The main task I need to do for the preliminary exercise is to design a school magazine and I have chose to be targeting sixth formers who will be thinking about university because I am in nearly in that position so I believe that would give me more to talk about, I will be making sure I follow the codes and conventions.
First I decided to do some research on other school magazines to help me with the design and ideas which I could make mine about and as I was researching I didn’t see any magazines about sixth formers going into university so I thought it was a good idea to make one myself after I decided my idea I was looking at football magazines and magazines which people aged 16 – 18 would read so I could link it with which I could include to attract the 16 – 18 year olds.
First I looked at school magazines on google and took in some ideas in which the layout can be like then I received a copy of the Kelsey park sports college magazine called Horizon and this helped me with what to include on my magazine cover because I needed to know the style on how school magazines work.
Initially the layout cannot be structured all over the place like some women’s magazines, it will have a main picture in the middle and a big title at the top and subtitles along each side of the main picture and maybe include mini pictures. The text will be big and bold for the titled to cover nearly a third of the page at the top the colour of the text will be a bright colour so the magazine doesn’t appear dim and tedious, the subtitle text will be elegant but big and underlined so it can also catch there eyes to support this I will include rhetorical questions and statements which the 16 – 18 year olds will be attracted to. I am looking to get the two main mid-shot images for the middle with it being a handsome boy and a really pretty girl because my target audience are sure to be fascinated and attracted to a these pictures. Then to add authenticity to it I will include mini pictures of maybe a top university in the UK to show how nice university is.
To encourage teenage readers there needs to be clear images, a little bit of fun such as a joke or a electronic equipment to be involved somehow. Additionally I will use some subtitles being either rhyming or alliteration so there is a play on words this prevents the teenage readers to not be bored while reading it. Teenage readers will always be interested in money so I will advertise on the cover as one of the subtitles how much money you can earn from going university this will encourage teenage readers because if they see a pound sterling sign on the cover they will naturally want to know more.
In my school magazine I intend to target mainly second year sixth formers who are debating whether they want or need to go to university, I am hoping that my magazine will be so persuasive and attractive that it will drive teenagers into deciding to go to university. I also want to target first year sixth formers because I believe its better to decide early if you want to go to university because then you know what your working towards. The only reason I chose this to be my target audience is because i am currently in that position in debating whether to go to university so with the research I will carry out it may steer me to go. Furthermore when I carried out my research to let me chose what I wanted it to be about I noticed there was no magazines designed just for 16 – 18 year olds.
In order to target 16 – 18 year olds I will begin by getting a mid shot photo of a handsome mix race boy to attract female readers and a attractive Caucasian girl to catch the eye of male readers also this will show the spread of different races in university because this is the first thing people will see when taking a look at a magazine. Because starting university is a ‘fresh’ start I will be setting the background white to represent freshness and then the title of the magazine being bold and the name of my magazine is ‘The Big Decision’ and this will be in red to signify danger because choosing whether or not to go to university is a risky decision also it will be placed at the top of the magazine above the heads of the photo of the boy and the girl. Along one side I will include a small picture of a top university also I will include other pictures which are related to university such as teachers and graduates issuing a interview with them telling the magazine what they thought of university and the advantages and disadvantages of it this will let the 16 – 18 year olds know what to expect and it makes them feel more convinced on what university has to offer them. Along with the pictures along the sides I will include one picture slightly bigger of a successful celebrity who enjoyed university, potentially someone iconic and who some 16 – 18 year olds may look up such as ‘Barack Obama, Eminem, Alan sugar’. In the small pictures I will include a section of a subtitle saying ‘the list of what you wish to do’ ‘see inside for more!’ the picture will be the name of a couple unusual courses to show the teenagers that there is a wide range of courses which you can chose to do at university so this will make teenagers consider university a bit more and intrigues them to read inside the magazine of the list of more unsual courses which are on offer at university.
