Conventional draft of a front cover

Final mgazine front cover

Contents analysis

The conventions of a contents page is that it should have the title ‘’contents’’ have subheadings ‘’Features’’ and ‘’regulars’’ and must have page numbers for the audience to get around the magazine. The images are usually on too one side this could be conventional within the layout the date and colours are also conventional for the readers to be appealed too.  The difference between a popular magazine contents page to a college contents is that college contents page is simple and less information because there’s less pages however the popular contents have a lot of pages and there’s more to read. Also the images in a college magazine are ordinary hut the popular magazines would be images of up coming celebrities or famous models.

Evaluation

Evaluation

Research

First I had analysed the typical conventions of magazine cover. I analysed three to show my understanding and to gather more ideas for my front cover. The conventions of a magazine front cover are masthead, taglines, bar code, skyline, date/issue and main image. I then did a LIIAR analysis of a college magazine cover. I annotated the cover discussing why it’s conventional for language, image, colour, frame shot, institution representation and audience, and how it connotes through the use of LIIAR. 

After research I drafted out my front cover layout on publisher and my contents page. I included the conventions of a front cover layout. That included masthead, taglines, skyline, bar code date/issues and main image. On my contents page I included the contents title, image, features, regulars and page numbers.  For my contents page it was important to add page numbers so that the readers can make their way around the magazine. In most magazines the features and the regulars are always categorised, this is a convention and it also makes the page tidier. The image in contents page isn’t always the same model from the front cover it’s usually images based on the topics in the magazine.

Planning

 For my planning I did a mood board using LIIAR. For my language I decided on the taglines to be quite inspirational. I wanted my colour theme to be bright to connote success and happiness and my masthead to be the same colour as the college’s name. As it’s conventional to have a medium frame shot I decided to take a picture of student holding folders to connote intelligence and ready to learn. I randomly chose a student from class she had no makeup on and was wearing appropriate clothing, I was glad she didn’t have makeup on because this connotes how simple the college is and you don’t have to be peer pressured in to trends as nowadays teenagers do. The young simple students represents the year 11’s because they’re at the same stage in life also similar age and mind concept. The institution for my magazine is my college (Wyke College sixth form) because it’s much easier for me and just so that my location on the front cover doesn’t look wrong I wanted it all to be realistic within the location students and information. The audience for my magazine is for year 11’s to appeal them to come to Wyke also parents because they also decide on their child’s future.

Digital images

 After all that planning I never got to plan my location or model or organise a camera so to save my time I quickly borrowed a camera from the media department and randomly chose a female student for no specific reason, luckily the day was pretty and bright this connotes happiness and fresh if it was raining it would have connoted something different and I would have had to take a picture inside. I took a typical picture of my model holding a folder my photo however isn’t so professional or creative I’m not a photographer but I did avoid shadows because negative darkness on the front cover will connote negativity about Wyke College. I had also taken pictures in different angles to do my shot frame analysis. This analysis discusses about why certain frame shots are conventional and what it usually connotes.  I just took pictures of my student in different angles but for my close up I took a picture of a flower and for my establishing shot I took a picture of Ash and Wilson.

Editing

I used Photoshop to edit my front cover. I’m not an expert at using Photoshop so I use my study periods to create my front cover because it takes me a while to work my around Photoshop. Firstly I cropped my main image to medium shot because it’s a conventional shot frame for a college magazine, also to identify the expressions and location clearly. I then added my first tag line and put on the right side of my student model. I edited the colour in yellow to connote brightness and success I did the same with another tagline and I added speech marks to give the audience a quick review about the college.  I saved a bar code picture from Google images and applied it to my front cover and placed it on the right corner of my page.  Bar code is conventional for all magazine front covers. However I didn’t put a price down because college magazines are free for all students and parents. I then added the date and issue number under the masthead it’s conventional to be there and it’s important for the audience to know it’s an updated magazine, so that it will appeal to the audience to read the new magazine. In my main image the college’s name is written at the back this was a good opportunity for me to use it smartly and put another word before it. I then came up with the name ‘’successful Wyke’’, I tried to put the word successful behind the student models head because popular magazines usually have that effect and it looks professional so I wanted my magazine to look real as possible. I used YouTube to learn how to edit a word behind the object but after so many tries I still wasn’t able to do it so I asked for help. I also added the sky line ‘’exclusively for new students’’ with black background and bright yellow to font colour to stand out to appeal the audience.  Lastly I put another tag line at the left bottom corner and it’s in white to mainly stand out and to connote fresh start. I have noticed that most professional have three colours and I have followed that convention and used three colours; purple, yellow and white.

Overall I didn’t perform well as I wanted to do my time management wasn’t good. I was running out of time and had to rush through my evaluation and also upload all my work on blogger, which I don’t even know how to use therefore I had to save time to work my way around blogger.

Planning for college magazine

Initial ideas

photogrpahs of; students studying for the front cover
                          holding folders
                          medium close up conventional angle
                          two gender type of students connoting unisex college

Target audinece 16-19 college students also parents and teachers ( for new beginers)
front cover- coneventions; masthead, main image, skyline, sell lines, bar code, date/issue and colour
magazine names; successful wyke, wyke winners, wyke college and institutional wyke logo