For our preliminary coursework we have been asked to make a front cover and contents page for a new Sussex Downs College magazine. We must produce our work using Adobe InDesign and we must use photographs we have taken ourselves. On the front cover we have to use a medium closeup photograph of one student as the main image and we have to have taken it ourselves. We also have to have a main sell to go with the photo and use other sells to present other articles in the magazine. These articles can be made up. We must also make up the name for the magazine and write it as the masthead. We must also produce a mock-up of the contents page with simple information about the different articles and the pages they are on. The contents page will not require images or detailed text.
We have also been required to write a brief blog outlining our planning decisions and evaluate our work as we do it. The blog must consist of 4 main posts. these are The Introduction, Flat Plans, Photographs and Evaluation.
Flat Plans
On my flat plan designs i thought about the target audience and the fact that this magazine in a college magazine. First of all i had to come up with a name for the magazine so i decided to call it 'Student Magazine' as it is aimed at students. I was then deciding on a font to use on the masthead and the sells when i saw the Sussex Downs Logo. i decided as it is a college magazine to use the same fonts and colours used in the Sussex Downs logo. The font i used throughout was 'calibri'. I drew out the masthead and decided to make the first letter turquoise and the rest pale blue the same as the Sussex Downs logo. I knew that i would be using a medium close-up photo of a student for my front cover so drew a rough line to suggest where the photo would be. I then drew out four boxes where the sells would be then thought of the stories i would use in my magazine. I made up the cover story to go with the image and for the other stories i went to the college website. I looked at the latest news and events going on at college and chose the ones which i thought would appeal to the target audience. I then tried to make the stories as appealing to the target audience as possible by making the events sound exciting and using exclamation marks. If i were to improve the sells i would probably make the contents of the text shorter and more punchy as i think my sells have more text than a typical magazine does. I chose to lay out my magazine this way as it follows typical magazine layouts. I could have been a bit more creative and maybe added in a strap line with a competition or something. I think all these aspects will appeal to the target audience as i have kept the look of it simple and easy to read. I have made the masthead as big as possible and made some key words bigger to make them stand out. I have tried to make the stories appeal to the target audience so that they are more likely to pick up the magazine. Something i have noticed i have missed out is the date and magazine issue. this is usually important information that a reader may want to know so i shouldn't have missed this out.
Photographs
For my magazine cover i took some photos to use. The one i chose for the main image is the one on the left. I chose this picture because it was the best medium close-up photo i had and it represents a typical student. I took the photo on a pale background so that when i add writing to my front cover it will be easier to read.
I will not be using the photo on the right because it has two students in it rather than one and the brief says the photo has to be of one student. The only problem with the photo i used is that her eyes are red because of how the photo was taken. I should have taken more photos so i had lots to choose from. I will remember this when taking photos for other pieces of work.
Evaluation
This is my final magazine front cover and contents page. For both pages i like choice of layout as it is typical of magazine layouts and i also like my choice of font type and font size as it is simple and clear to read. I think this will appeal to the target audience. On both pages i have mostly used the colours turquoise, pale blue and black. I chose these colours because they are the same colours used in the Sussex Downs College logo. This keeps the look of the magazine closer with the theme of the college. Also when analysing magazine covers in lesson i learnt that most magazine covers stick to three main colours that go well together and are often colours taken from the photograph, so i decided to use three main colours. The fonts i used for the masthead and sells are also similar to the college logo. This was also to keep the magazine close to the theme of college. On the front cover i have used three sells as well as one main sell. I used this amount of sells as i thought more would make the front cover to busy. Ways i would improve the front cover would be to make the sells slightly smaller as they look a bit over crowding and are even over lapping onto the photo. I would also change the photo because she has red eyes in the photo which doesn't look professional. One thing which stands out to me which i also do not like is that the sells are written in black boxes. I think this is too over powering and clashes with the colour scheme. At first i did not have these black boxes but the text didn't show up in any colour against the background so i had to add in the boxes and change the text to a light colour so the text was able to be read. I like the contents page as it as simple and clearly layed out. I have used the same fonts and colours as the front cover to make in consistent. Although the contents page is very simple i would not change it.
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