Preliminary Task - Proposal

Preliminary Task  - Proposal for Cover & Contents

My target audience is for all college students, 1st-3rd years aged between 16-19 and any gender. It will feature different articles every week from all subjects to appeal to the largest audience. The typical content will be interviews, personal stories, features on aspects of the college and news about the college and events that have happened. My ideas for cover lines include; Coffee House, Principal Interview, Main Image subject interview, Cheater’s Tips, Managing Stress, and enrichments, as they are key to college life and would appeal to my audience. The magazine writing will be quite colloquial as students do not want to be stuck reading something boring or unimaginative as college days are long and they are not used to the large workload.

For the title of the magazine, I want to have a single word to sum-up college life as it is memorable for the audience and will be easily recognised. I brainstormed different titles and chose my favourite. I have chosen the title “Anon” as most students are anonymous at college until they become themselves and find their friends. It also links to Anonymous content I will feature in my magazine, such as opinion polls, as people may not want to be known. I did not use the titles “College Magazine”, “SDC”, "The Observer", “You” or “Student Mag” as they are generic titles and will not be interesting to potential consumers. Also with a shorter title the masthead can be bigger and bolder and more appealing to target audiences.

I want to use the same font throughout so I will choose one on the InDesign programme. I am looking for one like Ariel or Calibri as I do not want it to be fancy, or as boring as Times New Roman. I want the masthead to go across the page at an angle as it is more pleasing to the eye and is easier to work with. To go underneath the masthead, I want the tagline “The No. 1 College Magazine” as the audience believes it is the best and knows that it is definitely college based if they do not get that from the cover lines. It will go underneath the masthead as the consumer will read the title “Anon” as it is the biggest feature, and then continue reading down the page, therefore seeing the tag line.

The magazine will be weekly, on Wednesdays, but my particular cover will be seasonal for autumn, so autumn colours and trees and leaves will be a feature of the main image. The cover will reflect the seasons and the content of the magazine, such as a Halloween themed one with colours such as orange and black.

The image I want to use will be an image of a first year student as it will match the cover lines and it makes sense as it is the start of a new academic year. I will most likely use one of my friends as they are first years and can be found easily to be photographed. There are many trees around the college, but I want one with the building in the background. The image will be a medium shot to show the emotions, stance and clothes the subject is wearing, which will also represent the college student life and the connotations behind students fashion image. The clothes a person is wearing tells a lot about their character and will reflect the content and genre of the magazine. The use of a leafy place will show the changing of seasons into autumn which links to people’s minds as the start of work and learning as everyone has been through the same teaching.

The dimensions of the cover will be A4 as it is large enough to fit all the content it will include and can fit in people’s bags without folding. It also means it will be quite thin, so will not take hours to read and gives enough room for the text to be larger. The colours I will use will be bright and happy. I plan on red, yellow, blue, purple and green as they reflect moods and atmosphere and are also connotated to autumn. The use of blue and purple will be the feature of the masthead as they are neutral colours and can be used all year.

My magazine will be under £1.00 as students do not have much money, and as studies show consumers would rather pay 99p for something rather than £1. Psychologically, £0.99 looks cheaper than £1.00, so people are more likely to spend the 99 pence.

I also want to have a little negative space on the cover as it will make it look less busy. On the contents page, I will make the same links and colours as on the cover as it will link to the house style I want to be able to achieve. The fonts will all stay the same and the masthead will be featured on it as well. The contents will be a single page and have all the page reference numbers on it, as well as a note from the magazine editor as it gives the magazine a more human feel rather than computerized. 

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“Magazine photography is the mural painting of modern times.” - Gene Thornton