Preliminary Task; Front Cover

This is the front cover of my college magazine. 

I believe it is attractive and fun rather than boring. Also the colours; yellow blue and red show a feeling of excitement which brings together the magazine. This should be present as the magazine celebrates success of the students and the achievements that the college has made. The target audience for this magazine can be divided between two groups which are students and parents, not just the parents. It is at a good standard, providing relevant information to the reader.  The mid-shot photograph is placed in the middle of the cover. The student's attitude in the photograph represents she is pleased and happy. Also the body language shows that is pleased with herself. It is inviting the reader as looking straight at them. It will intrigue the reader into finding out what the students achievement is. They are many different fonts that are used which brings captivated emotions into the cover. Subsequently, I have used a competition to engage young readers from the age group of 16 to 19 year old, as they have more enthusiasm to be involved in competition.
A skill that I have achieved in the course of making this cover is cutting out the picture which includes using photo shot. This was a program that I had never come across before so a need more practise before undertaking my actual magazine.

However, they are several things that I would change such as using catchy phrases which can draw the reader's attentions. Additionally I would consider using a professional font that allow me to be competitive in the magazine industry, as the number of fonts that are used make the cover look disorganised and crude. The Front cover is the give away of the magazine saw that has to be up to standard, otherwise readers will leave yours and pick a  higher quality one. Also readers should feel the magazine is value for money which contains a considerable amount of information but reader friendly; pictures accompany the text. Even though the colours are cheerful and bring happiness to the page but I would consider capitalising colours that would invite readers to the magazine not draw them away as they may feel its childish and targeted at a younger age group. The bottom end of the magazine is used to post competitions. Whereas I posted my as a heading which was wrong saw I am going to change that when making my actual magazine.

Content Page

This is my preliminary mock up page for my content page for a college magazine. I have developed my ideas further by producing a content page for this magazine. This will help me when I am planning my actual magazine. I have structured the layout of the context page which suggests professionalism along with neatness. Whereas if things were placed in a random selection it would result in the reader getting confused. The background color of my content page is yellow. The heading that consist of the largest font on the page will bring the page out. Also the sub-titles suggest all the topics that will be included in the magazine. This is a good way to split information into sections. It makes it easier for reader to conceive whether would like to purchase it or not. The font size would be smaller than the heading but larger than the explanatory text. The color of the font would be red; this would make the font stand out from the rest. Further more, below the sub-titles I have included explanatory text that explain what the topic may contain. This should he sharp and accurate as it will grab the readers attention but not give away all the story that the article is based upon. The font size for this would be a normal, readable size and the color would be blue,  keeping to the theme.  On this page I have added several pictures. The reason for this is that readers enjoy taking look at pictures and would interest them to go more depth were that picture was taken. The main picture; student standing in a formal outfit that it taking over the third half of the page brings atmosphere into the page. It's like someone standing looking directly at the reader inviting them into the magazine. The six other pictures hat are present show student's studying, trip to new york and lastly when the student representative speaks out. To conclude the pictures sub-headings are required to en-show the reader understands the reasoning behind them.

On the hand, they are many things that can be improved on my content page, for instance the background color is highly bright, as it is yellow. This will irritate the readers eyes after a certain time, leading to no purchase of the magazine. The content page is the next biggest factor that encourages the reader to purchase the product so has to be eye- catching. I believe all the colors being put together on the page will clash and confuse the reader and not allow them to read on. Also the large number of pictures may distract the reader from the text, as they may think they is no point buying the magazine when I have seen most the pictures. Lastly one more criticism that could be constructed is the heading it should be in the middle of the page, not thrown in the corner which may look like a sub-title just in a larger font.

Overall I believe the magazine has come to a success as it's the first time. I have developed my skills and have learnt more skills that will contribute to my actual magazine. For my my magazine I think I'm going blend both dark and bright colors together rather than having it too bright or dull. Pictures attract my attention when I'm reading a magazine so I will include couple as both female and males enjoy looking down at a pretty women. Finally I am going to produce a questionnaire that i will give to number of people from my target market and look at what they'd like to see in the magazine. The feedback will allow me to  produce a magazine that will be different from the mainstream one's but still keep to what the audience wants to see.