PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: Analysing a school magazine

I will be analysing this school magazine, it is from Tallulah Falls School and it is the 2009 edition:

Mise-en-scene:
In this magazine front cover there is a student painting on a canvas and in the background there is another student. 
Both students are in uniform, and they are both different genders which shows that the school is mixed. They are both different races which signifies a racial equality.

Colour:
The overall colour scheme is green, which gives the impression of nature - maybe the school is situated in the middle of the woods? The colours are also harmonious which makes the overall feel to the magazine front cover quite monotone.

Font:
Most of the font is slanted, and each character is looped. This could signify the formality of the of the school and already show to the reader that the school has an already set standard.


Text Size:
It is rather small so you can focus on the big picture. For a better impact, I think that the font should be bigger because otherwise the reader will not have much of a reason to open the magazine. 


Title:
The title is very simple and it is in serif font. The reason why it may be in serif font, is because it is generally believed that Serif fonts make it easier for a reader’s eye to follow the text, particularly when the font needs to be small like in a magazine, newspaper, or book. It is said to draw the eye across the page much easier. 


Mode of Address:
It is rather indirect, in the picture the students do not look straight at the camera so they do not give a direct mode of address. The students however are working, so this mode of address is quite effective because the reader will think that the students are very hard working and will attain high grades. 

PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: Plumline analysis

1. Title, articles, pictures, headings, statistics, date, issue number, columns, footer, masthead and colours
2. There are two images on the front cover, but the first image I saw was the picture with the main article.It is a long shot & has a direct mode of address, which makes the article more personal as if you can be like them and achieve. The second image I saw was the logo, it is a picture of just the new building. It is promoting the school as if it has a new fresh start.
3. The name of the masthead is Plumline & the school is called Plumstead Manor. Instead of using the whole name Plumstead Manor the simple "PLUM" is a more effective and easier way to say something.
4. The logos underneath the masthead in blocks are their specialist subjects, so in order to look a lot more professional they want to be seen as a specialist school.
5. The cover lines are in bold writing to attract the audience, they are all also positive titles so that even the parents will be interested. These articles are not only to show off but to praise the students for all their efforts. It is also to promote racial equality, so that the school will appear more harmonious.
6. They want the headteacher to look like she cares for the school and actually takes part in important events.
7. The footer has the contact details of the editor, so in case you have any queries you can contact the person.
8. The colour scheme is multi-coloured so you guide your eyes easier through the articles
9. I think the boxed text is effective because it is much easier to distinguish articles and it makes the magazine a lot more fun to read. 

PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: Questionaire - Preparing for my school/college magazine

In order to start designing my poster I had to ask a range of people what they would like to see in the magazine. I didn't give them a questionnaire because their answer to this question was simple and shows their personality. I asked 3 boys ranging from 16-17 and 3 girls from 16-18. Some people said the same topic, so I'll arrange the topics that were asked for the most:

1. Fashion/ Uniform (how to be unique with-out pushing the boundaries)
2. Statistics/ success rates
3. Music
4. Competitions and social topics
5. Art (made specifically by the students
6. Extra-curricular clubs

Seeing as fashion/ uniform was the main topic this shows how my overall magazine should look like. As a result I have decided to go for strong colours that conflict and stand out and also look 'fashionable'

PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: Researching different mastheads

1)

This is the masthead of an official school magazine, I think it is quite effective because it is very smart and the students that attend that school would be proud to go there. It has italic writing which also adds class to the school.

2)

This is the masthead of a school magazine made by a company called "The School Magazine", they make magazines for school kids and this magazine is quite effective if it were for primary school kids rather than secondary school kids.

PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: Demographics and Psychographics

Demographics is taking characteristics of the population, such as race, sex, age, household size, and population growth and Density. Demographics are used to help enhance your product to make it more desirable by the target market audience. They are mostly statistics and are the facts that make a person. Marketers can understand these facts across their entire consumer base, they can learn how to be as effective as possible with
their message. For example, cereal companies understand that eventhough pretty much everyone buys cereal, the people that buy the product most often are married women who have at least two children between the ages of five and sixteen. Similarly, a sports car maker might know that single men age 25 – 35 are the most interested and engaged to their ads, but that most of the people who actually buy their product are married men age 45 – 55, who also make more than $250,000 a year.

Psychographics is the analysis of consumer lifestyles to create a detailed customer profile. Market researchers conduct psychographic research by asking consumers to agree or disagree with activities, interests, opinions or statements. The results are then combined with geographic (place of work or residence) and demographic (age, education, occupation, etc.) characteristics to develop a more 'lifelike' portrait of the population, which are then used to explain why people would buy a product. Psychographics are more complicated than demographics because they are very precise to what makes a person tick. It’s also far more difficult to collect the information from people in the first place – demographics are available everywhere like public and private sources, but it isn't the same can’t be said for psychographic data.
For example, A VINTAGE CLOTHING LINE, marketers might learn that these customers also have a strong attraction for 1960's- 1980's music, are more likely to watch old music videos to review their sense of fashion or go to multiple fashion shows, and buy new rare style pieces once a month. Knowing this, marketers can now combine various behavioral elements in context to reach their maximum psychographic target. Instead of just advertising on whatever sites attract their demographic, or focus exclusively on vintage clothing content, the marketers might start to look at sites that focus on music from the 60's/ 70's & 89's, or professional fashion magazines. They might target people who they’ve tracked through both ads, perhaps email every user who last purchased an item three weeks ago with a special offer to capture their next purchase.
Over time, marketers can start to build a sophisticated targeting strategy as they get more and more efficient at driving sales that might understand what specific fashion designer and what specific 70's band draw the most interest. Eventhough psychographics is a lot more complex than demographics, pyschographics help the customer base to increase in size over a much shorter period in time.

PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation also known as behavioral segmentation, which basically divides the population into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics. It is based assumption that the types of products/ brands an individual purchases will reflect that person's characteristics and way of life. As a result people tend to fall into common catergories, these catergories are then turned into psychographic profiles. The most popular seven profiles are:

Belonger:
This group loves community, loves being with family and friends. This person needs to belong to a group, a community. They are very nationalistic, and don't like change. Their best time is spending time with their friends, talking, having fun, hanging out. They are hard working, and are extremely conservative in their views, and most likely religious.

Achiever:
This is the serious business person that is constantly looking to become more, and to make more. Power and physical wealth is the major stimulator that makes this person perform day in day out, 12-16 hours a day, 365 days a year. Workaholic is frequently an apt way of describing these people.

Emulator/ wanna be:
This group would love to be an Achiever, but isn't. The emulator will try to do anything to make him or herself look like an Achiever with the goal of attracting the opposite sex or approval within their peers. The point is that the Emulator is trying to be like their idol in the pool of true achievers. And they motivation is that they believe this will make them more attractive to a member of the opposite sex, or to be more popular within their own group. This group suffers from low self esteem, needs peer approval, is usually under 30 years old, frequently not financially stable, but will spend whatever money they have on anything that will make them look like their ideal: successful.

Socially Conscious Type A:
This group is not concerned with the world of achievement or the world of family or community, but rather what effects their actions have on society on a whole. The want to make the world a better place. They are environmentally concerned, they recycle, they use less, buy things that are environmentally friendly, and drive fuel efficient cars. They believe in schooling and teaching the children, are frequently highly educated with one or two university degrees, mostly in the liberal arts. They like to help the homeless and the poor, the socially disadvantaged. They are the ones that want to make a difference in their society, to help those who need help, and to guide those that need guidance. But they are quite cynical about society and it's downfalls, yet take a generally positive view of how the future could be.

Socially Conscious Type B:
Type B has given up on humanity on a whole, and has moved off into their own small communities where they live socially conscious within their socially conscious group, communes. They are mostly self sufficient, and purposely cut themselves off from the world, so they are unlikely to be open to offerings from it now. But you are likely to get a lively debate with them over most topics, especially on governments, large business, world governments, and your general run of any conspiracy theories.

Balanced / Totally integrated:
Basically, these are Achievers with a Social Conscience, a person that achieves with the purpose of making the world a better place.

Needs driven:
These are people that buy on impulse and instinct, depending on what they need at the time. There is little planning and things are bought as they are required. Another curious thing about this group is that they will frequently flash large amounts of money around, even if it is only a bundle of one dollar bills with a twenty on the outside to make it look good. In this way, there is a bit of emulator there, but they are not trying to emulate anyone in particular, they only want to prove that they have money. And to follow along the same line, when they do have a bit of money, they will spend it instantly on something, throwing a party, inviting their friends for drinks or dinner. From what I understand, the psychological motivation behind this is that they believe that if they do not spend it now, then it won't be there later.

PRELIMINARY PRE-PRODUCTION: School magazine questionaire

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PRELIMINARY PRODUCTION: School Magazine cover shot

 This was my first camera shot but it wasn't appropriate for a school magazine cover because it was landscape and I need a portrait image otherwise it will not fit into the magazine front cover frame.

Because I liked this idea being on my magazine front-cover. So as a result, I re-shot the image and this time I made it portrait so it will be able to fit onto the page. The image is correctly exposed and it is a long shot. I decided to use a long shot so I can use the space around my models,  to add in information on the front cover.

To make it more 'hip' I decided to add a minor fish-eye lens effect,  this instantly adds a more interesting and versatile appeal to the magazine front cover image.

PRELIMINARY POST PRODUCTION: Final magazine front cover & contents page

So this is my final magazine front cover. 

I decided to use sans-serif font because it'll attract more attention and it is a-lot easier to read sans-serif font on paper rather than online.

I used the main subjects my audience wanted so that it can attract them more to read the news paper.

The colour scheme is really simple and I decided to go for a sophisticated but simple black and white colour scheme to attract more people.

Everything is boxed and in order because I don't think that magazine with clutter look smart at all.

This is my contents page, it is really simple but effective in my opinion because it is really easy to navigate to certain pages in the magazine.

I continued with the simple colour scheme and that way I would not confuse my  readers. I think that this contents page is rather effective considering the only software I used was Microsoft Publisher .