Evaluation of my preliminary task

Evaluation of my preliminary task

During the first two weeks of AS Media we were required to complete a preliminary task in the style of a school news magazine. We used the software InDesign and Photoshop. I find both of these applications easy to use as I previously did media at GCSE level so I already knew the basic skills of how to make a magazine. I believe the skills I used best were the text tools as my prior knowledge enabled me to move text (e.g. bringing it together so it’s all in alignment) to try to give my magazine a professional feel/follow similar conventions of a news magazine.  

I titled my magazine ‘Haydon News’ as it was straight and to the point so everyone, whether it be teachers or students, will know what it’s about. I also believe my use of bold colours (black, red and white) would entice students and teachers to pick up a copy of the magazine as it is eye-catching and clear as to what it is about.

Moreover, I tried to keep the house style to 4 specific colours: black, white, red and blue. I decided to do this as it kept my magazine looking professional and trustworthy as well as clear and bold.  They also incorporate similar colours to Haydon’s uniform and logos with the colours black, white and blue; this was a good idea as it relates the magazine specifically to Haydon.

 On my front cover I decided to use a picture of a new year 7 boy as the full bleed as year 7’s typically look smarter than older years as they are new and also much more enthusiastic. He is represented as a happy and enthusiastic which not only highlights him in a positive light but also reflects well on the school if anyone else other than students/teachers were to see/read the magazine. This was also good as it would entice people to pick up a copy of the magazine as the happy face and thumbs up makes him look appealing to the audience.

Furthermore, I also tried to keep the headings of the articles within my magazine quite short and sweet so students could just walk past and see if it was something they wanted to read about. I also made the topics relevant to a variety of students and teachers so that they would feel getting the magazine would be useful.

In addition to this, I kept the magazine as a free product as students don’t have a lot of money and would probably be more likely to spend it on sweets at the shops after school, so this way students feel like they’re getting a freebee through it not costing anything; however if it was popular I would consider charging 20p to start with so I could possibly gain profit as that is something I currently wouldn’t be getting.

Moving on to my contents page, I decided to keep this fairly straight forward and simple so that it easy to navigate no matter what age, experience or reading ability. I chose to do this as I understand that both teachers and all levels of students will be reading the magazine and will want to be able to access information quickly and easily. I did this by making sure the text was easy to read, the colour was clear and that it wasn’t too small e.g. I kept the page numbers bold and relatively big so the magazine was easy to navigate. I also highlighted the article names that I kept the same as those on the front page so not to cause confusion and also to make them stand out as important.

In addition to this, I continued with the same house style just so I could keep it at the same level of style as the front cover.

Finally, I decided to use a range of pictures involving both students, teachers, food and the general school environment so that it was both enjoyable and easily understandable magazine for everyone. Moreover in all of the pictures I made sure they were clear and good quality so to reflect and represent the students and the school itself as a very positive and happy environment to be a part of. I decided to include the picture of the head teacher as this enforces that my magazine is reliable as it is approved by him and it also makes it clear for students, outsiders to see and know who the head teacher is and what his school has got going on.