Preliminary Task Evaluation - School Magazine

Skills

The skills I employed to produce my school magazine were mainly computer based. As it has been a few years since I last used the Adobe software I had to get used to using it quickly. The other skills I employed were ascetic - learning how to make the magazine look effective and what messages it would reflect in the final design.

Conventions

The generic conventions I employed to make my magazine were having a main headline and three lesser stories as main stories. The layout was simple yet the variation of subjects made it interesting and would make people want to read inside. I included a name for my magazine, the school logo, school colour, an issue number and the date.

Representation

The semiotic choices I employed when making my magazine cover and contents were using the school colour of maroon in a consistent pattern on each page. The semiotics of the images I chose to use were photographs I had taken myself to represent each story that would have been present in the contents of the magazine. The language I used was short and catchy: ‘The Hub dishes up vamped menu’ and ‘New P.E Equipment Exercises Excitement!’. By making the headlines interesting enough they created a buzz on the front cover making you want to read the inside. The layout I chose to use was a main story, as the background using a large photograph, and then three lesser main stories down the side. These three images would be highlighted in the contents using different photographs.

Preferred reading

My intended preferred reading of the magazine was for students and parents to see how busy the school environment is by making the page look exciting and busy yet organised with the structure.

Audience Feedback

My target audience felt my product to be successful in reflecting busy and ‘buzzing’ school life. ‘the cover includes the main stories relevant to school and the issues within it’. They thought the photographs I had taken myself were professional looking and appropriate for their purpose of advertising different elements of school life at Harrogate Grammar.