Prelim

My Task

• My preliminary task is to design and create a front cover and contents page for a college magazine using different software's and technology. I needed to take my own pictures and use software such as Photoshop to create the front cover and contents page.

Style sheet

• Firstly, I went onto the internet and decided to research what current magazines contain and what makes a magazine look good and successful. I then went on and created a style sheet to give me a rough idea of what I should include in my preliminary front cover and contents page.

Potential Fonts used for the Masthead:

Potential Colour Schemes:

College Times

Example Style Sheet

This is the font the main body text will be written in.

Flat Plans• Following afterwards from the style sheet, I then created a flat plan to see

and workout how I want my front cover and contents page and how it should be structured. This was important to see how I should design these two pages.

Main Image

Masthead

Sub headline

Sub headline

Sub headline

Sub headline

Main Cover Line

Image

Text

Contents

Image

Text

Image

Text

Page numbers and text

Finished ProductWhen I had finished completing the flat plans for both my front cover and contents page, I then went on to doing my magazine front cover and contents page, this is the end results:

Front Cover Contents Page

Evaluation: Front cover with Style Sheet:

For the masthead, I used the font I put onto my style sheet which was Impact, for the text I used Franklin Gothic Medium, My colour scheme stayed similar, I used black for the fonts in in the image and red for the font. I faded a little red within the image to keep to the colour scheme I had planned. I have also included the pictures on my style sheet.

I used the same font for the masthead which was Impact, for the text again I used Franklin Gothic Medium, again I used some of my colours for my colour scheme, the reason why I had not used red for the font is because I felt that it looked messy against the background and this was also my feeling for the colour blue. I used some of the pictures included in my style sheet.

Evaluation: Contents page and style sheet

Main Image

Masthead

Sub headline

Sub headline

Sub headline

Sub headline

Front cover against flat plan for front cover:

Image

Text

Contents

Image

Text

Image

Text

Page numbers and text

Contents page against flat plan for contents page:

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

When comparing my final front cover with how the picture looked before I had edited it, you can see I have added multiple effects to this image. First of all I changed the brightness of the picture, I did this to bring out the different colours on this image. I then also went on and changed the hue/saturation along with the vibrancy to again bring out the colours in the image. I also added different sub head lines in different colours to again match my colour scheme that I am aiming for in this magazine. I chose to add effects on the masthead because the masthead is the main advertisement on the front cover so it must stand out. I think the way I have done my front cover has a great effect on the way that it looks more professional and more aesthetic now that I added effects when comparing my picture from before. However in my main task, I need to make my background a lot better because in this preliminary task front cover, I feel that the background I have used isn’t very effective and doesn’t really go with the image. I need to make sure that in my main task, this is not a problem that is included. I need to be more creative with my main task front cover.

Comparing my first mock up contents page to my finished contents page, I think the finished one is a massive improvement from the first one. When I looked at my first mock up contents page I felt that it lacked the professionalism that most magazine content pages have. I also thought that it was a little empty and didn’t have a lot of things included. I then changed the positioning of the pictures included, added page numbers on them. I then added Regulars and Features, I also changed the colour and font of the text to again make my contents page look a lot more professional and so that it used the same conventions a contents page needs to follow. The effect of tilting the images sticks to the theme of the college magazine, in the way that students are supposed to ‘bend the rules’ etc. so the pictures have been positioned to show that. Again with my contents page, I feel that the background I have used is not an effective one, I need to again make sure that this is not a common flaw in my main task. I also need to be more creative with my main task when it comes to my contents page.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task (Continued)

Front Cover

When looking at both my front cover and contents page, I think that masthead I have used is effective, my reasons for this is that as previously mentioned, the masthead is one of the main conventions on a front cover and I wanted to make this clear by making the masthead stand out with multiple effects. Secondly, adding effects on the picture of my model is also effective because the image looks much more improved when comparing it to the standard image before, my model looks much better with these effects and makes the front cover look more professional which is what I wanted to achieve when creating my front cover. Thirdly, I included a price ‘tag’ at the bottom left corner of my magazine, this was done to add to the realism of my magazine and to also make my magazine look professional again.

Content Page

When looking at my contents page, I wanted to replicate my masthead style onto the contents page, the reason for this is because I recognised that this is a convention that must be included. I also added the date and edition in the top right corner because again, from my research of college magazines and magazines in general, I realised that most of them if not all, included the date and the edition number, this effect also adds to the realism and the idea that I wanted my magazine to look like the magazines on the market I have viewed. I think the effect of also tilting my pictures as previously mentioned adds to the college theme of students and the stereotype of students being mischievous and the idea of ‘bending the rules’.