Planning my college magazine

Before designing my college magazine cover and contents page, I analysed many different current magazine covers, helping me to create further understanding of popular layouts used. The main magazine cover I looked at was one named 'soup' I concentrated on font types used, colours and the style of the magazine. I found that the magazines varied in style as a result of different content. The more academically based the magazine the more likely it was to be set out in a more upper class, mature style. Where as those that were more artistically based such as 'soup' were styled in a more creative and unconventional style. Furthermore to find out more about our target audience we created a questionnaire enabling us to find what our audience is interested in. Within the questionnaire questions such as ' What would you like to see in your college magazine?' By giving specific options such as 'University help, Gossip and Sport' We were able to find that the most popular subjects were Music Reviews, Help with University stats, College Sports and College Events. By using this I was able to create a magazine with content which my target audience were able to enjoy. This further helped me to create a style which matched the content of the magazine.
The idea for the title of my magazine being 'completely frank' came from the idea of being brutal when it came to scrutinising the universities as it gives the idea of being truthful and honest no matter how harsh it may come across. I thought that this would appeal to students as they are in the situation where they need to know what is the best decision for them to make. It also influences the views to be seen as respectable rather than informal and non serious. Which could further make students trust the magazine as it is more serious and has a mature attitude when it comes to help and support.
I found that by analysing the 'Soup' magazine cover I was able to conclude that attention is drawn to colours that contrast and stand out and also unusual styles. Such as the tin of soup on the front cover although it relates to the magazine title it also connotes many ideas about student life, such as what they eat and furthermore the average students financial situation. The cover also used a lot of bold styled writing, which is also eye catching, I decided you use a similar idea in my cover as I believe it draws attention to the cover over more plainly styled covers. I also used the idea of contrasting colours throughout my cover as I also thought it drew attention to the cover.
When I began to deign my own cover I started by stretching my main image to the size of the A4 sheet. Using the image as a background enabled me to decide which colours stood out more, and how I should layout my main headlines. It also enabled me to find out which layout drew more attention to the magazine and how I could emphasise the colours and titles of the magazine.