My college magazine analysis.

1. College Magazine Analysis.

2. What Works?
• The spot colour of red, growing from the masthead, then
throughout the front cover and onto the contents page. I
think the use of this colour worked well, as it’s one of the
main colours on the City College Norwich logo, and it’s
bright and eye catching.
• The opaque page numbers, layered over the photos. I
found , looking at other magazines that the page
numbers are often printed small and hard to see. I
thought this method was more effective.
• The red, white and black colour scheme. I think the
alternation between black and white, on my contents
page helped highlight my regulars as two columns.
Also, as red, white and black aren’t gender specific , they
appeal to both men and women. Considering my broad
target audience (students), I think this worked well.
• My main image, of a girl smiling, appeals to my target
audience, as she is representive of my female readership.
• The identifier on the left third of my front cover, when
stacked the you see “THE S” this shows you exaxctly what
magazine it is.

3. What doesn’t work?
• The circular photos. Although, I like the
appearance of them, I think they come across as
quite childish. This won’t attract my target
audience as they are aged between 16 and 25.
• Some of the names of the articles are pretty
poor. The challenge of making my articles appeal
to my entire target audience was difficult.
• The font I used for article titles isn’t
ideal, would have looked better with a small
caps font, like the strap line. My intention was
that this font would appear ton be hand
written, but looking back on it the handwritten
effect isn’t suited to this magazine.

4. What Was Difficult?
• I found it really hard to think of article names and to visualise the magazine in my head, with
all the ideas I’d decided to “borrow” from other magazines.
• Organising my layout was another process I found difficult. The elements of my magazine
that I’d chosen previously, didn’t fit together like they did in my head. They don’t necessarily
compliment each other.
• Finishing in time, was hard, as usual.

5. What Was Easy?
• I enjoyed the creative side of making my front cover and contents page. Taking the
photos, picking fonts and images, and exploring what other people had done with their
magazines.
• I found designing my masthead easy, but looking back it seems overly simplistic, and doesn’t
stand out from the rest of the text on my front cover.

6. What Have I Learnt?
• That the production process is much more difficult than you’d think. And the mental idea of a
magazine is not easy to transfer to paper.
• I have developed Adobe Photoshop skills that will come in handy when making my music
magazine.
• Also, I have learnt what does and doesn’t belong on a magazine front cover, from research of
similar magazines.

7. If I Had All The Time And The Money In
The World, What Would I Change?
• Create more regulars and elaborate on the features. When it came to deciding what and
where my regular articles would go, I struggled, and didn’t create enough. Also, I struggled to
create features using only the images I took in class. (I now know that we could use images
from elsewhere.)
• Focus more on music, give away free CDs etc. Although, I like that my magazine is not genre
specific and appeals to a wide range of students, I feel focussing on one area, such as music
would have made my magazine more interesting.
• Try to eliminate some of the white space, use bigger images maybe. The images I used on my
magazine are circular, and quite small, this leaves a lot of white space, and not to my
advantage.

8. What Other Magazines Can I Compare
My Magazine To?
• I think this copy of LIFE
magazine and my magazine
have a lot in common,
Although my text branches
out over the picture, the
colour scheme and main
image are similar. Also,
neither of them portray a
specific genre.