When I was asked to make a magazine cover and contents page for school I chose to look at sixth form because I believed it would be easy for me being a sixth former myself. It took a lot of planning but I managed to get a picture for my story in a free lesson.
Now that I have made my front cover I am pleased with it because I focused on the rule of three with colours; keeping it simple and easy for the reader to clearly see the important parts of the story. The image fits with my main story and I have kept it plain with little colour and not over crowded it with information, as this would bore my target audience and less sales would be made. I think one of the best things is the imagery on the contents page, i have included pictures that relate to my stories inside so without having to read the text you know what to expect which may appeal more to my reader than having to scan through lots of text.
The contents I think I could have improved on because I was told that I didn’t need to make the text have a glowing effect as it wasn’t as clear to the reader, so when I make my music magazine I will make sure I don’t use an effect on the text. Also on the front page i would have liked the image to be a bit brighter. The light from the window was behind the two girls so the effect wasn’t as good. Therefore I will address this in my music magazine by editing the picture before I put it in place.
I think I have focused on the target audience which was sixth formers at the school, as I have used peers for my picture and main story which would draw their attention more than if it was a younger year or older adult. However teachers and people related to the school may also be interested as i have included stories from teachers such as ‘Fishleighs thinking corner’ and ‘when Pixie Lott came to the school’.
A major part of my learning from this preliminary task is the use of Macromedia Fireworks. I wasn’t confident about the use of fireworks as I have never used it properly before this, although I had used it in GCSE for my ICT website. I have learnt how to crop the image, change the background and add in different fonts and effects which will really benefit me when creating my music magazine. Not only the use of fireworks but i have become more confident with my photography skills and how to use different parts of an image for greater effect. Lastly when I was analysing magazine covers and looking at one in detail I came across words I didn’t know before; different parts of the magazine to look at like the ‘masthead’ or ‘puff’.