Magazine Preliminary Task & Review

For my preliminary task I created a magazine for the students of City of Sunderland College. 

To create my magazine I first produced research by looking on various college websites, looking at particular events which took place which would be good as features for my magazine. I also looked on the BBC education website for any other information I could use in my magazine. I then researched the typical conventions of a magazine, to ensure my magazine looked professional and kept the typical conventions. To do so, on my front cover, I ensured my title was place in bold writing across the centre of the top of the page and my barcode in the bottom corner. I also placed all magazine features around the outer edge of the magazine cover. This ensures not to distract or interfere with the centre image which is placed on the magazine, as if the text were to be placed in various places around the cover and on top of the image, this would be confusing and look unprofessional. On my contents cover, I kept the traditional column layout for the pages, with page numbers placed in front of each page. However i did place the column at an angle, to create a more unique and stylised effect. The colours I used on both my front cover and contents page, consist of very bold solid colours such as pink, blue and yellow etc. I felt these worked extremely well on the front cover as they allowed the text to be read and seen easily by the reader. However if I were to reproduce my magazine cover, i may have limited the colour palette to make it less harsh on the readers eye. The font I used on both the front cover and the contents page consist of Cambria and Myraid Pro. I chose these as they are very classic font types, which makes the text much easier to read and makes the theme more simplistic and easy on the eye. The fonts are also applied in a bold weight, to ensure the can be seen and read easily when on top of the background photograph, from both close up and far away. The image I used on my front cover was of me standing in front of the college sign in the college grounds. Here I used a medium shot, which was featured from the waist up, as this is a common shot type used on the cover of magazines. It also allowed the image to appear on eye level with the reader, which is key as this is the focal point of the entire cover. On the contents page I used two images, both of exterior views of the college. I felt this was appropriate as the magazine would be intended for the students of the college, therefore they would easily recognise the photographs, which adds a sense of relate-ability. I created my magazine cover using Photoshop, which I found was much easier then publisher, as it allowed me to create layers and create a variety of other shapes. It also allowed me to add various pre-programmed photo shop brushes to add extra effects and ultimately make my magazine look more realistic. From creating this preliminary task, I gained a improved my skills and gained more information, that could be extremely helpful when creating my media coursework product, a music magazine. Although I had previously learnt Photoshop and had quite a good knowledge on how to work it, I learnt a lot of other techniques like experimenting with colours and using brushes and textures. I also learnt what looked good on a magazine cover and contents page and what font was the most appealing to the audience.