Audience feedback and Evaluation for college magazine

By Ricardo Reveron Blanco

Evaluation

I have used Photoshop for both my tasks as I felt Photoshop could give both the cover and the contents page a much more professional outlook than creating the cover with Photoshop and then the contents with InDesign.

1). what went well? Photography, image manipulation on Photoshop, page layout, use of text including masthead and coverlines, journalism, layout on InDesign etc..

- I have successfully achieved a good use of Photoshop; hence both the image manipulation and other assets within this program have been completed with no difficulties. I also believe that my page layout and my text has also gone well, however, I have struggled when choosing the colour of my texts, as I had to keep in mind what my colours will connote, that they matched and that it would not difficult when reading the texts as it may become unclear due to the background’s colour. I haven’t used that many journalistic skills as I only needed to create coverlines and a masthead as an article was not needed.

2). what do I need to improve on?

- I have to keep practicing when developing my texts and my colour scheme beforehand and I will intend to keep this in mind when pursuing my photography sessions, to avoid having the same problem I had with my preliminary task.

3).Write three key points for development when producing the main task (music magazine)

1). I must plan my colour scheme and photography before taking any actions about my photography sessions.

2).I will include more catchy coverlines which will not only engage the reader but it will connote other matters to make such, much more intriguing.

3). I must research more on the genre of the music magazine so I can have a clear idea of how the cover, contents pages are set up, in various aspects; page layout, colour scheme…

Overview:

I decided to use the colours (violet, blue and white) as I believe they work well together and it denotes that the target audience is young (16-18 years of age) thereby, it engages the audience who will in the future buy this magazine. Moreover, the colours themselves connote a sense of tranquillity within working in an educative space and suits both male and female readers.

The image used even though the model does not try to engage the reader with visual contact the fact that is looking away intrigues the reader and makes them think: what is he looking at? Which gives a positive approach as the readers will want to find out this. The overall outfit of the model is chosen to give a “casual” look but still kind of formal and give a sense of being in college (the use of glasses). I chose to take the photograph in a location rather than in a background which is solely a colour as it promotes liveliness to the cover and suggests that the environment of the college is attractive and suitable.

The font applied is used to connote a sense of study as the use of the font “Trajan Pro” seems to be much more formal and “college-like”.

In the contents page, I kept things concise and clear to ease the reader’s into being able to travel around the magazine with no difficulties. I kept the same colour scheme for the same reasons for which I did in my cover page. I added a subscription space; hence usually colleges with an online website try to engage readers into subscribing to it for economic reasons.

Audience Feedback:

-“I like the cover picture, however I think you could improve more the page layout, the contents is concise and easy to read but you could put much more information in there.”

-“I like the colour scheme but sometimes for instance in the contents page it is difficult to read”

-“Overall, I like all the photographs used but I think you could have used more for your contents page”.

The feedback given made me aware of what I should improve for the music magazine; photographs, page layout and colour scheme. 

Comments on blogger: 

The comments on my college magazine have enabled me to keep in mind the chromatics, layout and conventional features of certain parts of the magazine (the contents page in my college magazine) which needs more detailed information.

Research skills:

Personally, I have found several college magazines of which I have been able to identify several characteristics that it brings and added these into my magazine. For instance, the use of lively colours and font, such as the “Tajan Pro” for the masthead portrays a sense of education.

Web publishing skills:

I have yet not uploaded the cover or the contents magazine into my Blogger, therefore in the future I must upload the tasks I complete immediately. Thereby, when using publishing you achieve a global audience which then feedback can be given to enable improvements into the work published. Moreover, it is cheaper than printing the whole magazine. On the other hand, we must consider that some individuals enjoy reading physical magazines.