Evaluation of college magazine front cover

Evaluation of my college magazine front cover

When producing my college magazine front cover I decided to use the editing software ‘Photoshop’ which I had previously used for the production of my perfume bottle. This was so that once I had my final image to use for the front cover, I could edit words and shapes onto it so that it would eventually end up looking like a proper magazine front cover that would be suitable for college and A-level students.

The only difficulty I endured when trying to construct my magazine front cover was  that I had never created or looked at a magazine front cover in detail before, so I had to research and really look into what I was doing before actually constructing anything. Moreover after a few sessions researching and looking into what I had to do in order to create a shop quality magazine front cover, I was soon underway.
Once I had come to terms with what I had to do, from start to finish my front cover took me approximately two days to complete at a standard that I was happy with.

 When taking my photo, I wanted to capture an image that would make my magazine cover stand and reach out to my target audience. I did this by capturing a fellow student who was smiling and looked like she was enjoying college life, even though this wasn’t essential as a magazine doesn’t always sell because of its front cover, it still meant that my magazine would be more likely to be purchased and sell well on the product market.

For the location of the photo, I wanted a medium-close up shot, that was taken somewhere within a college environment as my target audience for the magazine was in fact college students who are aged from 16-18. However even though my photo was in a college environment I made sure that the background for the photo was in fact bright so that it would contrast with the darker clothing of the model who features on my front cover as she was wearing black and grey at the time of my photo shoot.

 The target audience for the magazine I created a cover for is mainly for students aged from 16-18 who are currently sitting A-levels, therefore I would sell my product in the college environment or in places such as clubs where students can attend, shops such as WHSmiths and libraries where students will be found researching or reading.

Also, the fact that I am trying to sell my magazine to students meant that I had to make my magazine front cover appeal to their age group, this is because younger generations of the 21^st century won’t pick up a magazine unless it excites them or looks interesting and directly appeals to them.
I chose the name ‘CAMPUS’ because it directly links with the target audience of the magazine, students, for instance the term ‘campus’ is related to college because they are traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries and lecture halls in which all students will study and learn in.
Finally when choosing the location and shooting my photos I tried linking these ideas in to my image to create an effect and impact on the student target audience. For example, taking the image in a college environment where people learn meant that when a student who attends a college comes across the magazine it will directly relate to them both because of the images, and the sub-headlines used such as ‘Students blow up lab!’.
This is because if a student saw this it would instantly appeal to them as it’s not every day a science lab blows up especially not in a college where health and safety regulations are some of the key factors in creating a safe working environment.

 If I had the chance to create my magazine front cover over again then I would most probably spend longer working on the final front cover, this is because I felt as though I rushed it this time round due to a shortage of time. For example, I could of played around with photo shop a little more and this may have given me better results when it came to the production of my front cover.