Preliminary task- evaluation

Overall I think that my final front cover and contents page for my school magazine was very successful. My final pieces were very similar to my flat plans which helped me to create a good quality front cover and contents. I learnt many new techniques and processes whilst creating these pages which will help me in my final piece. I learnt how to use Photoshop which I had never used before. This enabled me to create a much more professional front cover image as it let me place the image over the masthead. I think that my front cover was successful and suits its purpose and would appeal to my target audience.

I have learnt a number of lessons during the course of this project which will help me when creating my final project.  I have learnt that I need to create layers for each page so that I can lock things in place or hide them when working on different areas. I also need to spend a bit more time and add more detail to my planning as this will enable me to create my final piece quicker.

Preliminary task- contents page

After completing my front cover for my school magazine I created a contents page. I am very happy with the way in which my contents page turned out as it looks quite realistic and conventional. I really like the way in which the colours all work together and the montage of images down the side really give the reader a taste of what the magazine has to offer. I kept the colours used similar to those of which used on my front cover to keep the house style consistent. I made sure that there were not many empty spaces as this can make the page look less appealing. I also included lots of images to give the reader an idea as to what the magazine includes.

Preliminary task- front cover

Below is my completed preliminary task. It shows the techniques that I have learnt using the program InDesign. The masthead is in bold and in a suitable text for the name. The main image has been cut out on Photoshop and placed into the InDesign document. It has also been slightly edited using a inner and outer glow and a shadow. The colours used have been kept to a minimum to keep it looking professional and realistic. I have also experimented with different font styles and sizes. This has been the first time that I have used both these programs. The target audience for my school magazine is year 12 and 13.  I used articles that would appeal to them to make my cover successful.

Prelimininary task- initial front cover design

After looking at existing school magazine front covers I had to come up with my own. I have decided to include a medium shot of a 6th former holding a folder as my front cover image. The overall layout of my front cover is quite similar to existing magazines however I will try to make it more unique.