Final Front cover;

Front Cover;

1st draft of front cover;

DIgital layout Ideas

Paper layout Idea;

I thought I would use the 3rd layout idea as it was most original and was a special Christmas edition issue of the magazine.

Background and Font first ideas;

I chose these colours originally because they are often related to the genre of my magazine.

Genre and Analysis;

For my magazine I have chosen the genre of: Rock/ Metal.

I have analysed a few existing magazines that fit this genre and I have learnt what key features they include to appeal in the most effective way to their target audiences;

-Bands of similar genres
-Dominantly dark colour schemes(matches the genre)
-Don't discriminate against sexes but do tend to lean more towards male audiences
-Include wide varieties of information (bands, gigs, reviews)

Brief;

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.


Language- What language is suitable for my audience
                  - How advanced the product will be (Level of vocabulary)
                  - Language that will appeal to the audience(not to formal but formal where appropriate)


Institution- Representing the magazine positively.
                - Write to attract new people to the bands not to discourage them.


Ideology- Represent the magazines ideology on every page
               - Represent a vast range of fans Ideology (and my own) in sync with the magazines
              

Audience- The age range of the target audience
                 - What gender
                 - Whether I am aiming it to only fans or bands.


Representation- How I present the institution
                           - How I keep the magazine unbiased towards stereotypes(Sexuality, Ethnicity, Gender, etc.)
                          

Main Task;

Evaluation;

For this task I followed a brief to create a front cover and contents page for a new college magazine of my choice. I analysed the brief and broke it down into key points to follow in order to get the greatest effect from my final product.

I analysed previous students work(on their blogs) and pre-existing college magazines in order to gain perspective on what conventions needed to be present for a college magazine, I then put these conventions to use in my draft designing. I worked out a design that, in my opinion, would have most success as a magazine able for actual production.

I thought carefully about what my target audience would be and what style of language would be suitable to include. I established that as the product I was aiming to produce was a draft of a college magazine, that the audience should be college students(16-22) and also college staff and parents(22+). I chose to aim it at staff and parents in order to widen my target and because staff and parents tend to show an interest in what is going on in a students education and in their life, so the magazine acts as a monthly update into what is going on in the student community. And obviously, to the students, it informs them on upcoming events/reviews and covers articles the students want to read and be involved in.

After drafting out some layout ideas and convention specifics, I began to create my first draft of the front page. I used a digital camera to take several images of a model(following the instructions in the brief of using a Medium Close-Up shot) and chose the most accurate image that fit. I then edited the image in Adobe Photoshop CS3 on the college computers. I tweaked the models hair and face slightly but I mainly focussed on the back ground, I cropped the image so only the model remained on an empty background and transferred the image on the draft background and layout I had previously created. I placed the image where I thought it grasped most attention and worked around it. I followed key styles of colour and text; I used the Wyke College logo and text colouring for article titles and the magazine title. I also place article images in order to take up some empty space and add a greater attraction to the magazine which would entice the reader to explore the magazine.

Due to the speed of the college computers I did encounter a fair amount of problems involving the blogging website in which I posted all my work(www.blogger.com) and Photoshop, but these did not hinder my work rate to badly as I could do work at home or on Microsoft word and upload it to the internet at a later date.

I was quite pleased with the overall outcome of my final front cover and contents page but I do believe if I had managed my time more accurately and hadn’t encountered as many technological problems as I did, I could have improved on the quality of my editing and arrangements to produce a neater product.

Final; Front Page & Contents

Draft Ideas For Front Cover Design

These images were taken from the internet and edited using Photoshop CS3. I did not use these images as they were not my own, nor did they meet the requirements specified in the brief.

Un-used Images

I did not use these images as they did not meet the requirements of the brief and some of them were not properly in focus.

This is the final image I edited and used for my front cover

Magazine Analysis;

Here I have analysed and made clear the key conventions of college magazine front covers to help towards the layout and contents of my own.

Design;

For my magazine I will try to design it in the most successful way to appeal to my target audience:

-The Layout-
-Not to cluttered but not to spacious
-Image placement; arrange the images used into effective positions(Main images usually central to grasp readers attention)
-Don't give too much information away on the front page; entice people to pick up the magazine and read it


-Text-
-Use a font that is easy to read but not plain and boring
-Use minimal text on front page and contents page
-Use regular vocabulary(nothing to simple or advanced)


-Colour-
-Use a specific, fluent colour code throughout the magazine
-Do not use colours that clash
-Make sure you can read text at all times(e.g. do not place black text over a black background)
-Make sure the colours used are not too harsh on readers eyes but not too dim(resulting in eye strain)

Brief;

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

I will be using camera shot 5 for my preliminary exercise.

For this exercise to work to all the top conventions of a college magazine I will consider:

-The Language Involved-
-What language is suitable for my audience
-How advanced the product will be (Level of vocabulary)
-Language that will appeal to the audience(not to formal)

-The Institution-
-Representing the college positively (no criticism or negativity; unless in a "Your Opinion" section)
-Write to attract new people to the college not to discourage them

-The Ideology-
-Represent the colleges ideology on every page
-Represent a vast range of students Ideology (and my own) in sync with the colleges
-The college's expression and opinion of education importance

-The Target Audience-
-The age range of the target audience
-What gender
-Whether I am aiming it to only students or teachers/parents and college representatives

-The Representation-
-How I present the institution
-How I keep the magazine unbiased towards stereotypes(Sexuality, Ethnicity, Gender, etc.)
-Show the college's ideology of equality