Magazine Cover

This is my final magazine cover:

I'm happy with the outcome however there is room for improvement. The original photograph I took was of good quality and the person in the photo did what I told them, however it had a cream background and my lighting wasn't great.  I'd have preferred it was grey/dark grey to fit in more with my colour scheme. I also wanted the person's suit to be black with a red tie but this wasn't possible. The person in the photo kept his face serious which is good though because it  fits my theme of professional and serious.

The cover lines I wrote weren't very good. I didn't put much thought into them as I was running out of time. I didn't vary the fonts and they weren't very original. I couldn't use the font 'LEELAWEDEE' because it couldn't be installed on my computer. They did, however, fit my themes of regular college/sixth form life and the media (music, TV, movies, etc.).

The mast-head and the puff however turned out great and both looked more professional. The colours were part of my theme. They also stand out which is what I aimed for, to attract the reader.

I feel that my mock-up cover looked more professional. Some things were improved though, such as the puff and the photograph. The photograph was also one of my own and not one taken off of the internet.

Overall, I'm happy with the outcome, but it could be better. If I had more time to perfect it and think about it more I could've had a better outcome

Magazine Plan

After placing a poll on my blog, my target audience decided they'd prefer my magazine to look professional, with a black, white and red colour scheme. I'll continue the professional theme with a clean design and images of work-related things.

I found a clean-looking font on http://www.dafont.com/ called 'Revolution' (http://www.dafont.com/revolution-saji.font) which I plan to use for my mast-head with a red colour to stand out. The rest of the magazine will feature the font 'LEELAWEDEE' and use black, white, red and possibly dark shades of blue.

In the center of the cover I'll feature a main image of a man surrounded by cover lines, a puff and the mast-head above it. The mast-head will be partly covered by the main image. A price, date and barcode will also be included.

The man will be wearing a suit and will be of similar age to my target audience. It will be a profile of his head and upper body, with him staring straight at the camera. When I take the photo the camera will be level with his head.

The features and articles I'll use will be relevant to my target audience, by being about college and sixth form. I'll also have articles about music, TV, fashion and other things my target audience are interested in. I added a few examples to my mock-up magazine cover.

Here is a mock-up of what it might look like:

In my real cover I'll choose a younger man in a suit. I'll also use a different name for my magazine and better cover lines in the font I wanted.

Readership Profile

The target audience for my magazine are people attending a college or sixth form, studying for their A-level qualifications or something similar. These people are between the ages of 15 and 20, male and have an interest in media (music, TV and movies) and fashion, as well as an interest in college itself. They are middle class and living in a urban area, like London or Manchester for example.

The ones between 16 and 20 will already be in college, whereas younger people may be interested in going and are reading up about it.

Common questions the target audience will want answered would be: what to wear? what to do in free time? what music to listen to? The variety of interests the target audience is interested in will make for an interesting mix of articles suited for all their interests.

Annotated Magazine Cover

Features of Magazines

All these magazines have some similar features:

• a mast-head
• a main image
• a cover line
• a splash
• a puff
• a skyline