Evaluation of Magazine front cover and contents page

To evaluate my work on the front cover and contents page I will look at what steps I did to creating it.

First of all for my front cover my brief was to create a magazine front page that had a medium shot of a student, but before this I had to come up with a college based theme for the magazine, I had a few concept ideas but finally settled on a college basketball magazine.I drew up a concept for on how I wanted it to look including specific things like the masthead, border and pictures. Once I had this ready I would use it as a reference when creating the real thing. I then set about acquiring pictures for the front page, this actually turned out to be difficult to do, so I improvised using myself as the model with a basket ball. I then compared the images with my mock up, I realized I couldn't get it exactly how I wanted it so decided to make a few changes and improvements. I used Photoshop mainly to help manipulate the image and create the cover, this turned out well. If I was to do this area again I would most likely change the theme of the magazine and look into a other areas for a broader opportunity to develop my front cover.

For the contents page mock up I wanted it to be easily definable and keeping to the theme of the front cover, the main idea for this outlook is that if it came to making the real contents page I would know the necessary areas of content I would put in the page.

Contents Page

This is the mock up of my contents page for the magazine I am creating called "SMASH"
I used a combination of both word and publisher to create this depending on the availablity at the time.This mock up is of simple design as this is what my magazine is trying to convey, getting down to the point. I have used the same color scheme within the contents page as the front page to give it continuity.

If i was to do a proper contents page I would change the font to be a litle more unique and eye catching. some of the pictures I aquired from the internet to bulk it out more.

Lastly I added a coupon to the bottom as this would allow for the mock up to include an offer of some sort or maybe even an advert and increased pictures.

My magazine

Once my concept magazine had been completed I scanned it onto my computer and put it on Photoshop so I could use it as a guideline for the final cover.

Now to begin creating my front cover i selected an A4 sized canvas to work on, I then went searching for a unusual font for my title, after finding a suitable one , I placed it onto the canvas.
I used word for the majority of the smaller writing typing it out in word then pasting it into the cover, it required editing and cropping the individual words/sentences when ever I put them into Photoshop.
















Looking at me concept paper I took into account the shapes for the plugs and information, I drew the shapes using a line shell and placed them into the spots on the cover that I wanted, this took a few attempts to get right but I final decided on putting it on the opposite side to my concept, this was also the case for the boxes regarding information. For the main picture I came to the conclusion that the type of picture shown in the concept was unsuitable for the project, a medium close up shot was required, unable to find any models I used myself and a basket ball for the main picture, I guess the term dodge ball frightens people!

I cut out the back ground of the picture using a Photoshop tool and made slight edits to parts of the image, I made the angle of the picture look like the person was about to throw the ball at the viewer, helping define the term "smash". I also have a custom tool in my Photoshop that allowed me to put a pattern behind the main image to help retain theme and give it a sense of motion.

The theme of the magazines cover is predominately white and red. As a note I had a few ideas that got excluded from the final piece such as dodge ball pattern bricks as a semi-back ground, and holiday themed issue concepts. As a last note the logo was created by myself on word.


For the concept magazine creation I first had to think of a title for the product, this had to be related to my brain stormed idea of a college dodge ball magazine. Taking Inspiration from the magazines I had previously looked at I tried to come up with a name that would give a subliminal message of a slight theme of the magazine, I tried various names such as " college pass, contact, reflex" but finally decided on calling it smash, I chose this because it was a short and snappy title and would attract a young audience, as "smash" suggests action.

I then started to consider the usage of photos and where to place them, I came to the decision to place a large picture in the center, as the other magazines I looked at had done this to, I also added a set of boxes along the side with latest headlines of what is within the the magazine.The audience for this magazine is aimed at college students, the front cover would have pictures of young students to further reinforce this idea.

Finally, I added final touches such as sponsors, a logo and a title that used the same letter to start each word , this naturally draws readers in.

Analysis for three magazines.

The first magazine I looked at was Whitelines snowboarding magazine, I read this magazine personally and know that its a monthly release and has a very high quality of content and materials used to make it.The front page that you can see has the title clearly visible at the top of the page, the title also has similar colour to the overall colour of the front page.It is focused mainly on one picture of the snowboarder and lacks much else added other then the bar code, title and some idea of the contents.This shows that it is a magazine focused on just one thing, snowboarding.

Furthermore, the audience is mainly directed towards young adults and teenagers as shown by the type of person on the front cover.The title Whitelines suggests that it has something to do with snow and creating with snow.

Compared to the previous magazine heat is a weekly magazine, this means not as much content or quality is put into it, it is meant to be up to date news on the latest goings on of celebrity's.The title is very vibrant and large, (this may be because of other similar magazines). There are certain plugs to catch the viewer such as"scandal" and alternate colours for key gossip, also there is the doctors reference that is dramatic and again in alternate colour for "this is really serious".The magazine makes use of a variety of contrasting colours to help stand out. There is a picture of Victoria Beckham that many people will recognize from the media, this furthers interest.There is also a smaller picture in a place where the eye naturally goes to.









This magazine is similar in layout to the snowboarding magazine, the title is very large and at the top showing what the magazine is intended for.The picture is set predominately on the cover,it takes up most of the page.The cover is also helping to promote cutting down on pollution, this can be shown visually with the leaf, it also has a overall green theme on the front page, the sub heading "green issue" helps enforce this.

The audience for this magazine will most likely be of the younger generation, as the surfer show suggests.The way the image is shown shows it in action, making the reader more inclined to pick it up and read it.

Cover Analaysis

The cover shows a student, implying that its contents will be about students.The heading clearly shows its for a secondary level (due to its size)then underneath it says teachers. The logo is in such a place where the it is easily seen by the eye.Lastly there is a question nearer the bottom of the page, making the viewer want to read more.

The people who made this are a company that are hired to make magazines for a varied audience. The audience for this magazine is exclusively for secondary school teachers , this is shown by the main title "Secondary teachers"
The front cover is shown very contrasting.It is not put across as being deadly serious due to it having nice light colours such as pale blue, this is generally seen as a male colour.

Foundation portfolio - Preliminary task.

Producing a college magazine front cover and contents page.

As this is the beginning of the foundation portfolio preliminary task we looked at how the media key concepts could be applied to produce a college magazine, I used the acronym LIIAR. This means language, institution, ideology and representation.

Language - The print layout (involving text). Formal or informal language, font, text colour, logo creation, images and proportion.

Institution - I control the production process.I can choose the content inside the magazine for example,layouts and logos, the story's that will be used,come from Wyke.

Ideology - Respect, equal treatment, opportunity and great belief in education.

Audience - The magazine will be aimed at all Wyke students, age group 16 - 19. 64 percent of which are female representation - Story's contributed by the students will be represented in the magazine. Type face and choice of photo also play an important part