Anatomy of a Magazine Cover

Main Task

The main task required me to research into the different kinds of music magazines on the market and to eventually produce a front cover, contents page, and double page spread for my own music magazine. I initially researched a music magazine cover and the different techniques used to produce it, I then went on to research semiotics and analyse the use of those on the cover of another music magazine. I then created a mood board, readership profile, and photography ideas page in order to have enough background knowledge of my target audience to create a strong magazine. I then did photography for the front cover, double page spread and contents page and edited the images in photoshop. I then went on to plan, draft and create my double page spread, contents page and front cover. I was then required to answer evaluative questions of my work.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Final Pieces

These are the final pieces for my preliminary task. I have completed both a front cover and contents page for a student magazine.

I used a purple background colour in order to stay in keeping with the college colour. I used a student from the college in order to help the target audience of the students in Prior Pursglove relate to the magazine. I used a simple logo so it's easily identifiable and I made sure I used a colour for the text that stood out against the purple background, that is why I chose yellow.

For my contents page, I tried to stay in keeping with some of the examples I had looked at during the course of my research. I made sure the colour scheme was followed and made the contents straight forward and short, so the students feel more inclined to read the articles in full. I really loved the idea of overlapping the images and making them look as though they are real, tangible photographs placed onto the page.

 

Contents Page Research

I looked at several different contents pages from different magazines to inspire my own contents page in my student magazine and found some very useful and effective ideas.

Front Cover Research

I then conducted some research into student magazine front covers to get some ideas for my own student magazine front cover.

 

 I then made a plan for my own student magazine front cover just using some basic ideas from the ones I had researched.

Photoshop Skills

I edited the images for my magazine front cover using Photoshop.

Photoshoot 1

For my initial photoshoot I had to take pictures of events around the college. This was a good opportunity to practice my photography skills as I hadn't really dealt with a camera and a more professional approach to taking pictures before. I went all around the college collecting images, trying to practice framing and getting the right composition for an image, and trying to get a range of shot sizes. I then made a contact sheet of the photos I had taken. 

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task required me to complete a front cover and contents page for a student magazine. I had to carry out my own photography around my college, using the natural scenery and asking friends to act as subjects for the images used in the magazine, and later edit these in Photoshop in order to make them look professional and finished off. After this I had to begin creating my front cover. This meant converting the documents from Photoshop into high quality JPEG images to be transferred onto my front cover in 'In Design'. I then had to decide on a colour scheme and typeface, and create an effective, eye-catching logo which would appeal to the target audience. I then was required to conduct some research into contents pages and decide on a style, continuing the same colour scheme as my front cover, and had to come up with some interesting ideas for mock magazine articles. I then had to complete a PowerPoint document, documenting my work and the progress made in the task.