preliminary task.

We have been asked to create our own student magazine cover and contents page using DTP and an image manipulation programme. the cover needs to include a medium, close up photograph of a student and plus some articles advertised surrounding the picture and a masthead. We must also do a mock layout of a contents page to demonstrate our grasp of the programme. To help us with the task, we were told to look at some examples of previous student magazines to give us a better idea of how to create our own. As a class, we analysed Squash magazine which was easily recognisable as a front cover due to the key conventions used, such as a masthead and a medium, close-up image of the student. We came to the conclusion that the target audience were unisex students aged 16-19. They would be C1/C2 on the jicnar scale and their psychographic profile would be Aspirers or Radicals. The magazines front cover targets this audience in many ways. The cover picture of the student features the library in the background, which shows the academic side of college. However, the student in the picture is pulling a facial expression which portrays a more laid-back approach to college life. The name of the magazine, Squash, has a fun element to it instead of something, for example, 'Books Weekly'. The main colour of the front cover is light blue which has a calming effect on the reader, whereas a harsh colour, such as orange, would be overwhelming. It also has a mature effect. Finally, there is not much writing featured on the cover, as this would not be appealing to the target audience, and would be thought of as too much of an effort to read.