The purpose of this task was for me to look at examples of school magazines and identify why they are successful. This allowed me to recognize what others have used which I may follow in my own magazine creation. The thing which I have found useful in this task was that I managed to look at two very good examples of magazines which showed me what is particularly needed to make it interesting for my target audience, such as the use of graphics, text or even page layout. The most important or clever information/techniques which I have gained from this analysis will be put forward into the creation of my own magazine.
Pheonix 2013 (part one)
Content: Phoenix team signatures, Biographies of teachers, Educational pages (rules), Question & Answers, School events information pages, School accomplishments, School programmes, Horoscopes, School productions, Images of students, Images of teachers, Editors comments.
Front Cover: The concept of the front cover is to resemble the back of a laptop (having in mind the Apple laptop as the 'Phoenix' logo has replaced the Apple), which links onto the computer page look which we can see further into the magazine. This makes us feel as if we were using the computer to look through the schools magazine. This is a suitable technique to use as it suits the target audience of the magazine and intrigues the person to read this magazine. This is because today's sixth form/college students are very familiar with computers, so by following this 'computer' theme in this magazine they feel as if they were using thier own laptop, dragging their attention into the content of the magazine. On the other hand, at the first glance the cover does not convey the 'computer' theme as it looks very simple when closed, which could reflect to the student that it is not worth opening and reading.
Layout & Typography: Throughout the whole magazine we have a very strong reference to social media the students are most likely to visit such as
Facebook or
BBC News. The editor has used the layout of those social media websites and applied manipulation to them to insert their own images and text. By this the magazine looks very interesting as it again refers to the 'computer browsing' image that we get by opening the magazine. It additionally makes the magazine joyful as the reader (student) feels familiar to this surrounding which besides bring humor as the student knows what the editor has done to their favourite websites to include them in the magazine. The use of bright, eye-catching colours emphasises the content which is visible in all of the pages attracting the readers attention making him/her read on. Whereas the fonts visible throughout the magazine are very similar to the ones visible in social media such as a high use of
bold text which signifies the importance of information in a given area.
Phoenix 2009 (part one)
Content: School history (old images & write ups), Famous students page, School clubs (geography & french), Interviews with teachers, School productions, Competitions, School trips, School organisations (charity involvment), Interaction page
Front Cover: The title page of this magazine is very simple. The title page contains a pheonix logo and a brief quote. I believe that this does not make the magazine look interesting as it looks pretty boring and effortless. On the other hand, by it being this simple, it does meet its purpose. It clearly shows the person looking at it what the magazine is. It contains a clear, big image of the 'pheonix' which is underlined by the quote, with both of them being filled in with a very warm and bright gradient which stands out against the black background. By this it makes it very clear to understand the front cover in comparion to the
2013 version where the 'computer' look was used on the front cover. I do believe that the front cover is appropriate for the purpose, however for the target audience it could not be as interesting as other magazines could be meaning that the probability that it would be picked up and read is far more less. To improve it, I would consider adding cover stories or different size headlines to grab the readers attention and show them what they can find inside the magazine before even opening it, as by this they build up the need of them reading on.
Layout & Typography: Throughout the whole magazine we have a wide variety of layouts shown to us. Whether it is simple layout with a justified text or a complicated mix of angled images with different text alignments, the magazine carries on the same image throughout all of the pages. All of the pages inside the magazine refer to history of the school and the past in general, therefore most of the pages are black and white with black, old fashioned or 'peeling of paint' texture text to emphasise the image of
history. All of the text in the black and white pages is black as the background is bright, whereas on the coloured pages the typography changes, it becomes more related to the content that it visible on the page. For example, the page in colour contains information about a drama production of the school, the headline visible on that page is red and has a 'funky' but mysterious font style. In this magazine they aim to refer the typography to the content that is on a certain page.
