RESEARCH!

For some research I looked into what certain colours mean, this helped in the induction last task I did because the colours I used gave out a certain message. I went onto Google and put in "colour meanings" and these are some of the results.

This will help me to create a well suited colour scheme and house style.

This will help me stick to L.I.I.A.R or Language Institution Ideology Audience and Representation. The colours will appeal to certain audiences, for example pink is stereotypically more appealing to girls, and black is more appealing to "Goths" or "Emos".

MORE RESEARCH-

all the magazines I have looked at have certain conventions which seem to meet the preffered criteria for College Covers.

1. issue date

2. mast head (title)

3. anchorage (text that ties down the meaning of the image)

4. banner (across the cover)

5. direct mode of address. (were the writing has calls the audience "you")

6. house style (a consistant use of colour and fonts)

7. synergy (using the mag to sell another product)

8. puff (promotional advert for another service, government or council of that are)

this cover has all of the normal conventions of a college magazine, the issue date is above the barcode, this suggests that this magazine has a price, this is different to lots of magazines, depending on the contents of the magazine itself. The mast head is large and bold sticking out well from the background, it also goes with the 'football theme' of the cover. The anchorage is "the SURF THING" showing that the new sport featured is surfing. The banner is in a bold orange and although it doesnt draw the viewers attention immediately, it still stands out advertising 'OLYMPIC PREVIEW'. Housestyle is current with this cover, yellow, blue, white and orange are used, all these colours go well together and match. This makes the magazine a lot more astetically pleasing. There isnt much direct mode of address, but the article titles are in reference to the buyers as they are 'recruiting'. Puff could be represented by the NFL advertisement in the top left corner.

The language used with this cover is well suited to the audience it is targetting, it talks about different sports and different sports players that people buying this magazine will be aware of. It is simple and straight forward this may be because people who are interested in sports are stereotypically not as intellegent as other college students.

 Institutes involved in this magazine are sports based, NFL for example, hence the NFL advertisement in the corner, they will also have had a say in the final print out, as they are represented by this magazine.

Sports ideology is heavy within this cover, this is because it is a magazine aimed directly at sports students.

Audience is mainly sports students but could just be people interested in sports or a passer by intrigued by an article or picture of a sports person.

Sports people are represented immediately, with the images used. One of a potential sports player with sports wear and equipment in the shot, and one of a famous sports person.



This college magazine also has most of the expected conventions included on the cover. It has a very clear masthead which could also be classed as the banner of the cover because it goes right across the top of the magazine. There are lots of sub headings which clearly highlight the articles included inside. It does not have any specific direct mode of address, but it does have some college related language such as the age range 15 being mentioned. The word "campus" and "networking" all words students would relate to easily. Issue date is also included here and a barcode again telling me that this magazine has a price. This could contradict my other research with my survey that will be included later. There is no synergy used on this particular example, this could because the college funds the magazine by itself, which means it does not need any funding from advertising etc, this also excludes 'puff' because the magazine seems to be funded by the college it is writing about.

The image used on this cover is one of a student, this helps imagine the sort of student that go to this particular college. The girl in the picture is wearing a college t-shirt which helps connect the magazine to that specific college, as the masthead used "COLLEGE" could be seen as very vague.  The background is one of a park or perhaps a college field, this represents freedom as if going to this college or reading this magazine will lead to a bit of freedom for the reader. This also clashes with the colour t-shirt the student is wearing. The red of her top has connatations passion happiness and hope, this all makes the reader invisage all these marvellous feelings come from attending or reading this college magazine.

The housestyle is consistant and clear. Makes the cover look professional, the colours of her clothes and the colour of the fonts all match which give the impression of fluency throughout the magazine.



For help with ideas with our magazines, we viewed other college's examples, this helped give an idea of what works and what doesn't. It gave a view on what colours looked good, and how the layout should be. this is the Grimsby Institue magazine cover, the bad points of this were things such as the colour theme. The colours used were fairly basic which gave the impression of unprofessionalism. Also the colour of the people for example are two different shades which also represents unprofessionalism. The images used are un related to college in the sense that because they are cartoons and this does not represent a college. A good point of this cover is the logo is visible, this helps make the magazine cover become familiar.
There is no issue date this immediately goes against the conventions of all the other magazines. The mast head is not in the normal "conventional" place that the masthead is normally placed, this could be seen as a good thing as it is edgey and modern which could reflect the college is is represnting. The web address is placed in a very unstructured area which makes the cover look unprofessional and scruffy. There is no Direct mode of address, again distancing the magazine from students. Lack of synergy and puff shows that the magazine isn't well thought out or well funded all because of the unprofessionalism of the rest of the cover. The font used is a harsh colour which may affect people wanting to read this magazine from first looks. The image used is highly edited which again gives connatations of unprofessionalism. For the housestyle the colours do match and look good together. The image also fits into the housestyle in the sense that the figures in the image are similiar colours to the writing. This housestyle however does not carry over onto the contents page.......
 
Although the next page does have the same fonts and colours as the front cover the images are not similiar as they are photographs not edited images. The same masthead/ logo is used though this creates familiarity between the front cover and this page.
The contents page on the other hand is completely different to both the cover and the inside page. Although the same slogan used on the front cover is at the bottom this is the only visual link to the front page. The colours are different and the images are unprofessional. Image lay out is not well though out as the images overlap each other making it look scruffy and hurried. Pinks and greens are used for the font colour and this is completely different to the blue and white used on the front cover. All this helps me think about what i would like my cover to look like.



This is also very basic which gives the representation of unprofessionalism like the Grimsby one, the colours are very basic and the layout isn't very well thought out. Although the colours connatate feelings of simplicity and peacefulness they are TOO simple in this sense. Just by looking at the cover you can tell it was made in a simple document. There is an issue date but this contradcits the photo because although it may be spring when the mag is issued, the photo represents deep winter. Without reading the caption to the photo were it tells you this is a photo of trip taking place in the present, you question why such an image is used. Also this image does not represent college life or students at all. This could be seen as negative because students will not realise this magazine is about there college. Putting "FREE" on the magazine is also contradictory because if you do not want to charge for the magazine do not put "FREE" just do not put a price on at all. Listing the featured articles at the bottom is also too basic and boring. This will not capture the eye of a busy student.

As with the Grimsby Institute magazine, this contents page does not follow the housestyle established on the front cover, although black and white is used here, so is green which seems odd as there is no green on the cover. The images used are of poor quality in the sense that bits of the people in them are cut off, for example the girl in first image has had her right hand cropped off and this just looks rubbish, like they havent put much effort into these images at all. Also the framing of each image is different, some frames are thicker than others again conveying a lack of effort or skill when making this magazine. Similiar to the Grimsby Mag East Riding Mag is too basic and tacky  looking.

These are all things i have decided to either avoid or include in the making of my magazine cover and contents page.

 i used this little survey to try and meet the requirement of my target audience, I went round my media class and asked them to fill in which colour shceme and which font they preferred on the sheet and then asked them to look through some photos and asked them to choose which they thought was the best and most appropriate for a college magazine. This helped me realise what my target audience prefer and this will lead to a more successful making of my magazine.

The majority vote went on the third set of colours, and the third Font style. The photos were less precisely chosen upone therefore i will choose which i will use out of the ones most popular.

POTENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHS!

I took several photographs for my magazine cover. Here are a couple of potential photos I could use.

This photo is a good shot but the girl in the picture doesn't look very positive and this could put a negative attitude out for what is supposed to be a positive magazine.

The second photo down, this is the photo I might use for the background of my magazine. This could back up my potential anchorage which is "At Wyke the Sky is Your Limit".

The third photo is another photo I took here of three students, this could be a good example of the Technology at Wyke, but the downsides are that the colour of the image may not go with my colour shceme, and it does not meet the criteria of the brief as it is not particuarly a medium shot, and because it is of three students it does not seem suitable. I could crop the two girls out of the picture and have the middle student as this is a middle shot, this is still an option.

 

Induction Task

We were given an induction task this included planning, creating and then analysing our own fragrance or mobile phone adverts. Certain necessities of this task will aid me greatly in my magazine cover making, I had to take my own photographs and edit them the way I chose. I did this on Photoshop which gave me a wide range of editting tools. I also had to take into consideration the colours I used, this will help me with my Magazine design too because colours are a huge representer of attitude and professionalism.
This is my final version of my advert.
Here is my evaluation...

Evaluation

To begin this advert I brainstormed ideas about what I wanted my advert to look like and what sort of appeal I wanted it to have. I decided on a male fragrance which is obviously aimed at males but also could be aimed at females because they may want to buy the fragrance for ‘their’ men. I went through many ideas about the advert itself for example the brand name, and the picture. I went through quite a few stages before deciding my final piece. My first idea was to have the fragrance like a warriors scent, with a picture of a warrior type figure and the slogan “be a warrior” I felt it was a bit ‘cheesy’ and opted out. I then went on to find that after having a photo shoot with my model that my advert changed dramatically. Whilst still being a male fragrance advert the message, of sexuality and lust, became one of nature and freedom.

The language used in the advert varies from a very familiar and well known term “man’s best friend” to a foreign word “cumhran” meaning ‘perfume’ in Gaelic. The familiar phrase helps the consumer feel at ease with the product and the foreign term puts across as the connotation of mystery. As a deeper meaning to the language of the advert, it conveys friendliness because of the familiarity of the situation, in other words men have lived along side dogs in harmony and even befriended them for hundreds of years. An air of the wilderness is given with the grass which I made a very clear green, green being the colour of nature, also the open sky in front of the man and the dog portrays freedom. To contrast the wilderness side of the advert but to back up the familiarity point is to say how green represents safety as well as nature, saying therefore that man is at one with nature.

Institutions that fragrances are involved with are normally also brands of clothes and perhaps make-up too, therefore they have a name for the whole company so people will remember from which set up their product is from whether it be make up perfume or anything else from their line. The ‘brand name’ for my fragrance is “Celtic”. This goes with the sort of Gaelic theme running throughout the advert; this can be represented by the colours, silver-y grey for the name of the fragrance and dark green for the slogan, these colours are very Celtic colours. This can be represented by the dog as well as the colours. The dog is a Border Collie well known in Gaelic history for being the working dog in the highlands of Ireland and Scotland, this is a connotation for the deeper meaning of the type of dog used in the advert.

This perfume has many obvious meanings with lots of hidden meanings within it. For example “man’s best friend” meaning the dog, dogs are loyal animals that have lived peacefully along side humans for years, but the other meaning is, that the perfume is supposed to be the man’s best friend, being loyal and going well with the man. A denotation of this advert is the grass, it obviously there to show the man and do are outside, but what does it represent? A connotation of it however is the following, the colour green represents, life and freshness, growth and money, all these things pass subconsciously on to the consumer, and they imagine all the good things they could get it they had this fragrance. Another denotation is the dog. The dog is sat by its master, loyal and friendly this is obvious, but the connotation behind this is how that makes the viewer feel is deeper. Man’s “best friend” is sat by his owner, freely, completely loose to run from his master and be completely free, but the dog stays by his owner and does not leave his side, this represents freedom and peacefulness, as if wearing the fragrance will grant you all of these things. Another point which supports all these ideas of freedom and peace is the blue sky, blue is a colour which represents, confidence and stability. These are great qualities to have as a man. The blue-y green of the bottle and the blue of the jeans also make a warm familiarity obvious. Blue also represents sincerity and affection. All these things you can get from a dog, but the deeper meaning in this advert is that you can get them from this fragrance. Even the dog holds some ideology in the sense of how it is sat, his ears are relaxed and he is sat waiting for a command from his master, all merely enjoying the tranquillity of the scene. Even in its colours the dog makes some bold but hidden points, for example. Black represents mystery an sophistication, this contrasts with the rest of the advert which entails many more warming inviting colours, but this creates the element of surprise which every man likes in his life. Black contrasts with the white, which represents purity and love, love of the owner from the dog? Or love of the fragrance from the man? The consumer decides. Another connotation of the image is the two longer pieces of grass, this could just be seen as nature, getting in the way or just an accident. It could also be seen as a connotation for something much deeper. This being the idea of secrecy, it is as though we are looking upon a scene which no one is supposed to see, the man and his dog just having a tranquil moment in the countryside, hidden by grass or rushes. One more connotation which can be pulled from this advert is the bottle in the corner. How I have placed the bottle affects the whole image. Sunshine is coming from the same place, perhaps giving off the impression that the fragrance is as good and powerful as the sun. Also the directions of the fragrance spray is falling in the same way as the sun there for could convey an element of heavenliness. 

I mentioned the audience briefly earlier and just to make it more clear the audience is young males as the brand gives an impression of power and freedom and loyalty. Cumhran could also be aimed at females though which imagine subconsciously perhaps that if they buy their man this fragrance they will become stable and loyal like his surroundings or even like his dog.
In my opinion this advert represents nature and freedom. Free choice and peacefulness spring to mind when I look at the advert. Whilst I was looking at the audience and how I wanted the advert to come across I looked at other adverts and the conventions they hold. For example the bottle is nearly always in the advert also there is usually some sexual language, so therefore I went against the usual conventions and used a more natural image which is more innocent.

I used photoshop to create my advert and I found it very helpful and fairly easy to use. I superimposed the image of the fragrance bottle, and I also superimposed the writing upon it, this was to make it look more natural. Only problem I had was selecting each individual strand of grass for seeing what colour changes looked like, but once I had chosen the colour I wanted it I kept it that way. I took a few different photographs and many weren’t quite what I was looking for.  For example I made some errors with some photos… like with the one below I tried to get the model and the dog to come over the hill at the same time but the dog came over too quickly and I missed the shot.

This is another example of a photo I thought I may use for my first idea, (warrior)

I think the ideal magazine for my advert is any cosmetic magazine as this puts the product out through a wide range of people. It would also fit in, in a clothes magazine, because it is a wide range fragrance.

THE BRIEF!

The brief for this task is;

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new shcool/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.



for my image mainpulation program I will use Photoshop.