Lesson 03.

Today's lesson was split into two parts, the first involved a basic tutorial around the photo editing software photoshop, this was crucial due to the fact we will have to use photoshop for both our preliminary task and our main task.

The photoshop tutorial was really helpful, as Mark not only showed the class the technical aspects and how to work photoshop (such as saving layers, and using effects and enhacments) he also told us some of the do's and dont's when it comes to images, such as the golden rule of thinking about what effect we were aiming to achieve with out photos, the example he used was if when making our school magazine it would not give a good impression to outside readers if the student in the medium closeup had a scruffy tie, this example showed us that our inital photo is very important, if we take a bad photo, all the editing in the world won't change the fact it is a bad photo.

In the second half of the lesson we recieved the front covers of two university magazines, one was the QUAD, this was for post graduate students from Queen mary's university of London, the other was called Newsmans, and was created for under graduates studying at the university of Birmingham. The target audience hugely differed, as the post graduates would be more mature, and this showed in the fonts, pictures and the layouts of each magazine. The QUAD had more of a blocky and sensible font, this shows that an older and more sensible audience has been targeted, the pictures show older people, at work, all the pictures show people in smart dress, as if they hold high positions. This would be relevant to post graduates, as those recieveing the magazine would either be in those positions, or would be aspiring to be in this postision. Also featured was a picture of a class of graduated students, with full robes on, this will bring back memories for the post graduates, and will instantly draw them to read the magazine, post graduates would want to read articles about recently graduated students, as they can relate from their experiences at university.
It is clear Newsmans was aimed at younger audience, as there is a less formal font, it seems to be comic sans. The pictures also show younger people. One of the images that is taking up majority of space is of money going in to a piggy bank, this rather surreal image holds a lot of importance as typically undergraduates are cash strapped and the image generally brings forth thoughts of saving, this is a big hint to under graduates, as generally they lack the ability to save money. The contents is clearly appealing to undergraduates, as it features 'coping with university finances.' The colour of light blue for the writing is also less formal than the black and white theme used for the QUAD.