Front Cover:
In my evaluation, I decided my aim was to make the design as simple as possible to achieve the contemporary style. I also used black and white to give the page the cool and calm look and mixing my house colours blue and yellow to give the page an identity (brand identity).
The photographs I used were all taken by me with a digital camera for best quality and the editing was completed on Adobe Photoshop CS3 which professionally enhances the pictures to the best possible. The main image on my front cover is a student standing with a piece of paper. I created the mise-en-scene with the school garden with students there in the background to relate to the magazine as it is a school magazine. The use of direct mode of address allows the reader’s eye to meet with the image and gain interest.
The three photos I used on the side were images telling the reader what maybe included in the issue. The photos were all taken in school for the setting and relation to be real. I also tried to use different camera angles such as medium close up, extreme close up, long shot and extreme long shot.
The photos were blended into the black background by using Photoshop and adjusted if needed (lighting, colour..etc).
I decided to use sans-serif fonts to gain the best attention of readers as sans-serif typefaces are bold and informative. I designed the slogan and masthead to be mixed together to give a clever effect as I think the slogan is always printed in small. Having the masthead in the navy blue and the slogan then standing out in yellow whilst sitting on the masthead is a visual effect I created.
To improve this piece of work, I should have added anchoring to the images, explaining what they are and how they have relation to the magazine. I should have also considered adding lures and buzzwords to capture the reader’s attention better.
Contents Page
The use of visual effects played a big part to “colourising” my contents page, making it bright and attractive. I used Photoshop to add the typical image of a school, having a lot cartoon doodles and paint as well as the school’s initials “HGS” in the school/house colours.
I decided to revolve my contents page within one big photo. This meant that I placed my text and information where my image allowed it. In my case, I took a picture of two students standing by the stairs. The actual contents information would sit on the steps of the stairs and the ‘look out for…’ section would be where the image was too dark/no use. I had to take addition photos of models holding out their arms, grasping a piece of white A4 paper. This allowed me to use Photoshop to add on whatever text I desired on the ‘piece of paper’ they were holding.
Since the edited image produced eye-catching results, I had to make sure the text and information on my contents page had to stand out just as much. I made use of my house colours as yellow is a vibrant colour already. To enhance the results, I outlined the text with black and white creating a colourful effect. In addition, making my text stand in all capitals made them look bolder. I titled the text backwards attempting to create a 3-D effect rather than the text just floating on the steps. I also added shadows to the text to make it look as if it was standing on the steps.
