Preliminary Task - The Finished College Magazine

In today's lesson, I have finished this preliminary task in which I had to create a college magazine front cover and contents page. It was a good experience as it improved my skills in photo editing. Here is my evaluation of it.

Front cover of my college magazine

Contents page of my college magazine

Evaluation of my work

I had to create both the front cover and contents page with different editing software. I have made the front cover with Photoshop, and the Contents page with InDesign. This allowed me to expand my knowledge and skills in both these editing applications which will help me in the future when I will be creating my own music magazine. 

For the front cover, I had to take a photo. The photo is of a student, holding books and a pen and also wearing a bag. As this is what the viewer sees first, it had to be of a student so his presence connotes what this magazine is about, which is about life in college. The student is smiling, which connotes that he likes going to college and gives a positive vibe to whoever is looking at it. However, the background of the picture is not a plain colour, which can be distracting to the eye and not look very professional. However, I edited the background as I made it blurry so the student is in focus. The cover lines were much difficult to make. Firstly, I had to put on every line of text onto different layers that did not fit into one line because of the amount of space on the page. I made the masthead stand out. I wanted the colour scheme to suit the photo, so I made it black. Under it, the magazine & college's website is white because if it was orange (which was the third colour of the colour scheme), it would not be readable as it would merge into the background. The slogan of the magazine is orange as this is the colour the stands out the most on that area of the photo of the cover. The slogan also connotes that this college is a magazine for a specific college, not a general magazine for college students. I have created an orange puff with a the word 'Win!' in capital letters to attract attention towards the competition and its prizes which the reader can find out more about in the magazine. I tried to make the cover lines stand out and make the magazine's contents seem interesting. As it is the front cover of my magazine, I had to put on a barcode which I placed in the lower left corner, with the date this issue came out and how much it costs. I think I have met magazines' conventions with my front cover, however I could've put on more cover lines. The reason I didn't do it I didn't have much time to think about the coverlines and creating the ones that are on there took quite a bit of my time I could spend on it. I used a sans-serif font as it suggests casualty and informality which is what college is like and the students are like. 

For the contents page, I wanted create a double page spread, which I had to take more photos for. The background is the college's football fields, and the other photo is of a graffiti from around the college buildings and also relate to art which is part of the wide range of subjects in the college. I have written the contents in a rectangle box, however, it was not readable, so I decided to colour the boxes in with a colour that goes with the photo in the background. I chose olive green as it suited the page. I made the text white with black outlines. However, I made the boxes in which the text are not 100% opaque but a bit transparent, so even if faintly, the photo in the background can be seen. I put the photo of the graffiti above the contents on the second page as I thought it looked nice and made it seem professional. I have used the same sans-serif fonts on the contents page to reflect the font cover. 

In conclusion, I think I have done well and improved my skills in photo editing, but there are still improvements that I could've made to make it look better. When I am going to be making my music magazine, I will make sure it looks even more professional and better.