Evaluation

This task has given me the basic knowledge with InDesign which will help me when starting my main task as I will be able to start it straight away without having to work out what does what. The use of dafont.com has given me the chance to find some interesting fonts that I may use within my next task, as I also know how this website works and what I have to do to get the texts into InDesign I feel a lot more confident in what I am doing.

Evaulating the images that I took have made me realise what I need to do when looking at my main task and how to understand what an image should look like. This can be useful when looking through many pictures I have taken by evaulating them and trying to figure out which one would be most suitable by looking at the aspects I have spoken about through this.

Altogether this has been a big help in preparing me for the main task that will be happening soon and I feel more confident that I can really get on with it without feeling lost in what I am meant to be doing.

Final Creation

This is my front cover called 'You' aimed at the students. The masthead looks like it has been sketched and is quite bold so it stands out. The red is a fairly unisex colour so it should not attract girls more than boys or vica versa. The date is in the top right hand corner and isn't too big so the attention isn't drawn from the masthead but is big enough for people to see.
The main flash is anchorage to the main image which means that this is the main point of the magazine in this issue and students will easily be able to understand this when glancing at the magazine. The main sells only use three colours which are black, red and yellow. I have only used three colours throughout the front cover of the magazine which are fairly unisex as it has to attract both genders. The main sells give an indication of what to find in the magazine and we can see this on the next page which will be the contents page.


The strap line is at the bottom of the magazine and explains the term dates for the college which will appeal to the students as they always like to know when they have a week or two off. This is something that will make people pick up this magazine and maybe read further then just the dates. There is no bar code on this magazine as it is free, also giving students more of an incentive to pick it up, if they had to pay I am sure most people would not bother. This is clearly displayed in the bottom right hand corner. The main image of this magazine is slightly placed to the right of the middle with the main sells and main flash around it.


This is the contents page mock up for my magazine to the Sussex Downs College students. The same font is used as the heading for this page and the yellow border around it, carrying on the same theme throughout the magazine this will help the magazine to flow well. The blue boxes are where the pictures will go, there will be a blue border around these pictures. These images will show what is in the magazine, which will also be told in the contents but gives the students something to look at. The contents page layout will carry on like the first three shown in this photo here. It is fairly simple with the colours carrying on from the front cover of the magazine. The font that is used for the masthead will be used for the page numbers and the headings for each page throughout the rest of the magazine.

In the Making

As we didn't have much time for this task I took pictures of Hannah around the college, which was fine because of the type of magazine that we were meant to be creating. I took quite a few images but here I will explain why one image didn't work and why another did.

I did not choose this as my final photograph for my college magazine cover, I felt that the picture firstly had too much going on in the background which distracts the eye away from the subject. Another thing wrong with this picture would be the way the subject is standing, you cannot see their face and their head is down, this would make pupils in the college think it is a poorly designed magazine as their is no eye contact with the audience. This photograph is also a mid-shot which is too far away for a magazine cover. Also this photograph is landscape and not portrait, which means that there is more of the background then the subject. This will again distract your eye away from the subject. Altogether this image would not work for a magazine cover.

I felt that the picture had less going on in the background but still had a little something which related to a main sell in my magazine (the freshers party). So this means that you eye is more focused on the main image, the subject. The subject is looking straight into the camera which will catch the audiences eye. They have their head up, their hair out their face and they are smiling. This will appeal to the students who this magazine is for a lot more than the other image. The fact that she is like this shows that this college is a happy environment and a nice place to be.

Another thing about this picture which makes it better is that it is altogether a lot lighter, the background is nice and light and this image can easily be edited if I wanted to. This photograph is portrait medium close up which is needed when using an image for a magazine cover. Lastly, this image means that it is easier to place main sells around it as the background is nice and light with not a lot going on. This means that there is less need for editing. I decided that this is a great photo to use as my final photograph for my magazine cover.

Starting Magazine

For the creation of this magazine the software that I will be using is InDesign, this will give me the chance to create the best magazine cover and contents page that I can compared to the other software that is accessible. Through this task it helped me learn what buttons do what and how to use the programme comfortably, I learnt a lot while creating the cover and contents page which I feel will stand me in good sted when I come to start my main task.
Along with this new programme I visited a website called dafont.com, this gave me the chance to find and use different types of fonts that will make my magazine look a lot better than if I just used font types that are given in InDesign. This website has also helped me with thinking about what fonts I would like to use with my main project.

Planning

This is the Flat Plan for my front cover of 'You' magazine. In the space you can see where the person is meant to go, the scan hasn't picked up the outline of the person drawn but it is clear that this is where they will go. It has the clear masthead and the main sells showing which is vital in magazines. The date is clear but not taking up too much space. All these aspects add up to a good looking front cover.


This is the flat plan for the contents page. The contents page is only a mock up and which will give a good understanding of how the layout for the rest of the magazine will look. The pictures will contain images of the articles in the magazine to give anchorage to the text as I think that students, me being one myself, likes to look at pictures too and not just a page full of words.

Introduction

In this task I will be creating a front cover and a contents page of a magazine for the students at Sussex Downs College. This will include a photograph of a student in the college and then a choice of how I want the magazine to look. This task is so I get to understand the software for the use of the main task.