Flat Plans.

This is my flat plan for my front cover of the college magazine i have been asked to make. I decided to have my heading font as quite simple as i used a font that was already in Indesign. I did this to make it look simple and easy to read, but bold. I underlined it to make it more noticable. I chose the title of the magazine as 'Hello college' because you know straight away what the magazine is about. 

For my main flash i decided to make it sound exciting and blunt, by doing this it is short and sweet but also tells the audience what is going to be written about. 

As this is a college magazine i decided to put in things that students need to know about what is going on in every day college life, so one of my main sells is about a New York trip for art students, this lets a large group of students know that there is going to be a trip, so start saving. 

Another main sell that i decided to put is about the freshers party, this is something that all students need to know about, so by putting it in the college magazine everyone can see it. 

I put the date small in the right hand bottom of the page because it's not that important but it is needed on the front cover. 

This is my contents page for my college magazine. I like the way it is simple and easy to read, but i also think it could be more exciting. I chose to make the the information telling you what page to look on to be set out in a different way so it looks more interesting. I also thought that doing student comments at the bttom of the page would give good feedback to the people that make the magazine and let the students that have never read the magazine before find out if it's good or not from other students their age. 

Again i kept the title the same as the front cover so that it is neat and keeps the theme. 

 

Evaluation.

This is my front cover of my college magazine. I think this is definalty the best part of my preliminary task and works well for a college magazine as it looks as if it is aimed at college students. I think the way i have used colours draws the eye in and makes it more exciting for a college magazine as they are usually quite boring. I didn't want the background to be plain so i decided to use a brick background, i thought by doing this it makes it look more busy and eye catching, instead of just a plain white background.

I think i could have made it more stylish instead of just conventional and also a bit more adult, even though i do like the way i have used colour on the front cover, i do think it is a bit childish. I think i could have made some of the stories more interesting as well.

This is my contents page for my college magazine. I think that contents pages should be simple and easy to read, i don't think they should be busy but they should be interesting to look at. I am quite pleased with the way i have done my contents page because i have stuck with the way i think a contents page should be like. In most of the magazines i have read the contents page always seems to be quite plain and simple. I decided to do a white background because it makes the colours in the writing stand out more and makes it easier for the reader to find what they are looking for.

I did student comments at the bottom of the page because i thought it would be good to include comments from students who have already read the magazine, so that students that have never read it can see the comments and help them to see what the magazine is about. I think it would be a good idea too, as it gives the magazine designers good feedback about the magazine.

I think i could have made the comments section look a bit more interesting and possibly include some pictures. I think doing this would make it a lot more eye catching.

Overall i think this task went really well and the front cover and contents page look quite good especially the front cover. I asked some students about what they thought of the front cover and contents page, most of them said it was really good for a college magazine and they would probably buy it to find out what was happening around the college and keep up to date with everything. A couple of students said it looked quite plain especially the contents page. To inprove for the next task i will use more pictures and more colour, i will also use the students feedback to improve for next time. I can use the skills i have learnt in this task to make the next task better.

Photographs.

This is the first image i took, this wouldn't be a good photo to use on the cover of the magazine because it isn't just the shoulders and up, more of the body is showing. The lighting is also very yellow, which i don't think would look very good on the cover. Where the student is standing takes the focus away from her because the background is quite busy with the picture behind her. I think having a plain background would look a lot better and the viewer would then focus much more on the student. Although this image wouldn't look very good on the cover of the magazine i'm designing, i do think that the angle is quite good because you and see all of the student instead of, for example one side of her face.

I have chosen this photo to put on the front cover of the college magazine because it shows just the right amount of the student, from the shoulders up. I also like the way she is putting her thumbs up, i wanted her to do this because in the magazine the story about her is that she has won a prize for one of her photos in photography, it shows she is proud of what she has done. The angle is good because you can see all of her face and she is looking straight at the camera which draws the reader in. The background isn't plain but compared with the first image i took, this one is by far the best image to use on the front cover becuase it doesn't draw the eye away from the subject. The natural light in this image is a lot nicer than in the first image because its brighter and looks more fresh.

Introduction.

For this preliminary task i've been asked to design a front cover for the Sussex Downs College magazine, this cover has to have one big picture in the middle of the page of a student from the shoulders up, so basically a close up of the student. My target audience for this task is college students, my peer group. I think this should be quite an easy target auidence to focus on because i can relate to what students want in the college.