my practice magazine evaluation.

Evaluation of school magazine

Overall evaluation
I feel as if I captured the codes and conventions of a real magazine to a good certain extent. I used all of the conventions which would be found on a magazine front cover and followed other rules for creating magazines.

The layout on my front cover included a header, medium close up for the main image. I also added other various text boxes onto the front cover to show various articles within the magazine and included bright colours which could grab audiences eye but not too bright that it would blind them.

In saying all of this, I have not included a barcode or a price in a corner as it is based on a school magazine (for sixth form), and would most likely not be sold in shops, but given out for free in the school(s) it was published for.

There is no black and white all over the magazine. The image is colour, the writing is colour. There is colour everywhere – which is the normal look for a magazine.

I think, that because of the way my magazine has been set out – the audience would be sixth formers, or year 10s and 11s who would maybe be looking into what sixth form is really like.

Photography
There is only one photography included on my front cover as I like the cover to look simple and clear, yet modern. I photographed Sadie for the approximate time of 30 minutes, as I was experimenting with different compositions. Some ideas I came up with are:

A side close up of her face: I didn’t think that this was a good enough picture for a magazine as it is not a straight on image, which I would expect to not see on a normal magazine front cover.

I like this image however I felt that it was too modelized to be for a school magazine, even though it is based on a sixth form magazine. I do like the composition of this image, but it is too show-y for the target that I was trying to reach for this front cover.

My chosen image I think is not too show-y nor too in-appropriate for the type of magazine I am doing. At first, because of this image, I wasn’t sure if it fitted the brief of a school magazine, but then when I thought it over I felt that it was appropriate for a sixth form edition.

Even though I like these photographs that I came up with, and also my final image – I feel as if It is telling students who are not yet studying in sixth form – that it is all about beauty. If I was to tell the truth, it is to some extent. It is like their own little fashion show… but it will also show that there is other social groups portrayed as it talks about the debate club and also acting.

Use of DTP.
As it was the first time I had ever used InDesign, I felt that I used it to the best of my ability. I had never heard of in design before, so all of the aspects of this programme were new to me. So what I did do I felt was very good for a first timer. I learnt the basics, so I could improve more on my magazine If I ever went back to it. Even though I have only used basic software from in design – it has made it look professional with the fonts, colours and image position.

Looking back:
I have learnt in order to make the best product you are able to – you need to plan in advance everything that you want to do so you have a time limit in which you should do this. Make sure you have all of the research together with you when creating your magazine. As for the construction of the magazine I have learnt that It would be easier if you had a design of how you want your magazine to look as you will be saving time because you would be getting straight to the point.