Final analysis.

I will now analyse the magazine cover of People to see if the conventions are similar to those of the other two covers. People is not a college magazine. It features news and stories only on celebrities.

Firstly, like the other two magazines, the masthead is positioned at the top of the page in a large bold font, outlined in blue to make it stand out. The headline "I'm gay" is also written in large text, in capitals and coloured yellow. This causes it to appear to be very eye catching, as the yellow is the brightest thing on the page, and attracts the audiences attention. There is a short summary of the story underneath this headline, which intrigues the reader.

There are many plugs on the cover, in the sidebar on the right and another on the left. The text for these are bold and in capitals to be easily read and noticed by the audience. They feature small pictures and pull quotes from the stories inside. The word 'exclusive' instantly attracts attention as it is used as a buzz word, grasping the reader and making them want to find out exactly what this exclusive news is.

The main feature of this splash is the image, like on both of the other magazine covers. The man featured is smiling and looking directly at the audience, inviting them into his story and his world.

In conclusion, I have found that this cover shares the common conventions of the two college magazines, especially the cover of Secondary Teachers as both use plugs to attract an audience.

Conventions.

By looking at Bounce and the Secondary Teachers magazines, I can now identify the conventions of magazine covers. Firstly, they must have a large masthead that stands out in bright block lettering. The masthead is one of the most important features of the cover, as the audience have to be able to recognise the title. The image is also very important, as it is the central feature of both of the magazines I've looked at. It engages the readers interest and immediately attracts attention. Another convention are the plugs, however these were very different when comparing these covers. The plugs on Secondary Teachers are bright, eye catching and easy to read, where as on Bounce, the text is small and plain white. It is due to the plugs that Secondary Teachers looks so interesting and colourful, so I will use plugs like this in my design. These plugs also intrigue the audience to buy and read the magazine by using questions, another thing that Bounce doesn't do. However, Bounce does have an appealing cover, although I think it is relying on the image to ensure magazine sales. This works though, as the target audience of college students would be more interested in the image, looking at the people featured in the picture and the style of clothes they're wearing. So this cover didn't particularly need large, bright plugs to attract an audience.

Analysing another cover.

I am now going to look at another magazine, but this time one that is aimed at college students rather than teachers. I have taken the cover of Bounce, a magazine focusing on college culture.

Like the Secondary Teachers magazine, the main focus of this cover is the image. We see two young people, both looking directly at the audience, engaging their attention, also like the previous cover. This makes us feel more involved with the people in the image. The girl and boy look as if they are walking, possibly to college. However, neither of them are smiling. They both look quite serious, but this could tie in with the word "Chillax!" telling students to relax more instead of worrying about college related things.

The text "Chillax!", which I assume is a made up word combined of "chill" and "relax", is written in a light blue font that almost matches that of the girls top. The font looks as though it has been spray painted across the image. The fact that it is blue matches the theme of "chilling" as this colour connotes relaxation. The font of the masthead is different from this text. It is written in green and each letter is capital. The font used is thick and bold which makes it stand out, like a masthead should. "Culture on the rise", the strapline of the magazine, is positioned just above the masthead in the top right corner, using the same font style. There are also some smaller words just below the masthead that share the same font. They look like they have been written in this way to make it look like the word "Bounce" is bouncing.

The bar code and plugs are positioned at the bottom of the cover. The text is white and the font is quite small, which is different to the Secondary Teachers magazine, as it's plugs are brightly coloured and spread out across the page. The plugs here don't really capture the attention of the audience very well, but are essential as they tell us what we will find inside of the magazine.

Analysing a magazine cover.

I am now going to analyse this Secondary Teachers magazine cover. By looking at the conventions of already existing magazines, I should be able to get some ideas for my college magazine.

The purpose of this magazine is to inform and give new teaching ideas to secondary school teachers.

This cover has quite a simple layout. The text and images stand out easily on the plain white background. The colour of the block lettering of the headline is light blue which is a neutral colour to appeal to both male and female teachers. The font is easy to read and this font is continuously used across the whole of the cover, for every piece of text. The headline is the largest piece of text on the page, which is a common convention of magazines and newspapers, as the headline is an important part of the cover.

The main focus of this cover is the image, positioned in the center of the cover showing a teenage boy participating in a lesson. He looks straight at the reader, engaging their attention. The boy is smiling, which shows that he is having fun learning.

Plugs are positioned along the top of the magazine cover and in the bottom right corner, giving the reader snippets of information that would be found inside the magazine. Each plug is presented in a different colour, which makes the cover look more appealing.

Leaving unanswered questions, such as "Do boys and girls learn differently?", entices the audience to read the magazine to find the answer to a question that they may be interested in.