us spot the title almost straight away.

Another thing all these Student magazine covers share is a centre of visual interest. Which is usually a prominent item such as a headline, picture of graphics. In the 'Indian Student' magazines case, the prominent item is the picture of the student leaning against the wall. We are drawn to her for many specific reasons. The fact that she is wearing a pink sweater automatically makes the magazine cover look more striking as it is bright, and covers quite a lot of the page area. She is also smiling, which is great as it instantly gives a more positive look on the magazine as she looks happy, a happy student. The fact that she looks quite young and that she is on the phone also gives the idea that she may be a student without looking at the headline. The 'Student Society' also uses a large picture of someone as the centre of their visual. However this time it is a young looking boy. Again we are attracted to him maybe because he is positioned slightly to the right, so he is not completely covered in text, so we are able to see him better. On the other hand, he isn't really smiling which gives a more serious approach to the magazine maybe. The fact that he looks quite young gives the idea that he is a student starting college, or in his second year. This is useful as it is easier to tell what audience the magazine is advised for without looking at the headline. On the other hand the 'Campus Life' magazine really uses the picture of the man to their advantage as he is positioned in the centre of the page, and is wearing bright coloured clothing with a distinctive pattern to catch the eye of the reader. The headline is also cropped so that the man is in front of the title using layering affects. He is also positioned in a place where there is a quite a big contrast between the colour of the clothes and the background colour again, to appear more bold and striking.


All three of these magazine covers also share coverlines, which are lines of text that appear on the cover of the magazine to draw the reader into the stories. The 'Indian Student' magazine uses the colour white for the text, as this stands out against the coloured background. It also has the subtitles in block capitals so it's easier to spot and read. Whereas the magazine 'Student Society' decided to use the same colour text as the title. I think it works quite well however I fact that the smaller text is in black means it is not that easy to see against the busy background. On the other hand 'Campus Life' uses reversed out coverlines, which is where lines of text appear on the cover of the magazine to draw the readers into the stories but are placed on a block of colour different to that of the cover itself. I like the way this magazine  does this especially as the pieces of text are in white, against the black blocks, meaning the texts stands out very well. Also, because the black is rather different to the background itself that too bring attention to the text, making people read it.

The contents pages of student magazines also share various layouts, for instance, like this contents page it has a banner, titling 'contents' with the date and the website next to it. It is also using reversed out coverlines as the text in is white against a black block, making it stand out. The contents page also has a centre of visual interest, which is a picture of what looks like a boy band, placed slightly to the right and rather large for people to see. The page numbers are in red, which is easy to see amongst all the text, colour matching the 'features' subtitle. Under every title of the page there is a short piece of text explaining what the page is about and what it includes to draw the reader in and to help them find what they or looking for or what they may be interested in. A smaller photo is placed near the bottom of the contents page of a man with the word 'review' using reversed coverlines to make it easier for people to see who they are talking about. One of the page numbers is actually placed onto the large image to the right of the contents page. It also contains a pull quote from part of the article to give slight insight on what has been said.

                                                                                                

Preliminary Project

Hello, my names Abbie and welcome to my AS Media Studies blog. I will be blogging my work including the front page of a new school/college magazine in Medium close up and a mock-up of the layout of the contents page. Enjoy!