Evaluation

GENRE
The Genre of my magazine is high end fashion, during my research I looked at a range of fashion magazines including cheap monthly and high end monthly.
It is very conventional for a fashion magazine to have a cover girl who is well known by the target audience. This can be a model, actress, singer etc. This follows part of Janice Winships theory of all cover models are young and well presented.
On front covers it is more conventional for the main image to be a medium/close up shot of the females face, hair and upper body; however this does not restrict the use of a full body long shot. These are sometimes used in the monthly fashion magazines where the issue is largely based on just fashion; these are mostly around fashion week. These images are used to show off the full extent of the clothes the cover girl is wearing.
The medium shots that are most commonly used show off the cover girls beauty and face as that is the main focus of the image. It is conventional for them to use direct mode of address to engage the audience and draw them in. Their makeup and hair is perfectly done so that they look at their best. Depending on what magazine it is the title can be either behind or in front of the main image, it is more common for magazines that are better known for the image to be in front of the text because it can be recognizable with some of the lettering missing.

TARGET AUDIENCE
For my magazine the target audience is female aged 20-35 although there is a preferred audience demographic, this is female aged 22, Caucasian, British, preferably of a good income and a good education. They would be stylish and follow all the trends set by Runway, they would know all of the “it girls” and celebrities in my magazine so that they recognize the cover girl. I have used direct mode of address so that the magazine directly attracts that audience. I have also used clothes that are en-trend and desirable and a model that is young and follows all the conventions of Janice Winship’s theory.
I researched the target audiences of the main high end fashion magazines and found that their target audiences were females in the late twenties to early thirties age bracket. Although this is conventional to have an older target audience than the actual audience/readership I have chosen to have a younger audience because of the model I have chosen and the colors I use.

INDUSTRY
The total Circulation of woman's lifestyle/fashion magazines in the second half of 2011 was 6,863,314. Conde Nast productions produce: Vogue: C; 210,866, Glamour: C; 466,327 and Vanity Fair: C; 102,585. Hearst Magazines U.K produce: Elle: C; 195,020, Company: C; 188,278, Harpers Bazar: C; 120,007 and Cosmopolitan: C; 377,580.
The List above shows that Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Vogue were the bestselling woman's magazines. Glamour is a monthly fashion/lifestyle magazine that is the bestselling print title; this may be because it has a target audience with a very wide age range from 18-49. Glamour is one of the cheapest monthly magazines as it is normally £2, I decided to make my magazine more expensive at £4.20 because I wanted it to be more of a luxury and more like the high end magazines like Vogue and Harpers Bazar. Cosmopolitan is also a monthly magazine and is very similar to Glamour. Vogue is different to Glamour and Cosmo because it focuses on the high end fashion rather that high street. Its edits and fashion shoots offer the target audience more of an inspirational takes on fashion and trends because of the use of designer and couture clothes as opposed to the high street clothes used in the other magazines.
Although the Genre is fashion it is not restricted to only fashion articles and edits. From my research I discovered that the front cover and contents page should include tag lines and sections on other areas within the T.A’s enjoyment and interest. This includes Beauty, relationships, body image and personal profiles etc., this magazine convention allowed me to think of different ideas for pages in the magazine.
For example, I discovered that on most high end monthly magazines there is a sell line for each different topic within the magazine. Personal profile, fashion, relationships, body Image and lifestyle.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES.
I think one of the main weaknesses of my magazine is the fact that I have used the same model throughout. Given that I don't have access to a famous actress, model or celeb I can't have one in my magazine but I feel my cover Image is strong because it uses direct mode of address, can be applied to Janice Winship's model theory and is a beautiful picture of the model, Sophie. However I do think that another weakness is the background in the cover image, I don't think it’s colorful enough and coherent with the other two pages.
I think one my magazines strengths is that is uses the same colorful theme throughout. I have used pastel colors which are light, summery and chic, they also make the text and images stand out. The colors also connote purity and have a heavenly feel.
I also think I have shown a range of shots in my magazine by using close up, medium and long to make it more interesting. This was done so that the reader/T.A could see different clothes and the clothes in different positions,

TECHNICAL SKILLS.
To create my magazine I used Photoshop and I used my own original images. Throughout my magazine I used many different fonts, e.g. on the cover and contents page, this is conventional of other magazines and keeps the text interesting and distinctive from other copy.
As I used a good camera and flash I didn't have to do much editing to the pictures themselves, I just cropped and positioned them but in some I had to use the clone stamp and magic eraser to cover up lines and creases in the sheet I used for a back drop.

SPECIFIC SHOTS AND PARTS OF MY PRODUCTION
In my contents page I used a long shot of my model sat on a bike, it is set in an outdoor garden and I used a flash to create a lighter picture to give a sunny effect. I added this shot in to create a bit more diversity of shots as most are in a studio. I feel it works well as a small thumbnail on the contents page to keep it busy and to integrate the pictures and text more.
For my double page spread I used an article I wrote based on how fashion has become a re-invention of old ideas. I feel this works well because it shows my writing ability as well as using subject specific lexis to relate to and interest my target audience. I used a range of different angles and shots on that page to create movement and diversity. I followed codes and conventions by breaking up the copy with inserts from the text, I also used text that described the looks shown and I used columns for my copy. These things were done so that the reader could gain some understanding about the article without having to read the whole thing, so that they could find out where the clothes are from and gain inspiration and so that it easier to read.
INTER-TEXTS
On my cover I placed my image in front of my title; this is most conventional for well-known magazines as the whole text doesn't have to be seen for it to be recognized. For example this can be seen in the February issue of 2012 Vogue and Elle.
I also used a white diagonal banner across my title to follow convention and create another selling point for the target audience.
My contents page follows that same sort of layout as vogue, this consists of a main picture (usually taken from one of the photo shoots), a smaller copy of the cover image and the contents text. I decided to add a few more images to show a rage of shots and make it more appealing to the reader so that they would want to read on.