Preliminary Task [A College Magazine]

I firstly took a picture of some students, out of my photos I selected a few that I would like to use in my magazine, I uploaded them onto the computer from a digital camera. I then used Photoshop to make any edits to the photo’s, erasing the background, then after saving it uploaded it into adobe Illustrator and completed the task. I could therefore use fonts, backgrounds, text and other features required in a magazine.

I titled my magazine ‘The College Life’ as I thought it relates well with my main image as it is of a college student and college is the progress to become a better successful person later on in life. I added the necessities of any magazine; a title, sell lines and a barcode. Overall I think my magazine looks unprofessional, however considering this was my first time producing a magazine I believe the preliminary task helped me to gain a lot of skills and helped me to learn Photoshop and illustrator well, it also enabled me to realise I need to add a lot more professional features to my final magazine. It helped me to get a better understanding of the media industry and how a lot of time and effort needs to go into making the magazine to profection.

The main image was poorly constructed on the page as I gave it a special effect in Photoshop to make it look materialised it looked unprofessional and had no meaning within the magazine, I therefore know to ensure that I keep the magazine tidy as well as interesting the reader, the picture was rough around the edges a skill I learnt from adobe illustrator was feathering I therefore made the picture slightly more tidy. The sell lines within the preliminary task were good for the magazine being a school magazine as I has sell lines such as “how to get better marks”, “interview with top a-level student” these sell lines entice students to want to read the magazine. The colour scheme is good and not over crowded with different colours plain colours of black, white, Blue and pink.

Most magazine's use the colour scheme of Black & White as it gives the magazine a mature and professional look, so this was good to have within my preliminary magazine and something I will consider to use in my “final magazine”. Other good features are the star promoting “free” this would attract someone to get the magazine. Although the magazine is still plain and hasn’t got any eye-catching features or BOLD colours that will interest the reader.
In my college contents page I used different font types and I used the same colours throughout the page. The disadvantage of using different font types is it makes the magazine look untidy and unprofessional; I also used a different font type for my title “contents” the font did not suite the magazine as it is more of a cartoon style writing. The contents page was a little plain however the information on the contents was straight forward therefore the reader knows exactly what relevant page they are going to. The photos on the contents page had not been edited in photoshop so did not look very professional however they were good shot photos for a “college magazine”.

The structure of the preliminary contents page helped me to distinguish that for my final “music magazine” the contents page needs to be appealing to the audience and have good professional images as well as more features in the magazine and preferable freebee’s to make the magazine more appealing and people wishing to purchase the magazine.

I also know that for my final magazine I should have similar fonts and keep to the same colour scheme as well as the colour scheme being the same or similar to the front cover, this will keep the magazines appearance looking sophisticated and professional. I will also ensure that the magazine doesn’t look to plain and boring and I will also add promotions to make the magazine more eye-catching.