Evaluation of My magazine front cover.

For my college magazine I first researched into the industry and looked at other magazines out there. I created a mood board of images and words that inspired me for a magazine cover also looking at the colours I liked most and existing examples of magazine covers and contents pages.

I analysed a magazine and looked at key connotations of the magazine: the Mast head, headline, sub titles, date, barcode, price, main image and the house style. When looking at all these features I noticed a pattern of similarity between different magazine covers. The main image was always central and the camera angle was between a mid- shot or a medium close up. The mast head was always at the top of the cover page and was the biggest writing on the cover. I noticed that these two features were the ones you noticed first and that the producers of the magazine probably did this to catch your eye and if the magazine is monthly you’ll know the title of the magazine and will look for it straight away, by it being the biggest text it will be easiest to spot and being at the top of the cover it will stand out when magazines are stacked in front.

By looking at all the connotations you can see which features are those that are used on every cover and depending on what house style and images are used you can determine the class of the magazine.

After looking at the main features of a magazine, I looked into the main image and the camera angles that could be used. There was: close-up, medium close-up, Mid-shot, Full body shot, High angled shot and low angled shot. In a close up shot you can only see the models face and maybe neck. In a medium close up you can see more up to the mid waist. In the mid shot you can see up to the lower waist and sometimes the top of the legs come into this camera frame. The full body shot is when you can see the models full body and the high angled shot and low angled shots and shots that are taken from different heights. I took some photos of my model for examples of these camera framing's to see which looked best but I decided that the medium close-up was the best shot.

After looking at camera framing's I analysed a front cover and a contents page from a magazine in the industry already. This was to help me understand why the features were there and how they made the magazine look good.  I looked at other magazines also and 3 existing college magazines. I then quickly analysed them to see similarities and which features looked good. I also analysed a college magazine cover of my choice and said why I liked it and looked at features that the producer had used to see what I could use for my magazine.

After researching into the industry I then made a spider diagram of initial ideas and what I would like on my magazine. I looked at the language, audience, class and style, and what the magazine would represent. I wanted my style to be quite high in the industry and so the text of my magazine would need to be well written and stories that are about the college and students instead of parties and things that wouldn’t be interesting to my audience. I wanted my house style to be purple and burgundy, quite rich colours that are also eye catching. Following my spider diagram I created two initial ideas of a contents page and a front cover. I placed boxes and text of what would go where on both of them.

I then took some original images of my own. My model was Kathy and we went on location around college to take images at different angles and in different places to see which I would choose for my final image. I took some images of art and textiles to place on my front page to show other subjects that happen inside the college.

I then made a mock of a contents page and of a front cover on Photoshop. I created text in a bright colour to be eye catching and I created some images on PowerPoint with special image effects, saved them as japegs and placed them on my cover. I also created splashed in different shapes for some text to go in. This made that particular story stand out more.

To make up my stories for my front cover I looked at other college magazines and most were about the subjects and events of the college and so I came up with new college subjects as one story, free Wi-Fi for students as another and then a main headline about the model as my main image, Kathy, saying that she had got into a top university. These stories would not only be eye catching for students but for parents also.

For my final front cover I chose an image that I had taken and then on Photoshop I used the same stories, mast head and created a special effect image box set of my own images and placed it all together.

If I could have done anything differently I would have gone on different location to another college or place but as it was restricted time I had to use the college I went to.