Magazine Analysis Zak Hewes 12R

MastheadThe placement of the masthead is where the reader can pinpoint the name or title of the magazine they are reading. My title I wanted it to have a vert bold and snappy look to it so it would draw the readers attention over to the name of the Mag. Also the way that the background had to be completely different to the Title so it wouldn’t blend into the background. The different techniques I used to make the logo was just some simple text and then a barcode looking shape, I wanted it to have that bold black being contrasted with the white border going round the text. This made the Masthead even more noticeable to the reader when they first look at the magazine for the first time.

Plugs Giving the reader some small bits of information about the magazine on the front cover can make that reader more incline to know what they are about to read. That’s why when I put things like “Best Results Ever!” that factor of just a small little tagline can make the reader want to open that magazine and read that particular article. Also when comparing a plug to the information you find in the contents page, a plug is always going to be a shorter more over exaggerated version of that story, for example the comment about “Best students around” may be reflected in the contents page to be explained in detail about maybe an award they got.

PuffsA puff being a like an offer or some kind of deal that is in the magazine, this can be very intriguing for the customer of the mag because when a puff is advertised it is normally in a big bold icon that catches the readers eyes nearly as much as the Masthead. For my magazine I didn’t include one because the viewers of a school magazine would really be expecting a free gift or offer because the demographic the we would be showing it to. But overall when using a puff it can be one of the most important things when designing your front page because you have engage and make that attractive to your audience.

Feature Photo The photograph of any front page is very important to any the thought process behind the enticement of the readers attention. With my photo I chose a picture of a student that was reasonably medium range and shows the subject looking directing at the camera. The mixture of the image and the background made the subject pop out the screen just a bit more and draw the eye to the subject and you start to create a story in your head of what the this person is feeling or thinking about and it also shows off the school artier and the way the students are well dressed and smart the people of William De Ferrers are. This is why the photo is so important to the people looking at the magazine because one, it is one of the first things you look at and two, the whole article or story can be demined just by looking at the persons emotion

Typography & StyleWhen I was choosing the fonts and the overall house style of the piece I wanted a very simple look to the whole magazine, I wanted this because if the demographic of reader would be most of the students of the school meaning that if the writing was hard to read and cluttered I think that the person would be less incline to read it because it may look like a lot of work to take time out of their day to read. So by using the simple font and bold images, tells the reader that this magazine can be a good read that would take you weeks to read.

Text ToolWhen using the text tool I wanted to pick different fonts that would be easy to read and match the overall look. After I knew what font I wanted I could then choose the colour and the different border colours for that text. Then the final property I could change was the positioning of the text and at what angle I wanted it.

CameraThe camera we used being the “Canon 100D” we used to then take the certain images that we wanted displayed on the front cover. We used the no flash setting on the camera then when in Photoshop I then upped the brightness and contrast to make the image more bold and noticeable.

Selection (Polygon)When I was going round the image to take away the background I used the “Polygon Lasso” where when you click you create another angle then you make your away round the whole image, to clean up the cut I used the “Blur Tool” to smooth out the edges.

Gradient I used the gradient tool to create blend of the colours of a Cyan Blue and a Green this then I used to put in the background and then cut to create a sun ray vector that made the picture on the front cover stand out even more then just having just one colour on the back.