The Brief
Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce thye front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the contents page to demonstate their grasp of DTP.
Examples of college magazine covers:
the magazine below is a medium shot of a stereotypical student holding books. This gives a good impression of college life and that is is more about work and education rather than parties. The house style uses strong colours which links the cover lines to the mast head, i plan to take this method for my magazine.
The sectrets of a magazine cover design (the key ingredients)
The magazine covers key feature a face and body shot of
Cheryl Cole, a celebrity making a comeback, the pull line reads ‘CHERYL THE
REBIRTH’ this theme is also continued with the use of Cheryl’s strong pose
looking directly into the camera and then contrasted with the softness of her
hands against her face. The cover of
this particular magazine has been kept quite clean without many other stories
which may be in the magazine and to keep the focus on Cheryl and ‘the rebirth’.
Elle magazine generally focuses on fashion and celebrities.
It is published by Hearst magazines who also publish similar magazines such as
Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan.
The ideology of this particular issue is to use Cheryl as an
independent female to whom the target audience can relate. Next to the image of
Cheryl one of the cover lines read ‘how to get what you want’ putting this next
to an image of Cheryl Cole is a good idea because she is a young successful
woman, someone who others can idealise.
The target audience of Elle magazine is women around their
20’s as all of the main stories are things young women stereotypically would be
interested in such as ‘new hair looks’ and a ‘shoe special’
There is a mixed representation on the magazine; the use of
Cheryl Cole in a leather jacket gives you the idea of being rebellious however
the use of colours pale pink and beige also contrast this into a sexier
feminine feel. This idea is then continued into her makeup with edgy dark eyes
and then a nude lip. So it’s edgy yet vulnerable.
inspirations/mood board.
inspirations/mood board.
The type of institution that would use this kind of design
would be an educational institution who is promoting themselves typically as a
hard working environment. A convention for this type of magazine would be a mid-shot
happy student holding books or folders.
The intended audience of the magazine was students of the
college and secondary school students who are considering going to Wyke College,
the magazine cover is not about Wyke itself but by using ‘Wyke college – 99.9%
pass rate’ as the main pull line it advertises Wyke as a good institution for
learning, which is important for the target audience. I tried to attract this
type of audience by using bright colours and images of some of the college
students. I tried to link the house style to the specific student in the
picture by making the mast head and some of the cover lines the same colour as
his head phones. The picture of the student in the picture is happy this makes
the college more inviting to the potential student thinking about studying at Wyke.
The masthead I used for the magazine I created really stands
out, it’s nice and easy to read and it gets across to the audience what the
magazine is about. It reads ‘College Lifestyle’ this makes it specific enough
for the magazine to be just about college whilst also being broad enough to
talk about anything in college and being able to advertise different colleges
such as Wyke. I used the Wyke logo on the front cover so it really stands out I
put it underneath the mast head to suggest it is the most important thing the
magazine has to offer.
The layout of my front cover is pretty simple, I used two
main colours throughout all of the cover lines and the splash, were I
advertised ‘a free trip to Paris with this week draw’. However I used a strong
yellow on my main pull line which was ‘exams tips on changing your life!’ I chose
to do this because I felt was the sort of thing that would appeal to the target
audience the most.
To conclude I think the cover has clarity and style whilst
appealing to the target audience who are young teenagers needing advice on
college. The cover lines were relevant and to the point but if I were to re-do
it I would use a different picture perhaps with space above the students head
to accommodate the mast head.
