Evaluation

For the preliminary task, the brief was to produce the front cover and a mock-up of the contents page for a college magazine.

To start with, I decided to research existing college magazines to see which key ingredients of a normal magazine were included. As a result, I found that all of the college magazines I researched all had similar features, such as a masthead, a strong central image and various sell lines.

After this, I made a plan of the features on a magazine front cover and then added details of my own, such as how I wanted the image to look and the sell lines to go on the front cover.

Next, I did an IT draft to see how the layout of the front cover would look.

Then I did a hand drawn draft so that I could add details such as the masthead and the issue of the magazine.

After this, instead of constructing the front cover, I decided to research the contents pages of popular magazines. Of the three I researched (Total Film, Vogue and MOJO), two of them had a contents page that went over two pages. All three had the contents listings as well as images relating to various stories on them.

Next, I produced a mock-up of the contents page on Publisher. On this, I decided to have two images as well as the details of the next issue, the contents listings and an image of the front cover. I thought this would be the most suitable for a magazine as there was a balance between images and words.

Following this, I organised the shoot for my cover photos. I wanted a blank background and for my model to be holding textbooks and folders as this is what a typical student would be carrying.

After taking the photos, I started to compile the front cover of my college magazine. I added most of the key ingredients such as the masthead, date, website address and the main image. I chose the colour scheme as purple and white are unisex colours and enhance the Wyke theme. I also incorporated the Wyke slogan ‘Freedom to achieve’ in as a cover line. Also, the two other cover lines about the fresher party and NUS extra cards as I thought these would be relevant to Wyke students and would draw their attention.

I think that the planning went well as I made sure I did a lot of research before starting the task to get a better understanding of magazine front covers, especially those for college students.

However, I could have managed my time better by starting the project earlier rather than leaving it to do at a later date.

To improve for the music magazine task, I will makes sure that I plan my time better to enable me to have enough time to produce the articles but I will spend a bit more time planning as this will help me to produce a better piece.

I think my front cover does cater for my target audience of college students as they will be able to relate to the main image and cover lines.