Signs and signifiers

I completed this table on my first week of the media course which showed my ideas about what meaning each colour had.

Analysis of Contents Page One

Marie Claire Magazine

In class I analysed a contents page to help me identify special features of a contents page to help me create one for my coursework.

I discovered that for this magazine the target audience is females for teenagers and young women. The colours used on the page are: summery/bright colours. These colours would be used because it's a girly, fashion magazine.

This has helped me understand what kind of things I will put on my magazine and what colours I would use for my target audience.

From analysing the magazine I have got quite a lot of ideas for my coursework.

24.09.2012 Lesson

In lesson we were discussing what the conventions of a contents page were and also what we would find in a school magazine. As my coursework for Media is complete a front page, contents page and a main page of a school magazine, the work I did in class helped me understand the sorts of things I will put on my magazine.

The following picture shows the work I did in class to help me work towards creating my own school magazine.

My School Magazine Plan for homework

Mood board for coursework magazine

In lesson today I created a mood board to talk about what my magazine will feature and why.

Heat Magazine

Today I picked up a heat magazine to help me produce my own magazine front cover and two page spread for my Media Coursework.

I noticed about this front cover that is is very similar to the magazine I read yesterday (e.g. similar colours, layout of images, symbols, font size etc). I also noticed that the biggest image on the magazine (Kim Kardashian) was made like this because most people (target audience) would be drawn to this image and would therefore want to purchase the magazine.

Lots of bright colours, bold font, captions and images are placed on the front cover to attract attention which has given me plenty of ideas to help me produce my magazine for my Media Coursework.

Decoding a magazine front cover

Today I studied and learnt the Mcmahon and Quinn technique of decoding a magazine front page.

-Symbols
-Headings
-Image layout

This is an easier way to understand the 'hidden meanings' behind why images are put where or why a certain font or colour is used. I analysed the front cover to figure out why certain images or text will catch the audiences' attention.

I also learnt that the most important things that will appeal to the audience (e.g. price) is put in a large, bright coloured font to make the audience want to read the magazine even more.

The magazine is also targeted at teenage girls and young women who are interested in taking a sneak peak into the celebrity life. You can clearly recognise that the magazine is targeted at females because of the colours (pink, yellow and some blue) pink and yellow being their main colours because they are bright, therefore this catches the target audiences' attention.

Image from: http://www.new-magazine.co.uk/magazines