My task was to create a front cover of a new college magazine and a mock-up of a contents page. Firstly, I had to deconstruct a magazine front cover and contents and work out the conventions of a magazine and it’s contents page. Using the Internet I found some successful magazines’ covers and analysed them. The main thing I learned from these was that you need to know exactly who you are aiming your magazine at, otherwise it will not succeed. I already know that a college magazine will be aimed primarily at 16-19 year olds and my magazine will reflect this.
I then began planning my magazine out, beginning with the layout of the cover and contents pages. I drew a draft of what I wanted my magazine’s front cover to look like applying the conventions of the magazines I had analysed, particularly, Marie Claire, with the cover lines framing the model’s face. I then turned this into a mock-up of the layout on Microsoft Publisher using simple blocks so it would be easier to create the actual cover on the computer.
Whilst in this process I also came up with cover stories and a title for my magazine. The title was ‘Wyke Magazine,’ I intended it to be that simple, no gimmicks or cliches, it’s a magazine for Wyke College and this title tells you exactly that. I also came up with various story lines that generally relate to 16-19 year olds (Where Did Summer Go? - We hear your holiday stories!) as well as to Wyke College students specifically (Rose Garden Culture – Is the social aspect causing students to start smoking?).
I then decided that I would use a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher for my final magazine cover, by editing my photograph and the text in Photoshop (by giving it layer and gradient styles), then transferring it into Publisher to arrange it. Then I planned my photograph that I wanted to shoot. I used a model who was an ex-student of Wyke College, and took a MCU (Medium Close Up) shot of her sat on Wyke’s field and laughing. I had a few to pick from, some where she looked too serious but decided to go with the shot of her laughing as it portrayed the happiness she feels at being at Wyke College.
I then decided to create two mood boards, one demonstrating that every magazine has a completely unique masthead design and another to help me see what typical college magazine layouts look like.
Next, I edited my chosen photograph in Photoshop, I added gradients and layer fills while changing the opacity of each, the overall effect gave my photograph a much more summery look, which is what I was wanted because the main cover line is a story about hearing about summer experiences from students. It also looks slightly sepia-toned which invokes feelings of nostalgia; looking back on the summer.
Once I had completed editing the photograph and text effects in Photoshop I then transferred them into Microsoft Publisher and arranged them to fit my predetermined layout. Then it was just a matter of printing out my work and uploading it to my college blog.
In all, I am extremely pleased with my production and after receiving feedback from my peers and fellow students I feel that this could easily be an official college magazine that would appeal to my 16-19 demographic.
I then began planning my magazine out, beginning with the layout of the cover and contents pages. I drew a draft of what I wanted my magazine’s front cover to look like applying the conventions of the magazines I had analysed, particularly, Marie Claire, with the cover lines framing the model’s face. I then turned this into a mock-up of the layout on Microsoft Publisher using simple blocks so it would be easier to create the actual cover on the computer.
Whilst in this process I also came up with cover stories and a title for my magazine. The title was ‘Wyke Magazine,’ I intended it to be that simple, no gimmicks or cliches, it’s a magazine for Wyke College and this title tells you exactly that. I also came up with various story lines that generally relate to 16-19 year olds (Where Did Summer Go? - We hear your holiday stories!) as well as to Wyke College students specifically (Rose Garden Culture – Is the social aspect causing students to start smoking?).
I then decided that I would use a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher for my final magazine cover, by editing my photograph and the text in Photoshop (by giving it layer and gradient styles), then transferring it into Publisher to arrange it. Then I planned my photograph that I wanted to shoot. I used a model who was an ex-student of Wyke College, and took a MCU (Medium Close Up) shot of her sat on Wyke’s field and laughing. I had a few to pick from, some where she looked too serious but decided to go with the shot of her laughing as it portrayed the happiness she feels at being at Wyke College.
I then decided to create two mood boards, one demonstrating that every magazine has a completely unique masthead design and another to help me see what typical college magazine layouts look like.
Next, I edited my chosen photograph in Photoshop, I added gradients and layer fills while changing the opacity of each, the overall effect gave my photograph a much more summery look, which is what I was wanted because the main cover line is a story about hearing about summer experiences from students. It also looks slightly sepia-toned which invokes feelings of nostalgia; looking back on the summer.
Once I had completed editing the photograph and text effects in Photoshop I then transferred them into Microsoft Publisher and arranged them to fit my predetermined layout. Then it was just a matter of printing out my work and uploading it to my college blog.
In all, I am extremely pleased with my production and after receiving feedback from my peers and fellow students I feel that this could easily be an official college magazine that would appeal to my 16-19 demographic.
