front cover and contents page evaluation

Front cover and contents page evaluation

For our research task of designing a front cover and contents page we had to research about what to put on them, we looked at the academy’s own magazine to see how basic they can be also we looked at double page spreads from all sorts of magazines from celebrity to sport. One of the most important things that we had to look at we the key concepts of a magazine for example plugs, puffs, straplines, house style and main cover lines. House style is the key to making a magazine because if there is a coloured theme throughout the magazine it helps the reader relate to what the magazine is about. We also got a sheet of paper with a picture of a front cover on and we had to label all the key concepts that were on that specific magazine.

We found that researching magazines helped us extend our knowledge on the key concepts of magazines therefore enabling us to create a better magazine front cover and contents page. This is because we looked at the Armthorpe Academy magazine and what concepts that it had for example house style, main cover lines. We realised that the academy’s magazine had a colour orientated theme which means it has a house style, also the magazine has a main image on the front of the magazine which takes up the entire page. The magazine also has ‘plugs’ which tell the reader what else is in the magazine and may draw their attention to something they might want to read in it. 

In my design for my front cover and contents page the researched influenced my design because I knew what made a good magazine and what made a bad magazine from the research of the key concepts of magazine.  Looking at the Armthorpe Academy’s magazine made me realise that to make a good magazine it doesn’t have to be extremely good as long as all of the key concepts work like the house style because it has a coloured theme throughout then it will appeal to more people and will draw the reader’s attention. Looking at other magazine front cover and contents pages influenced me because I could see what kinds of designs there are and what people like as the design of a magazine so that I know that people would like my front cover and contents page.

The change that has happened since I first design my front cover was the main image because when I enlarged it to fit the page it was all pixelated so I had to go and take another photo so that I could enlarge it without it looking pixelated. Also i had to change my house style because the colours didn’t work with the colour of the picture I put on my front cover. My contents page also needed a lot of change from when I first started it because the images weren’t the right size to fit on the page and I needed to change the colour so that it fitted with my house style.

Using Photoshop has enabled me to be able to make things such as front cover and contents pages that actually look like the real thing also it helps me to be able to create all sorts of things.