College Magazine-Task 4

Evaluation

I think that this task was successful and that I successfully applied the conventions of a college magazine. While doing my research on college magazine I learnt what was typically found on the front cover and contents page of a college magazine and how they are usually laid out. I followed these conventions to make my magazine seem as professional as I could. I have used a photograph of a student aged 16 on the front cover as he is dressed like a college student would and is of a college age. He is the only image on the front of the magazine as when researching I found the majority of college magazines only had one image on the front, typically being of a student. I have text on each side of the image, not covering the students face. The text consists of short headings about what is inside the magazine. I think I have chosen good topics to put on the front of the magazine. I based these topics from what was wanted from the audience of my questionnaire. As my magazine is focused for students I thought it was important to have subjects students would want to know about. I also learnt that the front cover shouldn’t be too busy and full of text. While doing my front cover I began to add too much and it looked crowded and unprofessional. However when I made it more simple it looked more inviting to read and more like other college magazines on the market.

For my contents page I looked at how other contents were laid out. I learnt that most content pages have a column referring back to what is on the front cover, then a second column about the rest of the magazine. I then did this for my contents page. I used the Henley college logo on both my front cover and contents page to follow a house style. I also used the same colours so that the two pages look like the actually belong to the same magazine.

While doing this task I learnt about the colour wheel and how to use it. This also helped me when picking colours and will in future tasks.

If I was to do this task again, I might change the image on the front cover from black and white to colour to make the cover brighter and stand out more. I would maybe change the colours to see if any look better on a colour background. Also on the front cover I would maybe try to make the left third stand out more so that when on the shelves it doesn’t just blend in with other magazine. With my contents page I don’t think I would change much as I like how it looks.