Drafts For My Front Cover

I have made four front cover drafts before i came to my final cover. The following are covers that i don't think are completed or either don't have the right elements for my college magazine or my audience.

I didn't use this cover because it looks very basic. The picture itself isn't a good one because it has got a shadow behind the model has a shadow behind her so this picture couldn't be used for a magazine. The masthead is very hard to read because the font is very swirly and i don't think it would be appealing to college students. The box with all the headlines in is also a bad idea because it makes the page look very empty and uninteresting and looks as if its blocking part of the picture out almost like hiding something it would look much better if the text was spread out. I also don't like the sun shaped box with the price inside it, it makes the magazine look very ammature and it is not relevant to the magazine I am creating. The colour scheme is also a bad idea because there is not really one therefore it wouldn't be very attractive to the eye its just a very messy cover.
I used the name ' The College Times' on this draft cover and the one below as a spoof of the newspaper 'The Times' but obviously for college students, this was to crate the feel of a sophisticated newspaper, but i don't really like the name after thinking about it because its not very imaginative I'm sure I can come up with a better name.

This draft cover has the same picture as the last, which i will not be using in my final draft. The masthead is much clearer to read than the last, the yellow stands out well on the red background, this is also a classic  style on many magazines and newspapers to catch the eye because it is very bold. This draft has more of a colour scheme than the last draft with the blue, yellow and red but it still looks a bit messy because the masthead looks very different to the rest of the page, rather than blending in. I also really dislike the heart shaped box with the price in because it look very girly so therefore men may be put of buying it even though i made the heart blue to appeal to men, I do think it looks too girly.

 

This is an incomplete front cover draft. I used a bar code I took of the Internet and cropped of the numbers and added my own. Its a very basic picture but I think the colour of the background blends well and gives the cover a boldness which is eye catching to passers by. The masthead is yellow again because i liked the way it went so well with the last draft cover. I didn't finish this cover because I didn't like the picture. The model is doing a very generic pose with his thumbs up, were as I would prefer a picture of him smiling and just looking content therefore I will not be using this picture for my final draft. I used the name 'Student Echo' to create the imagery of college student's telling others whats going on in the college, like an echo of news.



Research for Preliminary Task Continued

For the Preliminary Task we also had to create a contents page. My Research and ideas are within the following.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2UyVT6VL98jTMBL-yulNNg

This contents page is for a racing Magazine. I used a racing magazine because it is audience specific and i could not find a good enough example of a college magazine to study from. I liked this contents page because of the use of a big picture, instead of a plain background and even with headlines over the top the page doesn't look too busy because the sky is used for space which helps give focus to the car.

I also really like the font the title has because it looks like the light bulbs used in new traffic lights, which is very relevant to the magazine.

http://elizabethmotolese.com/GustoMagazine.html

This is a contents page for a cookery magazine. I chose this contents page because i think it is really well put together. I like the bold page numbers either within the pictures or next to the headlines it makes it easy for the reader to find the page and it makes the page more interesting. The smaller pictures next to the headlines makes the page more appealing and may drive the reader to turn to that page. I also like the design of the title with the spoon going though it, it gives relevance to the audience and is very colour co-ordinated with the rest of the page. The use of colours all matching together within the page makes it very eye catching and easy for the reader to understand.

Research for Preliminary Task

For my Preliminary Task I researched the other college magazines on the Internet to get an idea of what my front cover and contents page should look like.

( •http://themeshlife.com/home/tag/janelle-monae/ )  I liked this magazine because it says that its 'for college students by college students' so should be achievable for me to do a magazine to similar standard. I noted the style of the font, is still readable but different in a way that would appeal to young people. I like how it has headlines and sub- headlines explaining the headline more, this grabs more attention from the audience.
The contents of the headlines are very age specific, because this is an American college magazine, for example 'dorm room makeover', so this may not be the best style for me to use within my front cover.
This front cover looks very planned out because all the font and even the picture is very colour co-ordinated, the colours black, white, red and blue got together very well and make the cover look very simple and easy to look at, i will take this on board when it comes to putting my front cover together.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.campuslifemagazine.ca/images/campus_life_magazine_cover_spring2008_large.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.campuslife#

I liked this front cover because its a college magazine with a twist, this magazine could be described as a music magazine, this is because of the bottom right headings of bands and also the style of the person on the front cover. The magazine could have the genre of heavy rock or alternative music.
On the other hand it is a very good front cover for a college,  because it gives room for a wide audience and also caters well for both sexes, it has a headline about the gamers lounge for mainly the men and a perfect wardrobe most likely aimed at women.

Introduction

For my Media AS coursework, the preliminary brief states that i should create the front cover and a contents page of a magazine. The front cover should feature a photograph of a student in medium close up. I have set up this blog to record an accurate account of my project, and hopefully produce a successful magazine!