For the preliminary task, I did a college magazine and I was fairly pleased with the following, because it was my first time doing anything like that and it went better than I expected: the photography- for my main picture and the picture I used for the contents page, I took a medium close shot of a college student and then manipulated the picture(s) on Photoshop and InDesign; for example, I wanted the model I used for my front cover, to be the main focus and did not want the masthead covering her, therefore I used the rubber tool on Photoshop to erase the bits of the masthead that were covering her, to give the allusion that the masthead was in fact behind her. For my contents page, I did not need to manipulate the picture as it was small and I wanted the writing to be the focus of the contents page, as opposed to the pictures, however I used Photoshop to create my front cover, whereas I used InDesign to create my contents page as I assumed it would be easier due to the fact I was not using a focus picture with writing and was merely adding pictures to my text. The layout of my front cover was meant to be bold and attract the reader's attention, I attempted to create this effect by using bright colours on my text and placing it around and on the model, however not around the models face because I wanted to create the effect that the model would be looking straight at the reader. The layout for my contents page was very simplistic and the bright background was the focus. The reason I chose the colour blue for my background is because it represents a peaceful, calming feeling and I want the reader to be relaxed when reading the magazine; the pictures are small because they are only meant to be a slight insight into the magazine, whereas the titles for the articles on the contents page were meant to be the most concentrated on. I tried to emphasize this by making the text black, as it is a strong, bold colour which would ensure that it grabs the most attention as opposed to anything else. On my front cover, the use of text was arranged so that it would be short but snappy- thus enticing the reader into wanting to know more. For example, a cover line on my front page was: "SHOCK EXAM SCANDAL?" I made the cover line red and all in capitals, the reason for the use of red is that it is a bright colour that will automatically catch people's attention and the use of the word "scandal" makes people curious as to what could possibly have happened.
As the college magazine was only a preliminary task, there is plenty of things that I would need to improve on for when I am doing the real thing. These improvements are:
-The main picture for the front cover- in the college magazine the model is standing in front of a boring, plain, white background and in simple college appropriate clothes. For the real thing, the model would be standing in front of an interesting background and wearing a more glamorous attire, to fit in with the theme of the magazine. Also, the picture for the college magazine is dim and the real magazine would need a brighter picture to stand out.
-The masthead- 'LSC' is not an enticing masthead and when I do the real magazine, I would need a masthead that will stand out and attract the readers attention.
-The use of colour- the colours for my front cover, despite being bold which is the aim I was going for, clash and to improve I would need to limit the use of colours so that it is not distracting and taking the attention away from the model and the actual cover lines.
- The contents page- It is currently boring and plain which makes it unexciting to look at. For improvement I would add better pictures and make sure they are all original, also I would make the text on the contents page look more fun to read as opposed to what it looks like now which is merely all squashed together and unappealing to look at. A final improvement for the contents page is the use of background colours, although the blue was there to represent a calming feeling when reading the magazine, the blue is too bold and would need to be a more subtle shade if I were to use it in the real thing.
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