Preliminary Task Amber Gardner

Preliminary exercise: using DPT and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce

a DPT mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

School magazine front coverI have named my school magazine 'The Royal Times' as the name of the school is called Prince College. The main image I have used for the front cover is a sixth-form student showing no eye contact as she is showing interest in her work. I chose this medium-close up because she is the same age group as the target audience and is a bright and colorful portrait. I have placed the masthead central at the top of the page so if it were on a magazine stand it would stand out, as would the sub-lines. I used a font called Apple chancery for the title to give it a sophisticated look, as the target audience for this magazine is sixth former students. I've also used the fonts Impact and Capture It manipulated with an outer glow or an outer shadow to make it even bolder and eye-catching.

The color pallet I have used consists of white and three different tones of blue: Navy, dark blue and aqua. I chose these colors as they are striking and represent the school. I attempted to use the colors bright pink and red, however they did not contrast well with the background therefore I thought I'd use a more calming color range of blues and white. I have used a bar code, a price and an issue number on the cover, as these are essential to a magazine as these components provide vital information to the reader about the magazine. One thing that I forgot to add that is essential to a magazine is a date; this displays how old/new the magazine is.

My main cover-line for my magazine is 'New sixth form centre' as this is very important to the target audience of the Prince College because this will have a huge impact on them as sixth formers. In my sub-lines I have used the buzzword 'Win' written in a larger font than the caption to make it stand out more than other words to the reader, to tempt them to buy this magazine. Also by advertising that they could Win £50 most people would want to buy the magazine to find out what they have to do to win this prize. My main cover-line is positioned at the top left of the main image under the title, I placed it here because it’s the first sub-line you read and is the most important to the students as it applies to them.

My house style is bold but simple and vibrant to appeal to the younger generation teens/sixth formers. I chose this house style, as its interesting to look at and intriguing. I didn’t want to complicate my house style as there would be too much to focus on and as students they would prefer for it to be simple and exciting.

One thing that stands out in my cover is my main image as its colorful and well composed, however I have not manipulated the photograph on Photoshop so the colors aren’t as vibrant as they could be. I think my cover-lines are well presented as I used an outer glow effect or a drop shadow on Photoshop to make them stand out against the colorful background. However I think my masthead is not bright enough and fades into the background, as its dark therefore doesn’t contrast well against the background of the building. To improve this I would choose a bolder font such as Impact, which would go with my house style, also I would use a brighter tone and well contrasting color other than blue so my magazine cover is more attention grabbing.

If I were to do this task again, one thing I would do differently would be to add more buzzwords and puffs to attract more customers and make the school magazine more exciting. This would also fill up the areas of empty space and make the magazine appear more full with exciting articles. Another import feature I’ve left out of my magazine cover is the url address of the school website for Prince College. This would be useful as it has an online presence therefore has a wider target audience. Finally I would add more pictures on the cover to visually present what exciting articles are inside this magazine and encourage more students to read it.

Contents PageFor my contents page I have stuck with the same house style as my front cover using same fonts and similar colours. I did this, as I wanted my contents to appear similar to my front cover with the same simplicity and attractive colours. I chose a royal blue block color for the background as it links with the house style because it’s the same color as the titles.

For the article headlines, I have used the color white to make the text stand out from the background and I have also continued to use the font Capture it as its bold yet simple, which I feel is important to not overcomplicate a magazine.

My main article is about the new sixth form Centre as its important towards the sixth form students, however as a disadvantage I have not included relevant pictures in the contents to this subject. For the article headlines I also forgot to include relevant captions to explain to the reader what the article includes.

My images I have included in my contents page consist of: dancers, a teacher, a science experiment and general studying. I have used these images to link to the articles, however, although they are good ideas to support the headlines, I could have manipulated them to make them brighter and more colourful.

I have continued to use a similar layout to the cover of the magazine as a recurring theme. However I have included lots more photos on my contents as my magazine cover was lacking them. The effects of the pictures I have used attract readers, as they are not overwhelmed with a large quantity of text, which could be seen as boring by students. I have made two of the pictures large to cover the empty space of the contents and attract attention.

One thing that makes my contents page attractive is the two large pictures linking to the articles, however I could label the pictures with the page number they are relevant to. Although my text is bold, the article titles are very small therefore don’t attract much attention. If I were to this task again, one thing I would change is the lack of text; I would add captions to the article titles to add more detail. Another thing I would improve is the layout of the text and pictures, as it looks too simple and not interesting enough to read also giving an unsophisticated appearance, which is the opposite of my target audience.