Evaluation of task

contents page i designed in InDesign

Today I designed the contents page for my magazine, Lewes Mag. I stuck to the design of my flat plan, just simple rows., because I think its easier to read, and a contents page should be informative.I chose red font to be consistent with my front cover which also has red writing. I wanted to keep everything consistent because I feel it will give a stronger sense of branding. At the bottom of the contents page I've included a banner promoting the magazine, and there is also a similar one on the front cover. I decided to have subheadings with the titles of the articles, then underneath them I allowed some space for a brief description of that article, in smaller font. I had the main heading in black writing because I wanted to make it bolder, and seperate it from the subheadings. Overall I think this is an effective contents page, because it informs you where to read for what you want to read, it is also clear to read, I also think it is nicer to look at because of a simple design, than if it was messy with too many colours and too much text.

Front cover i designed in InDesign

this was the front cover that I made in Adobe InDesign

I have followed some of the ideas from my flat plan, the photo being the main feature of the cover and the title being all the way across the top of the page.

I have the story titles down the side of the page, as I did in the flat plan, though on the other side because it was easier in the design process to do that. I included the story titles because it lets potential readers know what will be inside the magazine, which is important because they might not read something if they dont know whats inside.

I also had the statement stretching across the bottom of the page, to advertise the magazine, the word FREE emphasised in capitals, as people would see the word first and it is more likely to make them buy the magazine

I used two bright colours, turquoise and red, to grab potential readers attention. The reason I only used two colours is because I didn't want there to be too many colours and for it to look messy.

Other features I have on this front cover includes the date, and the issue number. I felt it was important to include these because they are conventions of magazine covers, and I wanted the front cover to look as realistic as possible.

I also think the photo I used for the front cover is effective because it is a medium close up, and she has eye contact with the reader. The girl in the photo is smiling which I think invites readers in more, and shows that the magazine is not too serious a magazine, which is also shown through the brightness and clashing of the colour scheme.

flat plan for cover & contents

This is my flat plan

for my contents

and my front cover.

On my front cover I have the title at the top to grab attention and the image in the middle so people will be very aware what will be in the magazine. At the bottom I have a banner which lets the reader know it is free and also a statement saying its the number one magazine, which will hopefully draw readers in. Down the side of the cover are the stories which will be in the magazine, which again gives the readers some insight into what they are picking up, and allows readers to decide if they want to read on. if the story titles interest them they will want to read.

For the contents page I have a very basic and easy to read design because contents is to inform people and not to persuade them to read. However, I have added the bottom banner again just to give magazine layout some conformity to the front cover design.

Taking photos & creating flat plan

last lesson we took photos for the cover of our college magazine. These photos will be images we need to interest the readers of the magazine with, therefore we took photos of members of staff and students, which we think would look interesting on a lewes college magazine.
The photos needed to be medium close ups with the subject of the photo making eye contact with the reader to draw them in. This kind of photo is very convential for a magazine cover.
In this lesson, I also made a flat plan of the magazine. A flat plan is simply where you sketch a out a rough design of what you want the layout of the page to look like.

This is a photo that we took that wasn;'t very succesful. The subjects eyes are shut and they are pulling a funny face, whereas for the photo for the front cover of a magazine, you want eye contact with the reader from the photo, and maybe a smile to make readers feel more positive about reading. Thi photo would not invite a reader in i dont think because it doesn't look very professional.

I think however that this photo is very succesful, so i will use this one for my magazine front cover. The subject ha good eye contact, a smile and it is a medium close up, and ideal camera shot for a magazine front cover.

Brief of task & naming magazine

This is my blog for making the front cover of a college magazine.
We are going to produce the magazine front cover in Adobe InDesign. We will use our own original photos, that we will take in lesson, to use on the cover. We are also going to do a mock-up of the layout for the contents page of the college magazine, but we don't need to include images or detailed text.
In this blog i am going to record what I have been working on for this task, every lesson and will include print screens of my work.
I have decided to call the magazine Lewes Mag. I used the word 'mag' because it is more informal than magazine, and i want it to be informal to appeal to a young audience at college. The title also informs you about the magazine, as it is a 'Lewes' magazine