When reflecting over the masthead in general, I felt that it appealed to my target audience perfectly; the colours were bright yet grasping that certain formality of a magazine, however, still colours primary school children would find inviting to be interested in the product. Also, I felt that actual name used for the magazine was inspiring to my target audience and really captured what the aim of the magazine was (in relation to what the target audience find most pressing at this age) and it's originality in comparison to other magazine of a similar target audience.
In greater detail, I felt that the connotations of the magazine were simplistic but effective. The actual text was purposely placed to exceed the box, suggesting that of the cleshe to "think outside the box", inferring the primary school children to be creative in what they hope to achieve with their life (text's embodiment of a shooting star); a positive message, and, in essence, what the magazine is centred around. The text's size, I felt, was adequate for drawing attention to itself, without overwhelming the page. The text's font was chosen on the withholding of a certain formality of text any even slightly renowned magazine is structured by and the relation to a child's handwriting at this stage of their life. This helps the audience to relate to their own lives, as well as appealing to a large demographic of my target audience as the font of a primary school child's handwriting is so generic at this stage of their learning.
I chose the image to relate to my target audience; ensuring that they did not feel the magazine was aimed for a higher authority such as parental figures, but to them themselves; building a sense of trust with the brand. I felt that the main image was an appropriate size as it fitted well when collaged with other aspects of the front cover. It entails a child looking befuddled; portraying confusion at the life ahead and what she hopes to achieve. Conveying a thought process many children experience at this stage, when they are becoming more of an individual and creatively seeking out any talents they may obtain. This is why I chose this image as my main; it portrays what my magazine aims to aid children with; helping them to develop their creativity and feel important in this very significant part of their lives. I composed this image with the clothing as uniform purposely, this helps to keep the magazine focused on the idea of school also, and not lose its initial target audience, and helps the children to relate and connect this creativity into talents with education; hopefully increasing their interest in such.
When considering the use of subsidiary images, I thought them vital in relation to who I was aiming this magazine at. Primary school children would not, in general, be interested in a cover page weighed down with a mountain of text and unimaginative colours like black and white. This is why I used four subsidiary images to convey many of the messages on the cover page. Using some to display advertising, to help generate a cycle of income for the company and the advertiser's. The subsidiary images have been purposely placed smaller that the main image to render them as less important than the main image. On reflection however, the size of the three bottom subsidiary images I still feel are slightly too large for the page, even though they do symmetrically fit and are key to present the grid structure, a long with the sell lines, pugs and masthead. The contents of the subsidiary images are a clear indication of what the target audience finds appealing and also, appeal to a wider demographic of parental figures who might be interested into purchasing these products; further generating a cycle of profit.
On the subject of language, I used three sell lines with an addition visual representation of one, a splash and banner/footer lines. The strap lines are purposely extremely inviting into the magazine which is what I aimed them to do "MORE INSIDE" as this is the aim of the cover page. One question the reader as if in a conversation "Do You", this makes the audience feel individualised and important; further creating a sense of trust in the relationship between the brand and target audience. The sell lines also used red font colour and the banner/footer lines; white and yellow (singling out key words to attract the audiences attention; a contrasting coloured (yellow against the white) "YOU") to distance the magazine from the viewed as 'boring' with black text, and create originality without jeopardising the magazine's reputation on formality; as it is a colour which maintains within the group of five colours in the colour scheme I have chosen to represent the formal approach of a magazine (red, yellow, white, black), yet still aiming for a young target audience (blue).
The splash uses font of a bubble like presentation as it would appeal to the target audience far greater than a uncreative black and white phrase. To further interest the audience I used a pun, as I felt this age group would appreciate a play on words as it would their brains would be flowing through a creative thought, something children seem to thrive off at this stage of their lives. The pun used was "BACK TO S'COOL"; playing on the word 'school' to create the word 'cool'; connecting the two and fuelling the relationship between the two that the magazine is portraying; that you can aspire into greatness with a good education and developing your talents. This idea of a pun was not initially thought of in my planning or earlier drafts, but I felt it was needed as I was developing the cover page as it embodies creativity, to the best of my ability. During my drafts, I spent time re-reading any texts as an essential key task in the progression, therefore, in my understanding there is no spelling or punctuation flaws on the cover page; any that have been found have been removed or changed to render them non-existent. As previously stated, three fonts have been used appropriately to their purpose, one on the splash to create a creative visual effect; a curvy, almost bubble text, one within the masthead, as previously fore mentioned to create the relation to the target audience, and one when using the sell lines and the banner and footer lines to create a more formal representation of the magazine, aided with the appeal of colour.
The layout of the front page has, I feel, a clear and well organised grid structure bad around the main image, yet highlighting the masthead, as intended. It uses the specific colour scheme previously said in my analysis and evaluation. This helps the magazine to connect its aspects (eg. banner line, sell line, splash, etc) to one another to present a certain uniformity and representation of a trustworthy product from its professionalism.
I feel that I have though out each detail of my cover, and referred it back to my aim and my target audience which is key to generate interest and make a magazine a success, a part of this is to ensure the focus is school based; this I have made clear through the connection between your life's achievements and education, boosted by using the model for the main page as a relation to the target audience as a school child in specific. This, I consider to be a successful aspect of my magazine.
Another positive would be that it shows diversity in comparison to other brands and signifying the importance in allowing children to find individuality, as society wouldn't progress if humanity were identical and generic in every aspect of their lives.
Thirdly, I would suggest that if made a reality, this brand could progress and cover a different target audience. Perhaps the fifteen to nineteen who are face with the life altering decision of a career path and qualifications, rather than seven to eleven range.
If I were to suggest three targets to improve, the first would be the aforementioned slightly smaller subsidiary images. Perhaps to display a slightly more filled grid structure, which would have been more available to do with a larger time schedule. Finally, for my target audience of my music magazine, I would pick a genre which allows me to keep a closer defined colour scheme, so as to present a profession presentation further; for example, rock or indie.
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