Evaluation of magazine front cover & contents page

My Analysis of My Own Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page of my College Magazine
 'Prestley Post'

In this essay I will analyse the front cover of the college magazine that I created myself which I decided to title 'Priestley Post'. My vision is to aim the magazine to staff and students of Priestley College. I came up with the name because it is a familiar and recognisable name which is associated with the college, and to the staff and students so it is suitable. I thought it sounded interesting, factual, informative and formal all at the same time. The blue banner at the top, I felt was a perfect choice to use because it was eye catching and I also like the colour. Typically magazines like this have a banner at the top. I feel this is quite typical of existing magazines similar to the one i have created and produced. I took photos with a camera to include in the magazine with the college camera and I uploaded the photos and saved them to my college computer.  I chose to take a picture of another student of the college for my magazine because you can tell it is a magazine for other students and the person I took a photo of is at the appropriate age of a typical college student. I opened them in Photoshop (the programme I was using to produce my magazine cover) and I included the photos in the cover. The bold headings stand out, plus the word free is coloured in a different colour to the others to draw attention to it and the text is bolder to emphasise on the free incentive / item being offered free with purchase of the magazine. This is also technically a USP (Unique selling point) because probably no where else would a free map of Priestley College be offered to you. USP's and free incentives usually are quite typical when it comes to magazines as they are used to entice the readers to purchase the magazines. In my magazine I decided to include a section /article on free study areas on offer at the college and information on where you can go to study or revise and this article can help the readers. The caption 'beat the Priestley track and field record' is encouraging for people to participate in the games and events. It also creates a sense of competition to be involved with and may be quite exciting for some readers, especially the people interested in sport.

In the contents page, the main focusing colour is light blue which is the house style. There is an element of symmetry in the design as where a picture is present on the right had side, text is also present on the left, to create balance. The tri-colours blue, green and red will be used throughout my magazine. The blue is the main focus colour. this is similar to exsisting magazines as most magazines use main focus colours for readers to recognise and assosiate with the magazines print and style. The page numbers relate to the headings which act as anchorage to the pictures wich is also another common feature in popular magazines. The logo that I created for ‘Priestley Post’ is re used and re enforces the style and it is recognisable. The colours will be used in the magazine to keep it all to the same house style and to keep it all simple and easy to read. The coloured border I created may be eye-catching and visually interesting for some readers.  The font is simple and quite easy to read so lots of different people are able to read the magazine if they want. The headings are the same font as I used for the front cover to create an identity for the magazine. The ‘Contents’ masthead title is presented in a different font from the other one because I thought it would stand out and be unique.

I feel that my magazine failed at using new media technologies but i could only use material that was available in the college. I did use Adobe Photoshop, Quark Xpress, Microsoft Word, a scanner and a camera to produce my magazine. Possibly the headings may be too big so if i had the chance to produce another magazine I would think about the layout and how large the coverlines should be on the page and also i could get a student to smile for the picture to make the magazine seem more appealing and positive. I feel my magazine is excellent at attracting my target audience of students because the large bold title 'Priestley Post' is perfect because it sounds informative and would tell you exactly what the content will be about as the college the magazine is based on is called Priestley College, Also the bright colours are eye catching and gives the magazine an exciting style to it and also it is aimed at students and the magazine features real students in some pictures and articles so the target audience can immediately relate to them. I feel the design of my magazine front cover is strong and my contents page is constructed perfectly, I think it is quite attractive to the target audience because of the bright colours which stand out and the contents covers what the magazine was intended to discuss and talk about.