SurveyMonkey Analysis

From the results of my survey, I found out that layout number 1 and 3 were the favourites however there was an equal amount of votes for each it, it was 50/50. So I have decided that from these results that I will try to combine the two layouts to make them appeal to everyone. I also found out that the vast majority of the people that took the survey preferred the masthead 'Plantsbrook News' with only 1 out of 8 voting for 'Plantsbrook School'. I had always preferred the first masthead as it is self explanatory for the front of the magazine but I gave the option to see if the public wanted 'Plantsbrook School' to recognise the school name.

I then went to find out that the colour scheme used in my previous magazine drafts were appropriate and appealing to the public, therefore I will keep the colour scheme of white, black and red; but I will add more black to the front cover as in question 9, 6 out of 7 people voted to have the colour scheme black, white and red instead of just black and white.

All of the 8 people that filled in my survey said that the writing over the front cover is big enough and clear enough to read without difficulty, this then tells me that I can keep the font size and style the same as on the draft which is good because I think that it looks effective and suits the style of the magazine well; also I think that this style of writing is appealing to students and adults which is my chosen audience.

I was quite shocked with the results of question 6 because I thought that the most appealing coverline would of been the new build or results, because for me I reckon these would be the most appealing as they are the most important as these affect the learning of the students/their children, however they chose uniform to be the more interesting coverline so I will make this the main coverline meaning that the main image will hopefully be of a student in uniform to link to the main coverline. Following this the next most interesting was seen to be GCSE and A-Level results with 2 votes, then the new build with 1 result meaning that these will still be included but not as big as the article about uniform would be.

4 of the 8 people who answered this questionnaire suggested that the main image should be on the left hand side leaving the writing and coverlines being on the right hand side around the image or above just below the masthead and slogan. The rest of the votes were split 2 and 2 between the main image being in the middle of the front cover or being to the right of it, leaving the text and masthead to go in the space around this. However I will be putting my image to the bottom left of the page but still having the background behind all of the other text.

For question 8 and 9, I asked the readers about having a competition or an incentive included within the magazine, as if they wanted these to be included then they would have to be featured on the front page so everyone is aware they're getting what they pay for. 7 out of 8 people  told me that they wanted a school linked incentive which has made me decide that I will definitely be including one of these to attract the readers and to make this magazine stand out and give them what they want. Not only this but 37.5% of the public said they don't mind if there's a competition included, I think this is because if they bought this magazine they wouldn't take part and it would be a waste of my time, although 62.5% of the public said they would want me to put a competition in the magazine as they would complete it and return it to be in with a chance of them winning.

To summarise my findings, I will take on board everything that the public has put about my work in my survey. I have found that making a survey has made my work a lot easier to produce because I have had the opinion off the people who will actually be reading my magazine so I now know that I will be giving the readers what they want and making them happy!  

SurveyMonkey questionnaire

Below is the link to my survey which will help me decide on my final plan of my magazine front cover.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X5NLC8F

Magazine front covers

When designing multiple magazine front covers, I decided to stick to a common feature layout, of the masthead at the top of the magazine page which stands out much more than having a masthead between all of the bits of text or images, because logically people read from left to right, top to bottom of the page. 

I wanted to keep the medium close up of the girl so the reader can focus on the expression of the student which is portrayed as happy suggesting that Plantsbrook is a happy school, not only that, you can see the smart uniform which also links to the main puff text about uniform.

I also made sure that the logo and motto was on the magazine as these are an important aspect of the school which would instantly make the magazine recognizable and link it back to Plantsbrook school.

Magazine layouts

I have designed 5 different layouts for my magazine front cover, I tried to make them as different and creative as I could so it would give me a variety of different layouts to chose from when it comes to picking one. However, all of the different layouts all consist of the same aspects just laid out differently.

First draft of my magazine cover

I created a draft front cover for my magazine to give me idea's for different layouts which will then give me a choice of different covers to make and to see which one looks effective and the best.
I chose to use the theme colour red because this suits the theme for the school and links the magazine to the school. This could also be linked to the house style of the magazine for for if I was to get further into producing more of the magazine. The reason I used bold writing as the anchorage text was so that it stands out and straight away the readers notice the main topics that will be covered throughout the magazine.
I decided to use a medium close up shot because this way you can see how smart the student looks in their uniform with their tie and shirt tucked in, and then you can also see their facial expression which will represent their time at the school and what they think about it.
I wanted to include the school motto 'Be the best you can be' because this represents the school and their aspirations to be the best they can possibly be. 
 Finally, I put in a competition and incentive to interest the reader to buy and to take the magazine to read it and find out all about the school. Not only this, these aspects will appeal to adults and children/students which tries to involve a large target audience, instead of just focusing on one.

Reflection of portrait photography

During the photography lesson, we went around the school to take different shots in different places of each other and objects that have a variety of different angle shots and shot types. As we are preparing to make a magazine front cover, the pictures we took are practice for that, this is why we took a range of images with medium close up shot which are usually used on the front of magazine covers.

In this lesson, I found out how to take pictures with different effect such as shallow and soft focus which I didn't know before this lesson; also in our group we all took different images with all of the different effects which I have never done before, so now I know how to use a camera ready for the next photography lesson.

We tried to include different types of lighting by taking different photos inside and outside so we had natural lighting from being outside and lighting coming from the lights inside and the flash on the camera which helped me to clearly see what effect the lighting inside a building has on the quality of the photo, which in this case made the photo more of a hard lighting as it was more dark in some places without the flash.

Portrait photography

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School photography

Throughout the lesson, we went around the school with camera's in little groups and tried using different shot types/angles to make each subject look effective, also to show that we understand how to create these different shots with the camera.
We used a variety of different shots and angles including long shots, close ups, point of view etc...

Created with flickr slideshow.