Evaluation for contents and front cover page

Front cover Back Cover

For the masthead of the magazine I used a font off ‘Dafont.com’. I thought the masthead would look better if the writing was behind the models head, but in front of the main background, as it looks more professional and smart. The weight of the letters was a thin, but bold writing style so it gave the magazine a modern look, was simple to read, and nothing that big or bright. The typeface is serif, which makes the writing look more old fashioned, but also formal, which gives the magazine a good impression that its serious and not a joke.

I used a subhead to add to the masthead, using the same font, but in a smaller size as its just telling us that it’s a new edition magazine. I also think that this just added to the magazine and gave it a better appearance.

Masthead

For the lead image, I used a picture of a friend. It was a medium-close up, which I think worked well as the back ground wasn’t to fussy. The only think I would have changed with the picture was probably to have a lighter background, as I think the whole picture maybe makes the front cover look a bit dull and plain. Especially for students, I think it would have been better if it was more colourful as that would probably appeal to students more, as this is probably a bit grown up as the colour scheme is rather bland.

Lead Image

For the cover lines, I decided to have a black box around the writing, but reduced the opacity so they were transparent. I felt this gave the magazine a modern view, to make up for the classic, old style serif writing. I made the writing white so it would stand out more, against all the darker colours on the main page and background, but used the same font as the masthead and subhead so it would all fit in.

I added the picture of the Starbucks cup, as this related to a story in the magazine, and added something else to the front cover, to make it less plain and boring. Also, because this was a main story in the magazine.

Cover lines

Contents page

I wanted to make the contents page have roughly the same style as the front cover, by using the same fonts, and giving it the ‘modern’ look. I also kept the colours plain, like on the front cover so it wasn’t too different.

The header was the same text, just a different colour, and I added the black background, and didn’t fill in some on the letter to give it a different and modern effect.

As the Starbucks page was meant to be one the main stories, I made this a bit bigger than the rest so it would stand out. I put a picture of a Starbucks cup to add to this, and made the Title of the Starbucks text green to match the Logo.

I added random lines to the page to try and make up for the white space, which I think worked well because it made sections for different parts on the page.

Contents headerFor the Contents header, I used the same text that was used on the front cover. This helped relate the contents page to the Front cover, so it wasn’t totally different, and you would realize it was for the same magazine. I left two of the letters white, instead f changing in to black with the writing to give it a more modern effect, and makes it more fun, and not so serious and perfect. The colour scheme is again, plain and simple so its clear and stand out.

PicturesI tried to take pictures that would relate the articles on the magazine, such as the picture of the people was to show that the magazine was saying ‘hello’ from the student union. The pictures help fill the white space, and might encourage people to look at a certain article, if they like the picture.

For the numbers, I knew I didn’t want them to be displayed boring and simply, as I felt I needed to add some fun to the magazine as I thought it was a bit boring. I used the same effect as I used on the front cover by adding a few dark boxes around some of the writing for the contents page. I did this because I felt it matched well with the front page, and added some fun to the page.

I made the numbers for the contents a bit more imaginative and put black circles round some so the numbers stood out more. Some had larger numbers than others and I rotated some of them to give it a less boring and fun effect.

Page numbers

Analysis

Before I started constructing the magazine, I made plans, and flat plans to decide what I was going to include in my magazine, which really helped, because otherwise I would have no idea what I was going to do! This ensure that I figured out what kind of pictures I wanted to use, the text, articles and colour scheme.

What worked?I think the bits that worked well was, on the front cover, the black transparent boxes. I think these gave a really nice, simple, but modern effect to the magazine. I think they worked especially well as the colour scheme was quite dark ,so I couldn’t have used just black writing on its own, because it wouldn’t have shown up, and white writing with no background would have looked very boring!I also think that fun page numbers looked good as it made a better appearance to the page, and was a bit different to normal magazines. I also like the way the Starbucks lettering was the same Starbucks logo colour as it matches in really well, relates to that article and adds a new colour into the page.

What didn’t work?Think that I thought didn’t work as well was maybe the lead image. It was all very dark, and would have been much better if it was brighter. Also, on the contents page I think I could have made the pictures better, maybe to add in with the colour scheme, as I think they made the page look a bit strange and random.

What was difficult?I found the contents page the hardest to do, as all the layers got very confusing, as there were so many to be working with! Making the page numbers, especially the ones with the black circles around was very hard, as I had to make sure I linked the layers, and got them in the right order, so the number could actually be seen.

I also found thinking of pictures hard, as I had no idea what I was going to do! Once I had figured out what pictures I was going to do, and that I was going to relate them to the articles, it was a lot easier.

When I was working out my flat plans, and what I was going to include in in, I got very confused as I had no idea what to include, especially as there were so many options, and so much that I could include, so I had to try and reduce my list to just a few!

Working out the pages numbers was also very confusing because I had to make sure I left space for advertisements, so I had to miss out many numbers. And also, I had no idea how many pages I should have included as all magazines have different amounts.

What was easy?I found using Photoshop easy as I have no gotten used to it, so I managed to get through things quite quickly after I had thought up ideas as I knew how to display them and sort them out on Photoshop.

What have I learnt?I learnt a lot of things about doing this magazine, such as what to include, and especially that I need to leave space for advertisements, as I never really realised until I was constructing the magazine! I also learnt stuff about the front cover, like the identifier, left 3rd, cover lines, lead image, banners, flash boxes and the masthead. I knew roughly what these things were, but had no idea what they were actually called, and with some of the, why they were actually used.

What if I had more time and money?If I had more time and money, I would have got a better picture, brighter and with a more inventive background. Also, made the colour scheme a lot brighter so the magazine doesn't look as ‘old’

What magazines can I compare to mine to?

Obviously, my magazine is nothing like these two, but different elements make bits similar. Vogue’s magazine title has a serif writing style which is thin but with bold parts, which is like mine, and also has a simple colour scheme. Although each magazine has different colour titles, some are bland and plain, like this one, and like mine.

Grazia magazine has the title the same as mine in the way that its behind the models head, but in front of the background as such. Also the yellow boxes are the same as mine, but they used a brighter colour to lighten up the page.