Photography Composition Questions

Flat Plans

My magazine is called "Keeping Up With Kollege", referring to the hit show "Keeping Up With The Kardashians", familiar to most teenagers.  The mis-spelling of the word "Kollege" shows the educational side to the magazine and also gives it a sense of humour.  The colour of the text will be beige on a deep purple background as the colours purple and light beige are very royal and sophisticated, expressing college life.  The selling lines will not be on a background, but the text will be deep purple to keep in with the masthead.  The main image will be that of a student smiling to express that college life is very exciting however a change from school life as the student is not in uniform.  The language used is aimed to be playful and relate to the students such as "Goodbye Mr Rae", named after the song known well by the younger generation, is a story about a well-loved headteacher retiring after many years.  This type of language relates to students and gives away information about the topic but does not tell the full story.

My contents page will follow the traditional style with a "Hello From The Editor" section and using banners for headers.  My banners will be beige text on a purple background to stick to the theme and colour scheme used on the front cover.  In the top right corner, I have chosen to include a collage of photographs to keep my front cover simple and more friendly to the student eye by being less busy.  My background will be a large picture of two doors.  The doors show that students are closing the door of school and are about to open new doors to reveal a whole new world.  The closed doors also symbolise the uncertainty faced by many school students on their first day of college.  I will have my contents written in a laid-back style such as "puzzles n'that" to relate to the students and the way that they speak around each other, giving my magazine a casual effect.  It also shows students that college life isn't boring and full of large words, which eases the worries of first year students.

Photography Composition

Covers and Contents Pages of Inspiration

Below are examples of magazine covers and contents pages that I'm taking inspiration from for my prelim.

'Sugar' magazine is specifically aimed at adolescent and young teenage girls.  This is clear as the colours used are very girly, being pink, yellow and orange.  These colours reflect the personality of the target audience as they are happy and fun colours, which is how young teenagers are referred to.  The colours are not sophisticated as the target audience would find this boring and would not be attracted to the magazine cover on shop shelves.  Most of the text is left-aligned as people read from left to right.  The text being on the left also means that if the magazine is stacked on a horizontal shelf then it is still easily read and the main selling lines are not covered.  The main model is covering the title which shows that the magazine is very popular and well-known.  Language such as "Golden glows to make the other girls green" is still using the simple girly colours, and the word "golden" suggests a heavenly and flawless tan.

The contents page has a similar colour scheme to the cover page as the colour pink seems to be repeated here.  This is to attract the target audience as young teenage girls are associated with the colour.  Similar to the cover page, the colours used are not sophisticated as this would repel the target audience because stereotypically, the target audience enjoy things that look fun.  Most of the text is left-aligned, which is a running theme throughout the cover page and contents page of the magazine.  This makes it easier for the target audience to read as text is read from left to right.  The main image is Taylor Swift which clearly shows to the target audience that she is the main focus of this issue of the magazine as she is also the main model on the cover.  Language such as "Celebs dress your age!" is used to give young teenagers a confidence boost about themselves being labelled as 'too young' for particular clothing items.  It also promotes these youngsters to stay away from clothing that may make them look older and raise eyebrows as they want to dress and style themselves like modern-day celebrities.

'Top Gear' magazine is aimed at a male audience with ages ranging from 18 to 40.  The colour green attracts the target audience as it is classed as a manly colour.  The main image is a Ferrari with flowers pouring out of the engine.  The flowers suggest a calm peaceful atmosphere which further suggests that the car is a peaceful car to drive.  The use of the flowers also shows that the car is a very environmentally friendly car as the flowers are fresh and colourful.  The language "Zero Guilt" backs up that the car is environmentally friendly as it states that there is minimum amount of guilt involved in driving the car, and therefore there is no need to drive less as it is not as harmful to the environment as other cars.  This is further backed-up by the choice of colour that the whole cover is in.  The main colour is green showing that the Ferrari is a very 'green' car, also meaning environmentally friendly.

This contents page is different to traditional contents pages as the Top Gear contents page has a different layout.  It uses banners to separate the contents much like a traditional contents page however it does not feature everything that will be found in the magazine, and only mentions the main selling lines with a bit more information on each.  As the banners are highlighted yellow allows the headers to stand-out much more from the white background it is placed upon.  Having an image of The Stig placed at the top shows that he is the main focus of all Top Gear magazines as the contents page is usually a recurring page.  The layout along with a photo of each allows                                         the reader to find what they want quicker than typical magazines contents pages.

Brief: Print

PRINT PRELIM

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

Main Task:  The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.  A minimum of four images must be used.  All images and graphics must be produced by the candidate.