Activity 1: Textual Analysis of Existed Magazine

My first activity is a Preliminary task, I have been asked to create a textual analysis of a college magazine. Personally, I think to analyze on a professional college magazine would help me create my own magazine as because I can identify what aspects I may want to consider to add to my own college magazine. Here is my chosen magazine: SIERRA

My first impression of this magazine is that it is quite unique in terms of the editing of the magazine as it is filled with colour, background designs and a unique layout. It is very ‘busy’ as there are quite a lot of colours, aspects and conventions around the front cover. People may not find this as attractive because there is too much to take in with the colours, as some audiences/readers may want something more plain and simple. However, this could be attractive to those who are young and generally speaking, girls.

As you can see the main image, it is a medium close up shot, which is usually used in every college magazine, even the professional college magazines.
 They use this shot because to shows the emotion on the model’s  face and shows some body language of the model, which I think this shot is very interesting as they concentrate on the model’s expressions to shows what they feels about the college. Looking closely at the model expression I can see that her eyes is rolled 45 degree angle to the left of the audience, this could connote she is thinking about her future, which these can relate to the theme of the ‘college’ magazine. Furthermore, the model is wearing glasses, this highlights (stereotypically) that she is a student. Also, glasses is symbolizes the intelligence of the model.

Moreover, I think the way the editor has edited the magazine front cover in a feminine style.
As you can see, there is a brush of a pencil underling the word ‘school’. By using pencil is signifies students. Also the pencil is underling ‘school’ this again emphasizes on what genre this magazine is (college magazine). Additionally, the colour scheme is bright, which will possibly be more feminine rather than masculine, where they will be more dark and dull.

The heading is big, bold and yellow; this makes it stand out from cloudy colour from the background. The font that the editor used for the headline is stylish and more vintage whereas the sub headings looks more modern, which makes the magazine look more interesting. This bright heading can invite the audience to recognize the brand of the magazine.

The cover-lines in this college magazine:
I can see that there is only one main cover-line with smaller cover-lines underneath.
By doing this, I think the editor is trying to draw the audience’s attention more to the image and decorations (edits) within the background of the magazine front cover. This highlights that the audience for this magazine is for art students.  Additionally, this college magazine is persuasive for example ‘camping for credit’ or 'paper or pixels?’ the word paper in this case, could represent books or work that students need to complete and pixels can represents computers, games etc.
By using rhetorical questions, the audience wants to continue reading the magazine.  

From looking closely, I can see that there is a price and date on the left corner of the magazine but no barcode beside. This challenges the conventions of magazines as because barcode can make sellers track and store information of goods as it is usually used throughout magazines.