textual analysis of college magazine

                                        

                                            Textual analysis of college magazine

The denotation of this cover is a magazine for Beloit college distributing the portraits of the 2005 graduates. It also shows 4 happy graduates so far in the cover, one of them is draped in his bright colored clothing from his native Ghana rather wearing his original graduate’s gown. The connotation of the cover is to try and persuade readers who are looking to head to university, to come and join the college.

     Looking at the cover it seems like the target would be for young adults heading to adulthood as in the cover we can see these students who are young adults are graduating. The designer could have include the student wearing his native gown to welcome all ‘Ghanaians’ and other African countries not just American people

The use of Mise en scene was used in this magazine cover to give us an understanding of this magazine so that the reader could take action for example; non verbal communication, costumes lightning, rule of thirds etc

 

costumes

 The costumes of these graduates detonates ‘success’ because for them to wear the gown it shows they have been successful they have been successful. Likewise if we see a students wearing casual wear to their graduation we don’t know whether they have been successful or not so the use of costumes really helps me know about the college. Because these students are successful it shows that the college itself is a successful college. the student wearing his Ghanaian native costume shows that all what this cover is also trying to tell us is that anyone from any ethnic background is welcome to come as we can see a student graduating with his own Ghanaian tradition gown. It is a very idea that the designer chose to include this in the cover because it does not segregate people from different ethnic background

Anchorage  

The Masthead ‘Beloit College’ is written in a simple and sensible text and connotes writing from a old fashioned newspaper. The texts however look exciting but boring, this tells us that Beloit College is a very serious college and also is targeting serious students. The kicker at the bottom left explains to us what the cover is showing to us but the use of colour helps us to catch the text quickly as its very bright. This is a very god idea because if the text is In similar colours then it would be unreadable and will loose the information that they are trying to give.

Lightning

The lighting of this cover is of a high key lightning this is because its free from  dark shadows and very bright. this is very effective on the cover because it somehow gives a positive outcome of the cover at its trying to tell us ‘something positive is happening’ and this would get the reader to feel the same way about the college its like the cover is giving us a ‘taste’ of the Beloit’s college atmosphere which would then get the reader to want to be in that college. So the use of high key is very effective on the cover because its makes it very eye catchy.

Non verbal communication

The facial expressions of the students show happiness ,pride as they  all have a smile on their face. I can also realise the fact that this picture was not taken on purpose because the student at the middle does not look ready at all, his been caught of guard so this just shows that the photograph is natural the students were not forced to smile .This magazine does not copy other magazine by being ‘false’ but real. Also looking at the non verbal communication the designer is sort of in a way using the non verbal communication to communicate to the reader inviting them so to the college. it also proves to us that the college is good as they look very happy.

Rule of thirds

The use of depth of field was very effective in this cover this is because of the way the student are positioned. This is effective because of the fact that they are in a line but then we can see each and one of them in the cover making the cover much stronger. The designer could have done this too show how civilised the college is.

Depth of field

In this cover depth of field was used because we can clearly see the students but we can’t see the students in the background this is done so that the reader would not lose focus of the four main students. The background of this cover has been blurred for a purpose. It looks like the student at the back are not wearing their graduation gown which could be a reason for why they didn’t not include them as the main people in the cover, just because they don’t fit in well