I chose to use this image of a fellow student looking directly into the camera, so as to not break the convention of the model looking directly into camera. I also chose to use a medium close up photograph as this is the most stereotypical convention of magazines. I think that this image reflects the genre of the magazine very well as she is clearly a young woman wearing a student ID. This could allow the reader to interpret her to be a college student and therefore relate to her. I think this will also appeal to the target audience of college students as the image is not beautified, the model is not wearing makeup and it has not been edited in any way, creating a realistic standard of beauty, unlike more mainstream magazines.
I have used different fonts throughout the magazine cover for the different pieces of text, this creates variety and keeps the cover interesting, as if it was all in the same font it would not catch your attention and you would easily lose interest as it all looks the same. Also, by making the texts different sizes, shapes and colours it draws the readers eyes to different places, making them read what the magazine says and enticing them to buy it and read the articles inside. For the text colours I referred to the image of the model and the colour of the clothes that she is wearing, to make the cover harmonious and use any dramatically contrasting colours. I have also tried to create synergy through my use of co-coordinating colours.
I have made the masthead much larger than the rest of the text to stay within conventions of the masthead being one of the main subjects on the page. I think it would appeal to my target audience of college students, as "Student Life" is most likely their life, and if they can relate to the magazine it will appeal to them more than a magazine that has nothing to do with them or things that they are interested in.
I chose to use the features included around the models head because they relate directly to what college students are interested in or concerned about. I decided to do this because if a college student saw these subheadings, that were useful to them in some way, they would be more inclined to buy it. This relates to Curran and Seatons theory that "Newspapers and magazines respond to the concerns of their readers in order to stay in business". All of the features i have used would be a concern or of importance to many students, meaning the magazine would most likely be popular. I also decided to use a buzz word of "Exclusive" to make it eye catching and grab the readers attention immediately, drawing them to reading the article.
To improve this i could include shapes or banners around the bottom of the cover to fill the page more, make it more colourful and to include more information/articles. To do this, for example, i would create a puff of a shape, most likely a square or circle to keep it simple and grown-up. I would then colour it in accordance to the colour scheme i have used for the writing, so either in blue or pink. Inside of the shapes i could put offers on about an event/ticket to an event that the reader could win, or i could relate it to a celebrity and their time as a student.
I used media language such as buzz words like "exclusive" within my magazine cover to represent that article as private and important. When i create my product for my 03/04 production, i need to make sure i use everything i have today and more, such as puffs, to make the page interesting and colourful.
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