Preliminary Task - Newsletter Mock ups

This is a Mock up of the school newsletter I shall create for my preliminary task (which has been produced using Microsoft Publisher). I have tried to produce a newsletter that is more resemblent of a magazine to create the formality that I want, to successfully target parents.

The top of the page shall include a tagline/ motto of 'Care, Courtesy and Common Sense' as this is a well known and respected motto of Deyes High School, but also aligns with the ideology of my newsletter. The main feature of the front page shall be a large, central image that depicts a 6th Form student conducting a science experiment as this portrays a maturity and professionalism, which I require to successfuly target the parents of the students that attend Deyes High. The masthead of my newsletter will be 'Deyes News' as this is simple and straight to the point, but is also quite mature. I considered manipulating 'Deyes' to create a pun, such as 'ToDeyes News' or 'Information for Deyes' but i do not think this gives the correct impression to target parents. Cover lines shall also be included to give the reader some idea of what topics shall be discussed inside. At the bottom of the cover, details such as the issue number, date and contact details will be included as this is a recurring and very important feature of a newsletter/magazine. Finally, the colour scheme of the front cover shall consist of variations of white, blue and red as this is the colour scheme of Deyes High, however I shall ensure not to use the primary versions of these colours as they are garish and unprofessional.    

Ideology - Preliminary Task

Ideology is a philosophy and set of beliefs about an idea or behind a media text. When creating my school newsletter I will have to consider the ideology that it to display through the images, text, fonts and colours etc that are included to ensure that I successfully reach my target audience and display the correct messages.

One of the first ideologies for my newsletter is that 'Deyes high cares for it's students and their right to feel safe within their learning environment'. To display this in my newsletter, i have decided that i shall use images such as a student happily talking to a member of staff, or a student is content in studying within school. I could also display this ideology through a quote from either a student or the head teacher of Deyes in relation to the importance the students, their studies and their safety. 

Another ideology that i shall include in my newsletter is that 'Deyes High takes pride in the subjects that are taught and the quality of teaching that is recieved'. For this ideology, I could include an image of a science experiment (as Deyes High is a specialist science college) or one of a teacher giving a thorough presentation to their class. In relation to the text, i may include a quote of results from some of the sciences, or a quote from a student portraying how they have benefited from the high standard of teaching. 

In addition, I shall portray that 'Acedemic Acheivement  is important to both students and staff at Deyes'. To include this in my newsletter, I may use a picture of students with their successful exam results and/ or a peice of text that talks about the success of both past and current students of Deyes. This could include results from past years.

Another ideology is that 'Deyes High promotes a healthy and active lifestyle'. The images i may include to portray this shall be of the extra-curriculum activities available at Deyes, or even of the canteen shown to be clean and hygenic to tie in with 'health eating'. Text could be included about the acheivemnets of the clubs that students attend.

Finally, my last ideology is 'Deyes High is a modern school, which utilises the latest technology to enhance learning'. I will show this through a picture of the recently built 'Deyes' building, the newly obtained iPads or an image of the iMacs that are used by students for subjects such as media.

    

Preliminary Task: First Thoughts

For my preliminary task i am required to create a school newsletter. I have previously analysed the Deyes High school newletter in terms of colours, images, layout and font etc and deducted that it's main target audience is the parents of the sudents. However, i believe it was ineffective in efficiently targeting them, and so when i create my newsletter, this must be addressed to ensure a good newsletter is produced.

With my school newsletter I shall target the student's parents as due to past experience i have learn't that although some students may briefly read the newsletter, it is prodominently the parents that take any major interest, as the students already know what is occuring in the school. With the parents as my target audience, i will have to make sure that my newsletter gives a mature impression, and so will cater the colours, pictures and overall layout to the more mature audience.

In relation to the colour scheme, I will have to select colours that are suitable for a Deyes High newsletter but ones that still give a mature impression. The colours in the pre-existing newsletter were the colours of the school badge, which was appropriate but i found the colours used to be too bright. Therefore the colour scheme for my newsletter shall use darker versions of those in the school newsletter to give a more mature impression, helping me to effectively target parents.

The fonts that are used within my newsletter will have to be chosen carefully. I will not choose fonts such as Comic Sans as fonts such as this very informal which is unsuitable for my newsletter. Instead, i'll will use formal paragraphing with a font such as Times New Roman to appeal to my target audience, however i will not make my paragraphs too large as this will discourage a lot of people from reading the contents.

In addition, the pictures that i use in my newsletter will be more professional than those in the existing Deyes High newsletter. The existing newsletter used a mixture of professional photographs and clip art images, these images gave a 'childish' impression when reading the newsletter, therefore i aim to include generally professional photographs, such as the ones in the 'drama' section of the Deyes High newsletter, as these worked well in creating a more formal presentation.

Analysis of Deyes High School Newsletter

Deyes High Newsletter Analysis

As a preliminary task I shall be creating a school/college newsletter. To do this, research and analysis of the existing newsletter is required. On a whole, the first impressions of the 'Deyes High Newsletter' are quite poor.

It seems to be quite basic, and opts to use colour schemes that can be unappealing to the eye.  The banners at the top and bottom of the first page consist of colours that are bold, bright and simply do not suite each other. For example, the footer of the page has a bright red background and contains white writing. This comes across quite garish. Furthermore, the spacing of the pictures and text used in some areas of the newsletter often comes across quite unproffessional and amateurish as they often overlap one another, or consist of uneven gaps. The amount of text, in some intances, is overbearing and will put students off from reading it. Although the main target audience is the parents, the students still need to be considered when producing the newsletter as they are the ones who read it first. Also, the images themselves give quite a childish impression, such as the Mickey Mouse picture shown below.

On a positive note, the parents of the students are targeted as equally as well as the students themselves. Part way through the magazine, there are professional photographs, clear cut and 'mature' paragraphing representing drama at Deyes High. I believe that this is a particularly effective section, and targets both students and parents well, as intended. Also, the sections that are labelled 'numeracy top tips' and 'puzzle time' are evidently targeted at the students, and i believe that these are effective in doing so (excluding the clip rt picture previously mentioned).

My choice of music genre

I have chosen to base my music magazine on the genres of metal. Therefore, i shall create my magazine using codes and conventions found in magazines such as Kerrang! and MetalHammer to ensure i attract my target audience. Also, my personal experience in relation to metal genres shall help me to produce an overall high quality end product.

Mock ups and Conventions of Magazines

Editing (Photoshop)

In preparation for editing my own photographs when making my magazine, we were taught how to use some of the tools and features that photoshop has to offer. The photographs below consist of cropping, changes to contrast/brightness, and examples of the spot heal and clone stamp tools.

Original:

Cropped:

Original:

Increased Brightness:

Original:

Spot Healing Tool:

Original:

Colour Isolation:

Original:

Clone Stamp:

 

Using photoshop was a totally new experienced as I had never used prior to lesson. Most of the actions above were relatively easy to complete, but although the clone stamp tool is not necessarily difficult to use, it can take time to create an effective, realistic look (depending on the image of course).

I will most definitely use all of the features shown above when it comes to creating my music magazine, especially crop, colour isolation and clone stamp. I believe combining these three tools can create a very effective image that will make my magazine better and help me to efficiently reach my target audience.

Key Terminology

Buzz Words: 'exclusive' 'wow' 'free' 'new' etc.
House Style: The unique and recurring design of a magazine that distinguishes it from others.
Puffs: A box designed to attract the attention of the reader, promoting features of the magazine.
Strap Line: A slogan or sentence that may reoccur.
Banner: Text upon a coloured background to stand out as much as possible.
Anchorage Text: The way text helps to define a picture or vice versa.
Copy: The main story/article of the magazine.
Pugs: Normally positioned in a top corner, the price, logo or an advertisement is placed here, known as the 'ears' of the page.
Motto: A memorable phrase that is recognisable to a brand.
Headline: Distinctive title for the main article of the magazine.
Sell Line: Text that is on the front cover to help sell the magazine to the reader.
Caption: Description of the main image.
Masthead: Name of the magazine.
Lead: The introductory paragraph to an article, usually written in bold or capitals etc.
Drop Capitals: The extra large letter that starts an article.
Bleed: The extension of an illustration past the type area to the edge of the page.
Folio: The page number, date, name etc given to the periodical of each page or spread.
Break of the Book: The allocation of space for articles, features and all material printed in the book.

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs. A sign is something that stands for something other than itself.

The two main theorists behind semiotics were: Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and Charles Sander Pierce (1839-1914).

Sausure's dyadic semiotic system deducts that signs are solely psychological and that they only make sense within a formal abstract system. He also concluded that a sign is made up of a signifier The form of which the sign takes) that signifies the signified (the concept represented).

Pierce's tryadic semiotic system states that a sign is one of three things; an index, an icon or a symbol. An index does not have an arbitrary signifier, but is connected to the signified (ie the smell of smoke represents fire, yet does not necessarily indicate a fire). Icons have a signifier that resembles the signified (ie a drawing of a tree depicts a tree, but it not actually a tree). A symbol is when the signifier is conventional (ie letters and numbers).

I will have to consider semiotics thoroughly when making my magazine, as I have to ensure it targets the correct audience and gives the image and impression that I desire. The colours of fonts, images, backgrounds, the images i use and the contents of the images all have to considered through the eyes of the consumer. If the wrong sort or combination is used, then my magazine will not reach the required result. I will most probably be making a Metal/Heavy Metal magazine, ergo i would include things like a dark colour scheme etc.

Music Magazine Research

There are a multitude of different music genres out there today, with some being more popular than others and many having several music magazines to promote and provide information,news, tour dates etc specific to that genre. 

This is an example of a Kerrang! front cover, this magazine caters for those who listen to metal/heavy metal, which is my personal favourite. Kerrang!, to tie in to the heavier music genre, uses darker colours, often featuring a central image that partly covers the masthead (such as Rammstein in the issue above), supported by smaller images portraying some of the other bands featured in the magazine.

Above are examples of the magazine Rolling Stone. This magazine doesn't really dedicate itself to one genre of music, and sometime no music whatsoever. As you can see above, the first example features Grunge legends Nirvana, whereas the second features The President of the United States, Barack Obama. In relation to the music based issues of Rolling Stones, they tend to have a huge spectrum of genres, from metal artist Marilyn Manson to more pop artist Katy Perry.

This is an example of the music magazine NME. this magazine tends to focus on 'Indie' genre. The issue above features 'Florence and the machine' and depicts a typical cover of NME, with one central image surronded by text, with possibly one smaller image.

Above is an example of vibe, whose genre is quite evidently Rap/RnB. This issue above features Eminem, a prominent rapper, and is also an example of a typical cover of Vibe, featuring a mid shot of the artist, with text filling the space surrounding the image.