main image for front cover..

This is the central image that i am using for my priliminary college magazine front cover. I decided on this particular photo as it shows a student in a nice environment, aswell as having a happy student. I found with this image I can add cover lines to the photo without having to stretch the image out - which would make the whole cover look unprofessional.

fonts for the title of my magazine cover..

I have decided on this font for my magazine cover, as its a college based font and it will give my magazine a stand out point from the other college magazines.

I've experimented with the colours for the title, as i wanted to see if a black and white based one would suit it better, or if the orangy coloured title would look better and link into the central image on the cover. I'm yet to decide which of the two i prefer.

analysis of two college magazine covers..

analysis of two college magazine covers..


This magazine front cover looks professional, many of the  reasons for this are:

It has an obvious structure, and has been well thought out and planned.

 It has a simple but effective color scheme of red, white, blue & black. The way they have linked the colors are by using the red from the girls t-shirt to match the title aswell as the blue linking to the t-shirt and writing surrounding the main image.

The center image is a medium close up of a girl obviously of college age, showing the target audience on the cover to attract that audience. As a college magazine you expect to see relevent activities and/or young people.

The titles around the main image use two different fonts to give it contrast and the cover shape, an easy but effective way to make the magazine look proffesional.

analysis of two college magazine covers..

analysis of two college magazine covers..

This magazine front cover is unprofessional, many reasons contribute to this:

  It lacks design and planning, looking like it's been thrown together

  The color scheme, or lack of is where the magazine has its first downfall - the reference to "Halloween" is where it would have been appropriate to have used orange within the scheme, but instead they've used it for "No Play" with no relevance.

The main image on the cover is totally irelavant to the type of magazine - from a college magazine you would expect sports, music or studying to take centre stage. There is a pink banner across the bottom right of the cover with a bit of text within it, not linking to anything.

The magazine also lacks content surrounding the main image, and titles are not clear enough to read at a glance. Using another font and colour would have allowed it to be more visible.

I have chosen to create a magazine front cover, contents page aswell as a double page spread for my a-level coursework. Already i have designed the pleliminary front cover of a new school magazine and have a basic idea for my music magazine. I decided to go with the magazine task as i did well in the task at gcse, i am also the target audience for the magazine i will be creating so i will have a good idea of what it must have to look the part. I have spoken with a band who are friends of mine, and they are more than happy for me to have them as my feature in the magazine! The magazine will have an original photograph of the band on the front cover, then an interview  on the double page spread, as well as having more photos of them, and other "artists" on the contents page.