Evaluation

Magazine front cover

The front cover I created was made by using a software called Adobe Photoshop which enabled me to edit images and arrange things the way I want. This is useful as I can manipulate objects to make the front cover the way I planned it to be like.

I used bright colours as well as natural colours to make my front cover look as diverse as possible as my magazine is targeted to a young audience which have many different personalities. The main subject of the front cover is the full image of the boy standing with a book in his hand, this related to the audience as he is young and studying therefore suitable for the cover, It is also what they would expect to see on a college magazine as they would not want to see, for example, and old man since he would not be studying at college.

What I could do to improve my front cover is change the background to something else that is more attractive using Photoshop’s powerful tools, this way, and the overall magazine front cover will look better. In addition, I could add information on the cover lines and include page numbers, by doing this the cover looks more professional and conventional as this is usually done in other magazines, it also helps the audience know more about what is inside the magazine. Finally I can change the masthead to a more unique and memorable one instead of bold and simple so that the audience can see and know that this is the magazine they are looking for.

Magazine contents page

I used another software by Adobe called InDesign to create my double page spread of contents page, this is because I have researched and found that this is how professional magazine institutions create their magazines. Included in my contents pages are headlines, cover lines and page numbers, I kept the style to a minimal with little amounts of texts and images to avoid the audience from getting discouraged from reading on.

I have one image that I Photoshoped which is stretching from the first page to the second of another person reading a book from a shoulder angle, this give a clean theme and allows me to add text without making the pages look unpleasant.

I have asked my audience to review the double page spread and they have agreed that it looks clean and conventional however they criticize that it is very basic and dull.

I could improve the contents page by adding more images related to the stories to give an insight to the audience on what’s in the magazine for those who so not like reading a lot. I could also use more text such as pull quotes and editors notes to grab the attention of the audience. A finale improvement I can make is using specific font and house styles throughout the magazine instead of using different ones, this would allow for a more consistent look throughout the magazine.