Final front cover for my student magazine

Below is the final design of my student magazine. Overall I am quite happy with the way it turned out. The colours not only represent the colours of South Downs, relating to the fact it's a college themed magazine, but I also feel that looking at the cover, I feel that this colour pallette will be attractive to boys and girls as they are neautral colours. The type used for the taglines is quite bold and the way that the article names are in larger bolder letters attract the audience to see what they say. The contrasting blue and green pattern in coverline names I feel is also a fun twist, that just makes the overall cover look more appealing. The elipsis tool I used to create the puff I personally think suits the coverline of WIN! because it stands out and jumps out at you, something you would do if you won a competition. I'm really happy with the way the image of my student is alligned right with a white background that leaves room for all the coverlines. I also am happy with the masthead and feel the design chosen by my classmates was the right one. Overall  I am happy with this cover and feel that it could be attractive to the 16-18 year olds attending South Downs and they would want to read it after taking a first glance at the cover.

Coverlines

1. 'Exam Pressure?' We tell you the best tips for keeping calm and earning a good grade. The rhetorical question used as the coverline makes the readers think about their exam worries so read on and then see inside there is tips on how to beat the pressure meaning they will pick up the magazine.

2. 'J'adore Paris' Paris trip photography. The use of a French phrase which people are familiar with makes the reader wonder why this has been used so then they can see that it relates to a Paris photography trip inside, meaning interesting pictures that students will want to look at.

3. 'Students of the Future...' We hear about your dreams for the future. Students from South Downs want a good future and the coverline here is like a calling to them, drawing them in to read how other peoples dreams came true.

4. 'Plus!' All the dates you need to know for Spring 2012. Plus! is a typical technique used that makes the readers look in interest in what the coverline could be talking about. It persuades the reader to go on my saying need to know, as they feel that there must be something important inside.

Flatplan

I created this flatplan on Microsoft Word then printed it out, took a picture and saved it as a JPG so I could upload it onto blogger

Beginning putting the cover together

Now that I have chosen my front cover image and masthead for my college magazine, South Downs Speaks, I can begin putting the two together and picturing what the two look like together. Once I've done this I can begin adding in the other details on my front cover such a puffs, coverlines and the fonts and colours I will use for them.


This is my final masthead

This is my final image

And together this is what they look like together
                                                                                        

           

Masthead Ideas

I decided that I wanted the title of my college magazine to be 'South Downs Speaks'. Now that this was decided I had to think of a masthead design. I wanted it to stand out on the page, so that means a clear easy to read font and clear colours. Thinking of colours, I wanted them to be bright but also suit South Downs personality, so I firstly decided the colours I wanted were blue and green which are the college colours. I started creating different variations of the title using these colours and experimenting with different fonts on the programme InDesign. Below I narrowed it down to four designs I liked the most.

To make my final design I went around my class taking a tally on which masthead they liked the most. Here are the results:

Masthead 1: 6 people voted
Masthead 2: 1 person voted
Masthead 3: 2 people voted
Masthead 4: 1 person voted


From the results Masthead 1 was the most popular so I will use that one, I also think it is a good design, the font is clear and the colour is bright and easily catches the eye.

Photography for front cover and final picture

For my front cover I needed a picture which would be the main feature on the front of my magazine. I took lots of pictures so I had a big choice and could pick the perfect picture. It had to be from the waist up and have enough blank space around it so there was room for text including the title. Eventually I decided on the image below. I feel it is the best picture I had for many reasons. Firstly my model is place slightly to the right of the frame. This means that there is lots of surrounding space for everything else on the cover. Also his pose and facial expressions are happy and welcoming which is suitable for an image to be used on the front of a college magazine. The background is also blank which leaves a clear space for everything else. Altogether I am happy with the final image I'm using for my front cover.

Choosing a name for my magazine

I have come up with four different ideas for names to use for my music magazine. I can't decide which one to use as each one could work well as a name. As a result I decided the best people to ask for opinions were the people who would be reading the magazine; fellow students. I asked each of my class mates to choose their favourite name from the four below.

1.South Downs Speaks
2.South Downs Says
3.SDC
4.SD Central

Here are the results...

1. 6 votes
2. 0 votes
3. 3 vote
4. 1 vote

As you can see from the results above the favourite magazine name and the one I will be using for my magazine is South Downs Speaks. Now I know this, I can begin to think about possible design ideas for mastheads and applying them to my magazine design