Planning my College Magazine

Before beginning to design my college magazine cover I had to conduct primary research on my target audience. The target audience for an East Norfolk Sixth Form College magazine is the students of the college. The questionnaire features questions that are important in deciding on what should be included in the magazine, the style, price and other information that needs to be addressed before making that magazine. The results from this questionnaire gave me the ideas needed for the magazine. The first question proved that the majority of students would buy a college magazine. From the second question I learnt that gossip is the most popular item to be included in the magazine. Therefore I decided that the cover lines to the magazine should feature gossip to gain the target audiences attention. The other popular choices were also made clear and gave ideas on what should be included in the magazine. From the third question, £1 was proven to be the most popular choice on price of the magazine. Therefore my magazine will be this price. The fourth question proved that a magazine that comes out every fortnight would be most popular amongst the target audience. The magazine will be printed onto paper as this choice was more popular that the magazine being a downloadable e-magazine. Listening to music and shopping are the most popular past times of the target audience. Therefore I conclude from this that music should play a large role in the magazine as should shopping related topics. The tone of the magazine will be chatty as this was the most popular amongst the target audience.

Before creating my own cover I analysed an existing college magazines and then analysed The National Student Magazine to a further extent. This gave me an insight into how a college magazine can be presented. I analysed the colours, masthead style, image size, image placement, background, text, fonts, promises, tone and how this related to the target audience. This research allowed me to be able to produce an appropriate magazine for the target audience. My contents page mimicked that of an existing magazine Men’s Health. Using my research into existing magazines I was able to produce a sketch of my magazine including appropriate colours, masthead style, image size, image placement, background, text, fonts, promises, and tone for the target audience.