This is the photo i have chosen to use for the cover of my magazine. I like this photo as it demonstrates a good head on camera angle. The person in the photo is facing the camera, and the proportion of person to background it equal and clear.
The back round is plain and isn't reflecting against the flash of the camera.
The photo of the person is proportionate due to the head and shoulders being the only part of the person visible in the photo.
However one negative about this photo is that the background blends into the colour the lady is wearing, this does not make the picture stand out, and would not be easily noticed on the cover of a magazine.
I have chosen not to use this photo as the expression of the girl in the picture is not very convincing. Also she is not
making any eye contact with the camera, this is not a very good picture to put on the cover of a magazine this is because research has proven that the most purchased magazines are chosen with people on the cover making direct eye contact with the camera.
However the choice of background for this picture is very good, and is a good contrast to the dark clothing the girl is wearing. This makes the picture stand out, which inevitably will have the same effect on the magazine.
I have chosen to design a front cover for my magazine to look like the image (left). The bold Sans serif font, creates a professional look to the magazine, as i feel it would be easy for people to think that the magazine constructed by students wouldn't be very professional.
The large central image demonstrates a typical magazine cover. The Lady is looking head on the the camera, giving eye-contact. The right proportion of her body is on display in the photograph. In addition to this the photo is relevant to the story, as we see the face of the lady we look for what relevance she has to the magazine, and we see. 'The face of College,' In large bold Capital letters. This creates an air of question as we want to look inside the magazine to find out why this person is the face of college.
The Cover also displays all the necessary information a magazine should have. It has a bar code suitable for scanning, an issue number, a price and contact information, in this instance an e-mail address.
The page also includes a ... tag-line?? running underneath the Magazine title this makes the magazine memorable as the tag line acts as a motto to remember the purpose of the magazine by.
In the left hand column ... the magazine cover also displays another small image below a small and concise area of text... this i have put here to give a brief overview of the contents of one of the main story's in the magazine, this also reinforces the main story on the cover. In addition to this, it enlightens the purchaser to the other stories in the magazine and gives a deeper in site into the contents. Also with the target audience of the magazine being the college students themselves, including an image of students, makes the magazines purpose more literal, especially when it is likely for the reader to recognise certain students pictured.
I have names the Magazine 'College Talk' to give a relaxed feel to the magazine. I think it sounds friendly and allows students to feel a part of the topics and discussions within the magazine. The magazine will not be formal or contrived, the students will have a say in the contents and i think the name reflects this.
Finally i have left the writing on the front cover to a minimum. This has been done to create a want to read on by purchasing the magazine, brief bullet point of information are shown on the cover in the hope that the students will buy the magazine in order to read the rest.
The contents page shown left. I have chosen to continue with the font i used on the front cover to maintain a pattern. So once again i have used Sans serif bold font. This once again just displays the name of the page.
I have kept detail on the page to an absolute minimum, as the main purpose it serves is to display information about the contents of the magazine and on which page certain items can be found.
The reason there is little detail on this page is that people do not pay much attention to a contents page mainly because they turn to this page merely to find out what page a certain item is on and turn straight to that specific page. Therefore very little attention is payed to the design and layout and for this reason there would be little point in making it more complex than it is.
