Preliminary Task

Front Cover

For the preliminary task, I had to create a front cover and contents page for a college magazine. I had to use as many different tools and conventions, to appeal to the target audience of 16- 19 year old, males and females.

Contents Page

I used lots of tools on 'Photoshop CC 2015' to create the front cover and contents page. For example, I used the brush tool to edit my models makeup on the first page. I then dropped the opacity and blurred it so she didn't look too fake and harsh. I brightened her teeth and lipstick, to add to her femininity and appeal to the target audience. I chose this image because the model was smiling and looked happy, this connotes that Sunderland College is a nice, cheerful environment to continue furthur education in. By using the eyedropper tool, helped me incorporate the same colours from Sunderland College's website and posters for this magazine. Therefore, I created a running house theme through out, which made it more like a professional magazine. Furthermore, the text for the masthead and cover lines were from a typography website called 'dafont.com'. I could choose which I thought best suited this product, hence the one I picked was called 'College Boy'. In my opinion, this worked well with the type of magazine I was creating due to the squareness of the text, it reminded me of a school football team or school club font. Moreover, I included language that would appeal to the target audience, like 'Win' and 'Exams'. Most teenagers notice these words due to being around them so frequently. Not just young adolescents, but adults too, are always up for being in with a chance to win something free, especially a prize like an iMac or a new iPhone 6s. That is why I chose these products, as they would come in handy for teenagers. On another note, exams are always brought up with 16-19 year olds (my target audience), especially ones sitting their GCSE'S and A Levels.

I really liked creating the front cover as it allowed me to get back into using photoshop after my long Summer off (I studied Media Studies at GCSE and got an A* in my coursework, hence why my skills on photoshop are advanced). I thought using this programme was easy due to my past experience, and find helping others with it rather enjoyable. The only thing I disliked about designing the preliminary front cover was choosing a main image, as I had quite a few to pick from. Although I think I  ended up with the right decision on the picture I used. I didn't really think anything was too hard about designing the front cover. Conclusively, I think the conventions I have made such as the puff and adding effects like 'Stroke' will help me when creating my final product, if I decide to add them onto my front cover page. (However, I think using the 'Stroke' effect really developed a school vibe, so maybe for a rap genre this really wouldn't fit.)

On the contents page, I added a new font for the headline 'Contents', as I thought it looked fun, which is how many teenagers are nowadays. I added a lime green banner around the page to make it professional, which is where the headline overlapped over. I created a graphic at the bottom of the page using the 'Rectangle' tool on Photoshop, and altered the transparency so they blended well together and was able to see through each shape. I again used the eyedropper tool to use the precise colours. For my own music magazine, I will try and make a illustrated graphic as I think it really identifies what organisation/ magazine the page belongs too and makes it stand out from others. The main image is of the model posing towards the camera, with her own camera in her hand. I think this promotes photography at the college, and could interest many people reading the magazine. I thought this would attract the target audience due to the women looking fashionable in her 'Dr Martins' and holding a camera (thus many teenagers are taking photos of everything and anything nowadays).

Likewise, I enjoyed making this contents page, due to the fact it was fun to design and experimenting with the different college colours. One thing I would add would be the masthead on the contents page. On all experienced magazines, the name of the magazine is placed on the contents page again, which is what I forgot to do. Additionally, when making my actual product I will make sure all of the sub- headings and page numbers are placed in the same layout and are the same size. If this is not done, I feel like it would make my magazine less effective in looking realistic and well made.

Overall, I really enjoyed creating this preliminary task. I feel as though it will help me when creating my own music magazine. I know where I can improve and what I would do differently for a different genre of magazine.