This is the draft of the front cover I am going to produce for a new magazine designed for Wyke College. The magazine is aimed at 16-19 year old male and female students, but will also be suitable for visitors, staff and parents.
I decided to call my magazine "In The Know", as I felt this was a catchy and memorable title as well as representing the magazines aim to inform students of what is happening in and around the college. The idea behind the magazine is to keep the students and their parents regularly updated on events to do with the college, and keep them "in the know". I want the magazines title to be one of the first features the audience notices, so I am going to place it at the top of the page on a slight slant to prevent the cover from looking too polished, I want to keep it looking like it has been designed by the students rather than appearing over-formal and serious.
The image that I have decided to use on the front cover will be of a group of two to three students socialising around a table, and portrayed as being happy and enjoying their time at the college. This will appeal to my audience as they will be able to relate to the students in the photograph. I will edit the photograph in such a way that the camera focuses on the student sat in the centre of the group, with the others slightly out of focus. I feel that this will look more professional and eye-catching than if I were to focus on all the students equally at one time. Also as specified, the photo will be taken in the form of a medium close up.
The headline to accompany this photograph will be located just above the image where it will be easy to see. The headline will read "The Place To Be", as my main article in the magazine will be based upon how the new entrants of 2008 are finding life at Wyke college, including interviews with the students featured in the main photograph. A smaller sub-heading will be placed underneath the image reading "An increasing number of students are making Wyke their first choice". This will give the reader more information about what the article includes. This will persuade them to buy the magazine as they will want to read on and find out what the students had to say.
Along the right hand side of the front page I am going to place a bar of smaller photographs with short descriptions to show the audience some of the other articles that will be featured in the magazine. The photographs again represent students both working and socialising in the college. Informing the audience of other articles inside the magazine will encourage them to buy it.
The release date and price of the magazine will be positioned at the very top of the magazine in smaller black text. In my research I discovered that conventionally this is where this information is printed, so the readers should be able to locate it quickly and easily.
Contents Page
This is the draft of the contents page for my magazine. I felt that it needed to be clear and simply designed to make navigation around the magazine as easy as possible. The aim of a contents page is to inform the reader what articles will be inside the magazine, whilst keeping their interest to make them want to read on.
I have decided to repeat the name of my magazine "In The Know" in large lettering and in the same font used on the front cover in the top left corner of the contents page. I found that this technique was used in a lot of other magazines I looked at to re-enforce the magazines name and make it 'stick' with the audience.
Instead of using the traditional heading "Contents" I have come up with a unique headline of "What's Inside". I felt that this made the magazine appear more informal and friendly, whereas "Contents" sounded quite hard-going. I will use a bright colour on this text to draw in the reader to the different articles in the magazine.
Rather than displaying all of the contents of the magazine through text, I am going to use a mixture of photographs and writing to show the reader what they can expect to find inside. I thought that too much text would look busy and off-putting to my young audience, whereas a mixture of text and images creates a good balance of a classic and a modern layout. The images will be taken from the other articles in the magazine, and again will be edited to appear more professional and eye-catching.
To prevent the contents page from looking bland and colourless, I plan to create a background of coloured shapes placed behind the text in an array of pale pastel colours. I believe that this will look professional but will make the page look more appealing to the reader.
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