Front Cover Evaluation

I have completed the front cover of my school magazine. The audience for this magazine was to be the sixth from students at St Mark's School. Therefore the ages are from 16-19 years of age. The selling line I have included into the magazine adds to the audience of the magazine. It states what the whole magazine is about and who it is aimed towards. "Your Guide to Get Through Sixth Form", none of the younger students will want to know about the news and information about the sixth from. It just doesn't relate to them.

All of the text  have used on the front cover is in the font style of Impact. This make the font bolder and more block. It causes it to stand out. By using this for the Masthead it makes it stand out and attention grabbing to the audience. This is also why i used it for the Cover line and all of the other story headings. I need to grab the audiences attention and draw them into the magazine as want them to read the information. For the text i have also used the school colours. This was useful as again it cause the audience to recognise what that this magazine will be about this specific school. By using the tool in photoshop when i was creating the front cover, it allowed me to click on the colours used in the school logo and use it for the rest of the document. i used the yellowy/beige colour for the main headings and the red for the text. The red is also used for the selling and date lines which have been placed underneath the Masthead.

On the right hand side, next to the Masthead, i have placed the school logo. this emphasises what the magazine will be based on. it has been written for the school and will give all of the information about the school.

On the left hand side of the page i have included a competition. By placing this on the front cover will again gain the interest of the audience and then make the want to flick through and even read the magazine to find and then enter the competition. As this magazine is targeting 16-19 year old's they are going to interested in the competitions. Its their chance to win something that they possibly do not have.

I have placed the competition information in a red circle. Again the colour of the red is the school colour. i have then placed a title for the competition in the yellowy/beige school colour. the font style of the title is Lucida Handwriting. This is a more fun and interesting style of font. It is completely different to the style to the rest of the text on the front page. This should hopefully then cause the audience to notice it and be interested in reading why that is in a different style of text.

I have also included a picture of what the prize is of the competition. This should again hopefully attract the audiences attention and cause them to be drawn into noticing the competition and them wanting to read on throughout the magazine.

Lastly, the main image i have used for the magazine covers the whole page. The photo is off two students, standing outside the front of the school building, holding their school books and looking happy. The reason i wanted to two students to stand outside the front building was to emphasise the building and the school name. this again allows the audience to recognise that the magazine will be based around St Mark's School. Then by ensuring that the students look happy. this will then make the audience feel reassurance and know that the students are enjoying themselves at the school. By taking the photo whilst they are also holding their school books again shows to the audience that these are hard working students who want to get their work done and also to a high standard.

Improvements

I feel that there could be a lot of improvements that i could make to the school magazine to improve and make it look better. Firstly, apart from the selling line, it doesn't really show, on the front cover, that this is aimed towards the sixth from students and also about the sixth form. i should changed the name of my main masthead to something which will be clear to the audience that it is about the sixth form.

I also feel that I should have brightened the photograph up more. I could have waited until a sunny day to take the photograph. this would have brightened the photo. It would also change the feel of the photo. by having a bright, colourful picture it causes the audience to feel happy and then will add to the idea that the students are happy.