College Magazine analysis

College magazine analysis

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One of the first things you notice about this magazine is the brand of this magazine, in this case, ‘College’, it’s used in bold letters and if compared to other kinds of magazine the font is nearly always the same giving it an iconic image in your head that although they may do different colours you will always remember that it’s the same brand. This kind of style also helps attract brand loyalists already as the very title may be enough for them to want to buy it as they may buy this brand of magazine every time it comes out. The masthead and the coverlines are in the same colouring which is because it goes very well with the black background, therefore, giving it a more appealing look as well to it. There are various magazine coverlines which may interest the target audience (university student) like: ‘Make money on campus’ ‘College culture’ and ‘Why we love Blackberry’. The variation of topics these cover lines give us indicates the range of interests the magazine thinks that the students would like to know about in college, especially things like money as most students will not have enough money to make ends meet and other useful things they may need to know (E.G. technology, what to do around campus, etc.).

The colour usage of white, black and yellow gives this magazine a sophisticated yet formal look about it because white and black are colours associated with professionalism, formality and conflict, but the mix with yellow gives it a sophisticated and young look because yellow is associated with the sun, new life, young children and those who go college may still be seen as young in the population because they haven’t properly experience the ‘real world’. These colours may also indicate what type of audience they’re trying to aim at as a questionnaire was done and out of the three top colours young people like in a magazine, black and white was in the top three with black coming in joint third and white coming in at first position.  

The dateline is issued at the very top right hand corner and is shown in small like the rest of the words but is coloured yellow because it’s important the reader knows when it’s issued so they know if it’s an up to date magazine or not, otherwise they may not buy it. The barcode in this magazine is shown to be at the bottom left hand corner as it’s irrelevant to the reader but may also come in handy if they want to know the price as the price is typically shown to be close by the barcode. The barcode’s reason of being there is to help the target audience buy the magazine as quickly as possible as it merely scans the item onto the system and acknowledges that the audience has bought this specific item.

The selling line in this magazine is ‘Lifestyle’, this is a simple yet effective word because of the fact that connotations of the word lifestyle is how someone lives and combining that with the brand of this magazine, many things can be assumed about this magazine just from two simple words like for example what they’re going to be talking about. Things like fashion, making money, events and festivals, new technology, music, books, sports and all sorts of things come to mind and this magazine gives information about some of this. Furthermore, it also connotes healthy and unhealthy lifestyles and may possibly show what kinds of things people need to do to attain a healthy lifestyle.

The main image of this magazine is a man holding some law and society books which shows that he’s suppose to be a student at college (maybe it’s a university if this is an American magazine) and he seems to be wearing fashionable clothing and is looking quite intrepid or content.

The camera shot used in this magazine is a medium shot of the model to possibly help inspire us by promoting to tell us ‘I want to be like this person’ or trying to give  today’s youth some kind of strength or inspirations because the model is looking at the audience with a confident yet assured look possibly signifying that there is every possible chance of any student doing well and getting a job they want and getting good wages (Law – Lawyers earn lots of money), this magazine is trying to inspire readers to aim high.

The props used on the cover of the magazine includes some books, a cross necklace and a watch. The books shows that this person is a student of Law as well as showing that the model is highly educated as the requirements to get into the Law course are considerably high, the cross necklace could possibly show what religion he believes in (Christianity), it also connotes family religious background as his family may have had an influence on what he believes, it may also connote that he believed in Jesus and his teachings (E.G. ‘forgive those who trespass against us’). His watch may show his financial background, it may also show that he’s a well organised person and may connote that students should be on time and maybe shows that they hate people being late, the watch shows that the model may have a specific fashion sense and some students may like how he dresses and may appeal to them, the combination of what he’s wearing and the watch as well as the Law books adds to the look of a young smart person. His choice of clothing also gives him quite a dapper look which may engage the audience as the magazine may mention some tips or places to buy certain clothing to achieve a similar look to the model. The white shirt and black leather jacket gives off the classic professional look but in this case it also gives a young and modern look to it to make it more appealable to the audience as the audience age group is late teens to early twenties. Overall, his fashion sense is one which editors think may appeal to the target audience.

The background used in this cover is a black background and it goes very well with the colours of the text used which are white and yellow as they’re bright colours and is also eye catching which may cause the reader to be interested just through colour usage. The use of black in any background or writing usually goes well with a bright colour (E.G. yellow, red, white, etc) but it could also be thought of as a safe option as a lot of magazines use black but there are those magazines who generally use bright colours in their front magazine to get the audience’s attention as opposed to dark colours.

The lighting used is artificial lighting and it’s pointed towards the model to showcase the model’s attributes to get readers attention, the lighting may also add to the aspect of happiness of a college student as that is a theme this model seems to show in the front cover, it also shines other things that make up this student model including what they’re wearing and holding.. The fact that artificial lighting is used could imply that the magazine shows an array of different things that would not be found in a normal magazine as the background is black which indicates they may be doing comparing and contrasting subjects (E.G. universities, courses, etc.).

The positioning of the coverlines are shown to be at the sides because imagery data is more eye catching that written data which research seems to show, but by effectively using colours they make the coverlines eye catching, attractive and as appealing as possible to more audiences than the one they’re targeting but the attractiveness is toned down as the main image is what the editors want them to see first as it’s the biggest object seen in the cover. Coverlines also serve to notify and make the reader want to know more about the topic so the editors must make these coverlines short but interesting in order to get people’s interest and an example from this cover is ‘Make money on Campus’ it is put in big and bold yellow words as editors are confident many students would be interested in how to do this.

The positioning of the masthead is placed in a cliché position so that the audience can find out what the name of the magazine is but the peculiar thing about it is that the model’s head is blocking some of the letter which may show the model is in a position of power and authority as much as the name of any magazine when shown on a cover holds, it could also mean that by having the head cover some of the words it may be more important in terms of catching the target audiences eyes .

There is also a pink splash on the magazine which is intended to again, appeal to the audience as it breaks from the colour code of black, white and yellow because it’s a pink splash showing that there could be some interesting news for the audience; A connotation of pink is that people may connect pink to fashion or gossip as seen when pink is used in gossip magazines and they’re general target audiences are female, so pink may be used to gain the attention of females and so when a female sees that pink splat combined with the brand ‘College’ they may come to think that the magazine may talk about fashion and good deals for cheap prices.

Reader's response:
The reader felt as if there were too many coverlines of this front cover which made the reader feel as if too much information was being compressed into the front cover and thought that led to it being slightly ineffective. The reader liked the colour scheme as it worked well with the background and could clearly identify the main coverline through its boldness as well as the text size. The reader could also identify through the props that were being used that this magazine's target audience are  students as the model is holding study books as well as the fact that the brand is called 'College' is another indicator.