Image Analysis

Institution: East Riding College

Audience: Students, probobly aged 16-18. Gender neutral colours are used, therefore no specific gender is being targeted.

Cover

Masthead:

'Student Life' It is written in the top centre of the text which is usually where the audience will look first. The fact it says student instantly addresses the target market. It's written in white which heavily contrasts against the black background; causing it to stand out and draw attention. The colour white gives connotations of innocence or purity. It is also quite a clean, crisp, concise colour which works well within this magazine. White also connotates safety usually sets a positive image. It associates coolness and suggests simpleness. Therefore I think the white works well within this masthead, although it isn't a bright, bold colour to attract students with an age of around 16-18 it's simple, cool nature works in it's favour. The institute has made the decision to use a straight font which gives connotations of professionalism, whilst denying tackiness or cheapness- which perhaps creates a positivive image to the college. However the font could be seen to be too plain or boring to students and may not attract them as much as another font could.

After deciding on my own masthead for my college magazine I may play around with fonts, and ask students to decide on the one they feel the most attracted to as colour, font, style and shades can dramtically change the nature of a magazine.

Main Image:

I think the main image is really well used within this college magazine. It shows presumably students stood in a location which is clearly not within college campus. I think that this would relate to the target audience as it shows that the college takes students out on trips or visits of some kind-which most students would find appealing. The contrast of the photo and the darkness of the people in it almost obscures our vision which connotes a mysterious sense to the image. The way the sunlight peers through the trees makes the place look beautiful which makes the DTP aesthetically pleasing to the audience. Although the darkness of the image teamed with the black background could create negative connotations. As well as this it could be seen by the audience as boring and because it doesn't use a variety of colours it may not attract attention.

Although I must use a photograph of a student in a medium close-up shot, I would like to create an image that us aesthetically pleasing and attracts my main audience. I would like it to look professional, whilst still maintaining a fun feel to it.

Logo:

There isn't a specific logo to the magazine, however the college logo is placed on the bottom right of the text. The logo is quite large and there is no other images or anchorage around it, allowing all attention to be drawn to the logo. The logo just says 'East Riding College' which obviously tells the audience which college the magazine is associated to, and gives the students a place to find further information if needed. The logo- like the masthead is in a white colour, giving connotations of a cool professional look. But could be seen to be too plain and not aesthetically appealing. The rays coming off the right hand side of the logo gives it a more fun feel, and makes the institution seem almost more powerful. In my opinion the logo is too simple and I wouldn't personally be attracted to it.

My college magazine will be for 'Wyke Sixth Form College' therefore I will use their existing logo, althought I may tweak it a little if I feel it doesn't necesarily appeal to my target audience.

Date:

The date of the magazine is placed vertically on the left hand side of the masthead. This is a good idea as the audience's attention is usually instantly drawn to the masthead of a magazine. It is not used as a main component of the magazine but still communicates to the audience when the text was produced for as well as telling the target audience if the information is still relevant or not. Like all the text on this magazine it uses the white colour and same straight-cut font, creating a house style of black and white.

House Style of the cover:  The colour scheme of this cover is black and white, creating a dark tone to the text. Even the main image has a dark contrast to it. Although I think this makes the magazine have professional and simple connotations I don't think that it is pleasing to the eye and I think it is very boring and perhaps too plain- especially for a college magazine. I think that the colours don't jump off the page and would be overlooked at a college and won't relate to students as well as they should.

A question was featured in my questionnaire I carried out as research and many students did say they would like the colour scheme to reflect the colours of the college website. This may make the magazine too plain, however I intend to enhance the colours by making them richer or brighter whilst maintaining the Wyke college colour scheme in order to sucessfully create an appropiate house style.

The word free is on the magazine and I think it's pointless and unnecessary for it to be there. The magazine doesn't have a barcode, therefore making it explicit that it doesn't have a price. However I do understand that perhaps more people would take the magazine if it is made obvious the magazine is free of cost to them.

I think that the layout of the magazine doesn't really include all of the usual conventions of a college magazine. Although it does have a masthead, main image, and a logo there isn't really any relevant anchorage or article titles. In my creation I will include these features as they give a preview of what is featured in the magazine which will compell the target audience of students to read the magazine if they are interested in the articles in the text.

Contents Page

House Style: The colour scheme in the contents page reflects the black and white theme in the cover which would make it recognisable to students and doesn't create a mis-matched magazine which I think looks unproffesional and tacky. However the main focus of this page which is the contents box- telling the audience which number pages the articles are on is a brickt, sickly green. I think this works well as the eye is instantly drawn to it, the colour is really bright and contrasts the black and white; allowing it to stand out from the page. Green gives connotations of harmony, freshness and is the most restful colour for the human eye, therefore I understand why it has been used in a college magazine for students. One limitation of using this colour for the contents box is that; because green hasn't been used on the cover it causes it to look random and was spontaneously placed there.

I want my contents page to look organised and thought about, as oppose to the randomness I get from this text.

Images:  I have quite conflicting ideas for the images in this page of the college magazine. I like the way a vareity has been used which reflect the articles featured in the magazine. This component emphasises the articles and makes it more likely for students to read the magazine if they like the photographs. The black borders of the images reflects the thick white border of the main image on the cover which creates a theme or house style. The images are placed around the page wherever the seem to fit and I think this makes it look quite tacky and rushed, I will experiment with my images and try to place them on my text in a creative way; such as overlap them. This will make the images seem more inter-relatable and may look more aesthetically pleasing but still look professional.

Font: The font used on this page seems to be the same font used on the cover which is good as it makes it seem recognisable and again attributes to the house style. I think they are appropiate of a college magazine, however I may use different fonts for the anchorage and masthead to draw more attention to the headline and make it look unique.