Evaluation of front cover

School magazine front cover evaluation

My final piece followed my mock up to a certain extent as  I used black strips at the top and bottom, and the masthead centred at the top however the cover lines I changed to make effective use of the space.

I produced to magazine front covers, one with a background and in red text the other has blue text and the central image is cut out. The blue font is harder to read than the blue and attracts more attention however the colour connotes danger where as the blue is a calm colour therefore would send a positive message about the school. A norm in magazines is for the central image to be cut out so on photo shop I attempted to cut out the image after I increased the brightness and cropped the image. I was difficult to cut out the image especially the hair so the quality decreased. I did not know how to make the image background transparent so I had to leave the background white, If I was to improve this I would spend more time of photo shop and make the background transparent allowing me to change the background colour following the conventions of magazines. On the other magazine front cover I left the background in, the green background was hard to find a colour that looked professional against it, this also decreased the quality. Leaving the background in made the front cover look busy and hard to focus on. Over all the better front cover I will evaluate will be the front cover with the central image cut out as it looked the most professional as it wasn’t busy due to loud colours and backgrounds.

My school magazine follows the convention of having the masthead centred at the top of the page, I did this because in our culture we read top to bottom left to right so centring it at the top of the page creates a formal tone. My target audience is the parents of the magazine therefore I want the magazine to send a smart sophisticated message to the parents. Most magazines only put a banner in one place not both, I developed this norm by putting a banner at the top and bottom, at the top to attract attention when it is displayed but one at the bottom as well, on the bottom one I place the barcode and place a message directed at the students there, to improve this area I should have also put the price and issue number but also link the message to the parents because they are my target audience.  I followed another norm of having the plugs and covers lines against each side and straight, I did this because it draws in focus and due to it being straight it is easy to read and smart.

A masthead should be inviting and engage the reader rather that distancing the reader from the cover, using this information I chose the photo that was most relaxed and had a natural smile, as it was more inviting than the other photos. I prefer the magazine that has the central image cut out as the background of the photo makes the page look to busy, from my research as busy background and too many colours disinterests the reader as there is nothing to focus on thus becoming un-engaging.

The magazine looks geared towards parent/carers as it has a formal appearance and language, if it were aimed at students it would use slang or language appropriate for the age group. Due to the aesthetics of this magazine would be distributed by the school mailing it to parents or copies in the reception of the school for parents to pick up or visitors.

From creating this magazine I have discovered that in design is hard to use, resizing photos and sustaining a high quality due to this I used photo shop to manipulate the image by making it brighter, cropping it and cutting out the central image then I used Microsoft publisher to set up the layout of the front cover. Cutting out on photo shop was challenging especially the hair so I had to zoom in very close and spend a lot of time on cutting out the image. On publisher It was easy to position items on the page and change the font size and colour.

My preferred front cover is the one with the central image cut out, this worked as the background was not busy so draws in attention rather than repels it. The blue text worked better than the red as the red connotes danger where as the blue is an inviting colour, I also received feedback via a comment on my blog preferring the blue text over the red. Using the school logo as the masthead looks more professional and branded than the white text therefore works more effectively than the white text. I feel the black strips helped balanced out the page and highlight important information. Cutting out the image I feel worked better than leaving in the background but next time I would use a slight gradient background behind the central image.