Finals: Front Cover and Content Page

Creating my college magazine: Front cover

To create my magazine i have chosen to use indesign, this is a very useful way to create a magazine from cover as it has a very useful guide and tool bar on the left side and a colour changing tool to help create the magzine front cover and contents page.

 

 

 

I've decided to use this image for my front cover as there is plent of room around the image for the masthead above her head and for the taglines, puffs and plugs on the left third which is the most common place for these to be seen. However because i have chosen this image it means i need to edit it. To begin with I decided to crop the image so that the edge of the back drop wasn't seen. As time went on when i was creating the front cover i realised that having Anna right in the middle was making it more difficult to place things on the left third. I then decided to crop the image down so that there was little space left of the right of her meaning it made her appear as if she was positioned to the right of the image, this will be shown below as i show my steps towards creating my front cover.

This is my first magazine cover, at first i liked it then realised there was a lot i could improve about it. For example i thought there was too much blank space, i also thought by putting the writting ver the image it was interfering too much. The positiong of the image also didn't seem to be working very well with the amount of information i have.

After looking at it I decided to start again by repositioning everything and also by editing the image slightly.

 

 I edited the image of Anna using fotoflexer (online photo editor) so that it looked like she was more to the left. This meant there was a lot more room for me put writing on the right of her so that there was less over the image.

 

 After I changed the position of the picture it made it a lot easier to reposition everything. I decided to remove the star from the cover because I felt it over crowded the image. I also change the writing that's under the heading 'Exams!' to white because I thought the black looked slightly out of place. I used pastel colours because its a winter edition and I though the pale pink, baby blue, lilac and white would be the best colours to match the season.

Content Photographs

All these images would be a great image for the contents page because they would all fill the page with colour which would make it more interesting. Each of the images also represent the college as they are all images of different parts of the college as they are all different there is a lot of variety in which I can chose from.

Technical Photography

This is a grid showing the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is used a lot when deciding where to position everything on a magazine from cover, to help the image more eye-catching.
 Usually the main area of the image won't be placed in the center third box. Where you can see the four red dots on the diagrame is the interesting points, this helps create a more interesting image. If you were to place an image on two of the interesting lines it's more likely to draw in more of an audience.


This Rolling Stones magazine cover has been divided into sections to show how the rule of thirds is used effectively. On this cover they have used Pink as their celebrity feature. Pinks head is positioned in the top middle third. The first thing that catches my eye is her eyes, it's like they are creating eye contact between the magazine and the audience. The positioning of the image using the rule of thirds creates a more dramamtic effect therefore making the image stand out a lot more. The taglines are positioned in the left third which is the more common place to have them, this is because they way the magazines are placed on the shelves in the shops the left third is the most visible part of the magazine cover to the audience. This is why most magazines have the more interesting stories on the left side of the cover.

Main Image Photographs

Image 1                    Image 2 

         Image 4

Image 3

All these images could have been used for my main cover however the one i used i think was the best option for my magazine cover. All the images were taken in the photography studio at south Downs College, the students in the images is Anna Collins.

Image one would be good because it's a mid-shot however the image may take up too much room on the page, not leaving enough space for all the information I need to include on the front cover. This could mean that the quality of the photo would have lacked because a lot of it would be covered therefore the tag lines would interfere too much.

Image two would be a great image for the front cover because the image is further away meaning there is more space around Anna to place tag lines. There is also a lot of space above her head meaning there would be plenty of room to fit in a masthead without it interfering with the image. However if I was to use this image i would have to edit the image by cropping it as in the right bottom hand comer you can see the edge of the back drop being used.

Image three could be used as a main image on the front cover, because the lighting used has made it very bright. There is also enough room at the top of her head for a masthead to be placed without interfering with the image. However because of the lack of space around Anna it would mean the information on the cover would have to be placed on the image.

 

Image four has a lot of space around the image to place the tag line and main cover line. However there isn't quite enough room for a masthead therefore meaning it would interfere with the image. Also with the image being a close up it could mean that Anna would take up too much room on the front cover not leaving enough space for everything else on the page.



 

Photography: Magazine Layout

In this edition of Vogue they have used Rihanna as the main image. They have placed her in the central third, this means she will stand out a lot more. They have placed her head over the masthead, this implies that they are confident enough to know that their audience will still know it's their magazine even though part of the name is covered. This also allows us to clearly see her full head and face making her stand out therefore making the whole magazine more interesting and eye-catching. The background they have used is mainly blue as its an image of Rihanna standing on a balcony with a sea view. The main colour scheme is black and white, with a little red. The main cover lines are written in bold writting so that they stand out a lot more, they are also the only stories that are written in black. Then the tag lines are a smaller text and are written in white which shows a contrast between the more interesting stories because they are made more noticable.

 

Whereas Empire has a very different layout. although again the celebrity used, Robert Patterson is placed in the center, the masthead is placed over him covering his head slightly. This implies that they arent as confident about their audience as Vogue. The colour scheme they have used for this eddition is red, white and yellow. All these colours stand out which makes the magazine more eye-catching. The masthead is big, bold and bright red, this will mean the audience will regocnise it a lot quicker. Therefore the two magazines i have chosen use very different photography with their front covers vogue uses a mid-shot whereas
Empire uses a close up.

Preliminary Task: Brief

Proposal

I propose to create a college magazine, they will be released at the begining of every term. The Magazines will consist of helpful informsation for all students around the college relating to college issues and activities outside of college. For example it will have special offers and tips to help the students, it will also have information to help the students with any advice they may need. The students themselves will have the opportunity to get involved with each issue of the magazine by having their say about what should be included in the magazine. So my magazines main focuse would be the students attending South Dowsn college.

 

After spending a lot of time trying to decide which name to use i chose SD Central, SD Central is the abriviation of South Downs Central. I chose this because the magzine at the center of the college in the sense that it has all the information the students need about the college. The issue i have decided to do will be released in January therefore i have decided to use a pastle colour scheme, because the colours will link to the winter season. I've used pale blue, pale pink, lilac and white. My magazine size will be A4 So that there is plenty of room on the front cover to display an image of a student and also have plenty of room to fit all the information that's needed for the term. 

  

Below there are two images, one of which is my flatplan of my front cover and the other is a flatplan of my contents page. I would like them to look similar to these.