6th Form Magazine Research (Deconstruction) - The Blackpool Sixth Form College

The Blackpool Sixth Form College's: 'Sixth Sense' Magazine

The masthead is in a simple, modern white font, it would appeal to the target audience of young adult students as it looks slim, sleek and futuristic. They have used the catchy title ‘Sixth Sense’, this is know as a the title of the well known horror film ‘The Sixth Sense'; horror films are popular with teenagers, therefore The Blackpool Sixth Form College must have knowingly used this to their advantage as well as the way that ‘Sixth’ as in 6th form can also come in to it. This creates a memorable and unique name, that is well suited for a sixth form student. They have placed the ’Sixth’ in the standard position of stretching the width across the top of the page, they have then gone on to position the word ’Sense’ sideways against the end of the Sixth to make it more interesting and unique to look at.

There is only one image featured on this front cover and it is a very basic one,  it doesn't give off straight away that it is in fact a sixth form magazine as doesn’t feature any pictures of students or any school/learning aspects. Instead the main background picture is clearly edited with a graffitied green leaf on a brick wall. It is very simple and in my opinion,  not very effective as it does not related to what the magazine is about. However, the fact that the leaf is being graffitied and the fact that it is featured on a urban wall does make the overall  appearance very on trend with the younger generation as it is something that teenagers could relate to and appreciate as a piece of art.

The text on the front cover follows through with the white, futuristic font, meaning that it is sticking with the modern theme, fitting in perfectly for a student. As the magazine front cover is very minimalistic and simple it does not include any text apart from the master head, the issue number, the date and a limited amount of information about the content of the magazine along the bottom, which again follows through with the theme and also features bullet points making it stand out more and easier to read. The fact that there is no information about each of the features running along the bottom, this does not mean that it suits it target market, as students are not really interested by writing and reading and are more interested in images and things that don’t take as long to look through. However, I do believe that more text would help make the front cover more appealing as the students would be preferring to know what they are going to be reading about before they open the magazine.  The lay-out of the text is very professionally done and the minimalistic effect makes it appear to be done to a very high standard, the text running along the bottom creates enough space between it and the master head, this adds to the professionalism of the magazine as it allows the reader to clearly focus on the image without an overflow of information. 

I would believe that the target audience for this magazine, by looking at the overall cover would be for a trendy student/teenager that is in to art and crafts as it does give off the effect of being in an urban art gallery with the font and the image.  Also, the minimalistic look would also make me assume this as it is not overloaded with information and focuses more on the image, which for an older generation would not be suited to, as  an older generation may appreciate more of a informative front cover. However, I wouldn’t really associate this front cover with being a school magazine as it features nothing to do with school-life, including pictures and information.