My attempt and getting a college magazine together.

Here is my final attempt at the cover. I feel i have been to ambitious with this as i feel it does not feel right. I will put the process up by next week as it takes to long to export files from photoshop and Indesign.

Preliminary Task-The Proposal

Preliminary Task

The Proposal:

The target audience is going to be between 17-20, which is a very small age range but this is the age of college students, I will try and aim it towards both genders but it may sway towards primally a male audience as i am a male and i am writing it, so my interests will come out more.

The magazine will primally be about college life and the lifestyles students have, so mainly about music, fashion, video games, movies, etc written by students for students. Furthermore the magazine will include news about events and trips within the college.  The Cover-lines could be "Gig Guide for Oct 2012", "Christmas Gift Guide", "Revision Help", "How to Survive A Levels Exams"

I have decided to simply call the magazine "SDCM" which stands for South Downs College Magazine. I have chosen this because it's short and you can easily put it into a hash-tag for twitter (#SDCM) I hope for magazine to be heavily involved with social networking such as twitter, Facebook and Instergram .

I want the font to be bold and simple, much like the one my mac has decided to give me. (Silly mac). But this font is easy to read and looks simple. I want the logo to be the letters SDCM to be bold and black on a white background, but with all the letters almost overlapping each other. 

I would publish this magazine at the beginning of every term, to give the writers time to gather information and write the articles also it allows people to submit information such as gig dates and general college information. There would be two different types o f format, a physical A5 version, A5 because it's less bulky than an A4 and it cost less to print, and a digital copy for tablets, phones and laptops.

Preliminary Task - Brief ideas and the like

Preliminary Task

Brief ideas:

college magazine:

College bands, gig guide, 

College Lifestyle ie fashion - Seasonal fashion?

finance advice

Politics?

Social networking? - twitter, Facebook and the such

Internet humor - memes?

Kerrang Magazine

This magazine is called Kerrang. Kerrang is a alternative music magazine showcasing some of the best bands in that genre of music, we can tell this by the bands dotted about the page and how the pictures of the bands are posing and dressed. In this case they are all mainly all wearing black and white and posing in a 'moody' and 'pouty' way. They're also looking directly into the camera instead of looking into the distance, this may be to engage with the reader/audience and make them feel the bands are looking directly at them. 

The woman in the middle is shown as a punk rocker and as a important person in the alt music scene, pop-punk to be precise. (as the cover line tells us.) She is shown to be important because  she is the biggest image on the cover and is taking up the middle/right third with a mid close up. She is also shown as punk by the "charming V's" Commonly used by people in the punk scene.

To what extent should magazines be held for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

To what extent should magazines be held for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

fig 2

fig1

Teen girl magazines, such as teen Vouge and Bliss, are primally marketed for young adolescent girls between the ages of 11-15. These magazines normally consist of fashion advice, some form of female celeb/fashion icon (fig 1 & 2) or the latest teen heart throb (fig 3 & 4) as front cover's main picture,  next to the said image of the said celebrity will normally consist of something the celebrity can tell you or something the magazine can help with or give you in relation with the main image. In this case Fig 2 has Pink on the front cover offering to give advice on having amazing hair and in Fig 4, Shout offer the reader whatever Harry Styles has to reveal. The magazines also may also relate to seasonal times such a summer special which may offer a summer fashion advice.

However, there is a negative side to all this. It encourages young women to be exposed to many issues. For example many people claim that these types of magazine lead to anorexia and other eating disorders because of the thin models and diets the magazine expose to the reader, this may lead to them thinking that they must look like that beautiful or they must follow the diets and wear the clothes to be this false idea of the "ideal" young woman. Furthermore there is this the idea that the magazine KNOW what boys want from girls. This is ridiculous as for starters these girls are far to young to want that sort of advice from a faceless item and secondly how do they know what  boys want? It may also introduce the reader to being exposed to sex and destroy their innocence at an early age, fig 1 backs this up with the tittle in the bottom right hand corner. (476 ways to be irresistible) Cosmo Girl is aimed 12-15 year old girls and some may say that 12 is far too young to introduce a child to sex and becoming "irresistible" to boys.

On the other people may disagree with these statements and defend the magazines, saying that the readers will one day turn to a magazine for advice on sex and puberty. Furthermore the targeted reader may want advice on fashion for their specific age rather than reading an older magazine such as Cosmopolitan or Vouge and looking at fashion for an older audience also if they did read these magazines they may be exposed to more "hardcore" sex articles intended for a adult audience rather than a more "child friendly" idea of it sex and appearing attractive to the opposite sex.

In conclusion, there are major factors which do effect the audience socially such as the articles aimed to make introduce them into boys and how to impress them by dressing up doing make up like the woman portrayed on the covers of these magazines. Also there have been cases where girls have gone to extremes to become like the women in these magazines, such as eating disorders. However factors, such  as the fact it may be better for them to read these sort of magazines rather than a more mature version and that there are answers to the audience's questions on puberty and sex which they may feel too embarrassed to ask their parents, which justify these types of magazines and their articles.

fig 3

fig 4

A general blog about Blogger.

THINGS I CAN DO WITH BLOGGER.

• Connect with my teacher over the internet.
• Submit coursework online. (NO PAPER CLUTTERING UP MY ROOM.)
• I can publish when and where I want.
• Share ideas with other Bloggers in my class.
• I am also able to put links into my blog, such as a Soundcloud link. 

I can also upload pictures of well dressed dogs.

HOW I THINK BLOGGER WILL BE USEFUL WITH MY COURSEWORK.

• I will be able to upload my work from anywhere with a computer and a internet connection.
• All my work will be saved multiple times, not only my computer and back up drive but also  Blogger.
• I can post things as soon as they are done, not wait for me next lesson.
• HECK! I don't even have to leave the house to submit my work! (Thanks for supporting my anti-social life.)