College magazine contents and cover page evaluation

In order to make my cover and my contents page, I used the software Adobe Photoshop. I used many different tools to achieve my cover and contents page such as the move tool, eraser tool, magic wand tool, horizontal type tool, gradient tool and more. I wanted to achieve a very professional magazine by having a mast head at the top of the page and the cover star to be covering it slightly, to have cover lines, puffs, barcode and a colour scheme, which hits all the conventions of a magazine. I felt as if I could do this with Adobe Photoshop as I am more comfortable with it than any other software, and I feel as if I can do much more on it than other software’s.

In my opinion, I feel as if I have done a good job with both the cover and contents page, however there are also some improvements and adjustments that can be made to make it even better. I like where I have placed my mast head, as I have put it behind the cover star’s head. This allows the cover page to look much more professionally made. I’m also happy with the way my cover star(s) in both my cover page and contents page are smiling as it allows the pages to look enticing towards students, as the cover star(s) smiling connotes their enjoyment of college and education. I’m satisfied with the colour scheme I have chosen for both the cover page and contents page as they are all neutral tones but have positive connotations. However, I feel as if the contents page has too much writing which may make students not want to read it, I could do a double paged contents page to improve this. I also don’t like the flash/puff on the cover page as it looks unprofessional.

Natasha 6 October 2015 at 06:08

‘The content page is very well layed out with consistent font and colour scheme. The photography of the image was taken at a good shot/angle. For an improvement, you could add a few more images.’

Rehan Mughal 6 October 2015 at 07:00

‘I like the layout and think that the colour scheme works really well, I like the way the LSC magazine is placed behind the contents title and I especially like the red signature and the way it stands out. I think that the signature would look better if it had more space’

I appreciate both the comments that my peers have left me on my blog, as they have left me with very constructive feedback on what they like and what could be improved. I agree with the feedback they have provided me with, and I will make sure to keep them on board for when I start creating my next magazine pages. Also, I realized too late that I was supposed to do my contents page on InDesign, and will make sure to do that for my next magazine.

There are many ways that I could improve my cover and contents page to make them look even more professional:

       Direct address: the cover page would look more conventional if the cover star was giving direct address to the readers. This would allow the readers to feel as if they are communicating with the cover star and would allow them to feel the positive vibes that the cover star is sending off.

        Font: the font size is inconsistent throughout the cover lines as some is bigger and some is smaller. This takes away the professionalism of the cover page. If they were all the same size, then this would allow readers to read all the cover lines, without missing some out, and would make the page look much more professional.

      
Space: there is a lack of space on the contents page, which is a problem as readers who are teens, stereotypically are known to be put off when there is too much writing on a page, making them flick to the next page. This could be improved by making the contents double paged. Also, if there was more space, I could add another image in to attract readers to the page.