Construction of college magazine- Front cover

As a part of my AS Media coursework I have to make a front cover and contents page of a new college magazine this will be posted on this blog as an easier way of viewing and getting feedback. This college magazine will help towards the main coursework as it will help me to know about the conventions of magazine covers and which areas of the magazine cover things will need to be placed, I need to do this for the main project as I am going to have to make a new music magazine, which will also need to fit to in with the conventions of magazines.

For this preliminary exercise I have to use m own digital photos in an image manipulation program (photo shop). The front cover of the magazine must contain a photo of a student in medium close up, as well as some appropriately layed out text and a masthead. I must also produce the layout of a contents page.

I will use this blog to show various aspects of my coursework, research and planning, construction and the evaluation of my product.

I first started my college magazine in photo shop i found an appropriate colour for the background of the magazine cover, I chose a purple colour as I felt that it was bold an would appeal and stand out to the audience I also chose this colour because of the many connotations which this colour represents. Purple represents many things, wisdom, power luxury and nobility. I felt that this was an appropriate thing as the audience may feel like that if they read this magazine it could give them new ideas and wisdom. I also felt that a white text would be appropriate as white is many connected to being a colour of purity and perfection, I also chose this colour so that it would stand out from the background colour and would be appealing to the eye.  I felt that the magazine should be called 'college' as it would be more obvious to the audience what the magazine was about and who it was aimed at ( the 16-19 year old student audience which I decided on previously).
Potential Selling Lines:
In order to find the best slogan/sell line for the magazine I felt that it would be appropriate to come up with various ideas and pick the one which I felt was the best. These are the differant ideas which I came up with,
Be fun. Be diverse.
College is Real
Help when its vital.
Everything you need to know.

I felt that the best sell line which I came up with which would fit in with the style of the magazine was 'Help when its vital'.

 I played around with different effects on the text until i found one which i felt would be appropriate, (I chose the Georgia font option and used bevel & emboss, drop shadow, outer glow as well as inner glow). The picture shown below shows the text style and the effects I used. 

 I am going to try to use the same house style on my contents page and throughout the magazine so that there will be a consistency within my magazine. This will also be intriguing to the audience because it will be recognisable to the audience and it will be easy for a wide range of people to recognise the magazine instantly. This picture shows the image at an incomplete stage, I still need to add various other aspects onto the magazine cover, such as cover lines and the main stories which will be included in the magazine.

I added a digital image which I took myself onto the image, I also made the background of the image blue the same as the magazine backdrop so that the image would blend in with the magazine correctly, I did this in photo shop also.

I then added various cover lines to the page and added the same text effects to them which I used on the magazine title and slogan, I then realised that I needed to add simple things such as the magazine issue date and number. At first I placed the issue date in the top right hand corner under the magazine name, but I felt it took away from the title so I moved it into the bottom right hand corner so that it was still noticeable but does not take away from the other text and images which are on the page.

I also felt that there was slightly too much blank space at the top to the page under the heading so I felt that I should add something else, I felt that a competition would appeal to the audience and advertising this on the front page would make the reader want to read the magazine slightly more as the audience may feel that there is something to gain from reading the magazine.

This is the final product of the magazine which I came up with:

When I had felt I had completed the task I realised that i had not full filled the brief as I had not used a mid shot for the main image on the front cover instead of doing this I had used a long shot which was not appropriate, so i had to retake some more photos for the magazine and re-add the image into the page.

I took some more photos so that the image would fit the brief correctly, I then edited the image so that it fit it would fit in with the consistency of the house style, I did this in the same way which i had already previously edited the other image which I planned on using. When I inserted the image into the magazine cover I felt that it was too small so I had to re-size the image. I also moved around the cover lines so that it would fit in with the image, I moved the cover lines around the page into various area's as I felt they generally didn't quite look right, when I found a place which I felt was adequate I placed the cover lines there, as well as moving the cover lines I also experimented with moving the competition feature into different area's. This is the cover which I then came up with:

Instead of using the image which I initially intended on using for my front cover, I felt that it would be more appropriate for the contents page. I opened a new document at the appropriate a4 size and made the canvas the same colour as the front cover so that the house style would be consistent on both pages. I then added the pre-edited image onto the page across the bottom of the page, as I felt this would be the correct area to place the image. I also chose this images because of various aspects which it includes, such as the colours of the image, i felt that the colours on the models shirt would enhance the front cover image on a whole. I used a natural lighting so that it would give of a 'natural' college looking environment, I feel that this is effective because the light makes the models complexion look very young and healthy.  I also liked the way that bag was placed in the bottom left hand corner of the image as it gave off a 'college' look.

I felt that my front cover had too much blank space on it so, I feel that adding some extra elements into the page would make it look alot better. I feel that re-adding the competition element which was on my front page previously as this would fit in well with my idea of 'college life' as well as drawing in a wider audience because there will be an element of competition when buying the magazine.

This is the image with the new element added into it, this will be my final design:

Here are so images which I felt were not appropriate for both the magazine cover and contents page:

I felt that this image was not appropriate for the magazine as it is one college in particular, and I was trying to aim the magazine at a wider audience. Also the image would not have been appropriate for the front cover of the magazine as it was not a mid-shot. Also editing the image would have been more difficult.

I also didn't use this image as i felt that it wouldnt work well with the image which I was going for. I felt that the editng of the image would be easy but the colours in the image and the lighting wouldnt work well as it was quite dark and the lighting reduces the quality of the photo. 

I also chose not to use this image as it was a long shot and  editing the background out of the image would have been difficult.to edit and if the whole of the background image was edited out the model would be in a sense, floating in mid air as the angle of the image was incorrect. 

I also discarded many other images as i felt they were also inappropriate for these two specific areas of the magazine, but I felt that i could use these images in various other areas in the magazine if it was necassary.