Process of making my magazine covers

Process of making the magazine covers

To make the magazine covers, I used fireworks, created a blank A4 sized document and started to create my potential magazine covers. During this stage I used a variety of shapes to design the layout of the magazine, including rectangles, stars etc. I then began to create aspects of the magazine such as the masthead and cover lines. I have also considered the placement of these aspects. In total, I have made six potential magazine covers that could be used in the final design. I have also made two ‘mock-up’ covers.  I believe that it is important as to where certain sections of the magazine covers are placed as this is what readers of the magazine would see first. It is therefore important to entice the reader with the use of an appealing magazine cover. I have tried to make the magazine covers vibrant and interesting as they would be sold to students of the school.

I have chosen to make these decisions as the magazine must appeal to the audience in question whilst maintaining an adequate level of professionalism. This is important because the magazine must have high sales in order for the project to succeed, if it were to happen. It must have a high standard of professionalism because the magazine would not sell if it was too informal. The magazine may also appeal to parents of the students buying the magazine, as areas such as parent information and important dates may also be included at some stage of the magazine.

After completing one ‘mock-up’ cover, I was given feedback from a fellow student. I had a total of three suggestions that could be added to the design in order to improve the potential front cover. The first suggestion was to add a banner to the design. I was told that this would add more colour to my design, as this is clearly something that the design was lacking. I proceeded to add a banner to my design, which dramatically improved the appearance. The second suggestion was to perhaps include a background picture that included students as appose to a picture of the school. I have not yet taken action for this particular improvement as I do not think that it is vital to the overall success of my coursework. The third and final improvement suggested to me was to ensure that all the fonts used in my design were of the same size, as it was highlighted that the size of certain numbers did not match that of the letters. I proceeded to make this change to my design as I feel that it was necessary to maintain a good level of professionalism within the design so that it could appeal to the desired audience(s).

Upon completing these changes to my potential magazine cover, I have noticed that the appearance of the design has been improved dramatically. I will therefore hope to receive more feedback from both students and my teacher.