Contents page prelim evaluation

Another preliminary task i did was the contents page, this was just another quick and simple contents page. The contents page had features of the new things in college like the mez, interviews of second year and a article on healthy living. I think these subjects are included on college magazines mainly. The contents page looks like any with numbers on the side, and then the page subject. The contents page doesn't link with the Front cover, except the font designs. otherwise its completely different, but i dont think that a contents page or any other page on the magazine has to link in with front cover or any other page should have relation or have the same theme. so i kept the two different. Again this is simple like the front cover, but i could of done more but i wanted to keep it simple to see what bits look empty.     

evaluation of front cover prelim

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

As I have finished my preliminary task,I have developed my skills in photoshop and also illustrator, I feel more confident using both of the systems.
I think personally both the front cover and contents are far too simple, but I think keeping it simple was a good idea because all the complex aspects I want to add will be used in my final pieces.
The college magazine was aimed at college students as it was a college magazine, it was trying to attract students, after the summer break or after any college break. Because naming all the new features at the college are done after a break. The front cover image was a close image of a person reading a book on a table and then in the background two other students on the computers. 

Overall I think i did a quick job with the front cover, but i have learned some key points in photoshop which i can use in my main task. also keeping it simple helps to see how empty the page looks if not filled, so i can see what gaps occur when its kept to minimal in the final front cover.

DPS analysis 1

Front cover TA 5

This is another front cover edition of XXL magazine.
This edition has a very busy front cover,   here are various artists making up a classroom. What they have made it ook is a typical classroom with students doing there own things. They have made the cover look very buy, so the reader wants to know whats going on.
The front cover story says "2012 freshmans class BREAKS OUT!"  this connotes the image perfectly, as the reader we see the relation between the text and the class.
The masthead XXL is the same in this edition, although the various artists are covering the masthead we still see the bold, large masthead with the white bold text and red background, the magazine make us see the masthead firstly. Although there a lot going on in the image, the text is placed in various places to jumble things up even more, personally I dont like this lay out because it makes the front cover look very unorganised and disorientated.
If we concentrate on each artist we see they have there own facial expression, when we look we can identify each person in our classroom, the different types of personalities we have. The text on the page has been spread on each side of the page so the artists can be seen as a group.      

Front cover TA 4

This is another edition from XXL magazines, featuring Rick Ross the rap star. The masthead has been placed on the top left but has been changed by colour. The cover story is about Rick Ross, the quote says "THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TOUCH"
This quote connotes what rick ross is doing by him touching the XXL masthead, it is turing to gold, personally the way they have designed the front cover is clever because they connoted the quote. The golden theme carries on, he's wearing gold necklace chains, also linking to his golden touch they want the reader to see.
The magazine want Rick Ross to look big and golden on the front cover, his facial expression signal this, if we think when the magazine published this edition, we would think this would be the face made by Rick Ross when he saw this front cover, That facial expression would be made, this tells us that he knows his golden touch.
The colour scheme of the front cover is well designed because the whole gold theme goes well with black background, black background of Rick Ross's suit. Meanwhile the red Text goes well as well, the cover lines have been aligned on the right hand side on the right hand side, the reason for this they want the reader to see the image of Rick Ross first and then the cover lines secondaly. 

Front cover TA 3

This magazine is the source magazine which is very similar to XXL. They cover hip-hop, like XXL magazine. The cover story is about the beastie boys, The image is in black and white, which makes the masthead stand out which is in red. The way the image is bleeding from the page gives the magazine a wider look, the text is laid out in strips a strip of text on the top and the second strip is three quarters down the page. The three colours of text they have used is Red, lime green and white, these colours make the text stand out on the image.
Personally, the cover looks very dull to me because of the colour they have used on the image, the image doesn't look very appealing to me.
The cover image of the beastie boys, makes us look they are judging the reader, it suggests to me that they are thinking about something coming towards them. The puddle of water in front of them stands out well, this may suggest they have a boundary in front of them to protect them, from someone maybe who they are staring at very eagerly.

front cover TA 2

This is another XXL magazine, they mainly cover hip hop and rap, I picked this magazine due to the fact, the cover was different to other front covers from magazines.
Featuring the magazine is Ludacris a rapper, with some sort of camera, with a caption saying "ludacris will shoot yo ass" this quote on the front, The quote goes well with the image of him well because the camera gun connotes the caption. The seriousness on his face at the reader, tells he looks like he's going to shoot them. The front cover has done a good job connoting the image and caption. Another aspect is that when we concentrate on his hands holding the camera gun, he holding the handle like he's about to shoot them and the fact he is looking through the lens, it connotes he aiming for someone.Overall if we look at the image, of ludacris we get the hint that he's not a happy person by his facial expressions and his actions on the front cover. Meanwhile if we read the pull quote we get the expression, he's not the person to come across.

The page colour scheme is an excellent one , because the main aspect the magazine want to get out is the main cover story so they have chosen colours like black and white mainly on the page to make Ludacris stand out. meanwhile normally we see the masthead always large and the masthead is the second aspect we see when we look at magazines on shop shelfs but on this edition they have positioned the masthead behind Ludacris's head, we dont see the "l. My view is that people who buy this magazine regularly, know straight away its XXL. The Mastehad for XXL has bold white text on a red background. This may signal a clothes tag (size) because they want the masthead to stand out they have used the white on red background and XXl makes us think something big. finally the cover lines have been aligned on the left and right, so they dont interfere with the main image, the colour scheme of the text is black which goes very well with the white background the cover lines stand aswell. 

Final front cover prelim

This is my final contents page for my prelim, i think its simple like my front cover. otherwise the colour scheme goes well, and the font, i used illustrator to help me because personally i find t more helpful putting the whole page together. 

Prelim contents page about screenshot

this screen shot is from my Prelim contents page, i wanted to get a link from my college front cover to my contents page. So i used the font on my front cover in my contents page.

Front Cover TA 1

This magazine is from an american magazine who cover the Rap and hip/hop genre. The name is called XXL, the two magazines I have concentrated on is The source magazine and this one the XXL. this front cover is of Shyne rapper from america.

The magazine has made shyne look like he’s looking at the reader in way that he is judging the reader. Another interpretation is that the fact he’s got a cigar in his mouth is that he doesn’t care whohe is looking at him, the army gear worn by him connotes he’s in the army many soldiers smoke in the army this may be interpreting them. Just by looking at the cigar we get the impression that shyne doesn’t care if people look at him when he smokes. On the other hand the way his head is tilted, this gives the impression that he is looking down at the reader and his eyes are not opened wide so this looks like he is thinking in his head thoroughly.

The cover line at the bottom quoting “SHYNE” is placed at the bottom, immediately we can recognize that the person on the front cover’s name is SHYNE. The masthead XXL has been placed on at the top left, as the reader if take a look at the front cover we see two things which crab our attention the main image of Shyne and the masthead XXL the masthead has been enlarged due to its title of course. The red and the white goes well it connotes the magazine name well, as soon as the reader looks they notice the xxl masthead also the size of the masthead attracts the customer buying the magazine because of the colours of masthead and image as the customer can see this from far. The cover lines have been aligned to the right hand side of the page, the cover lines normally tell us what topics the magazine have covered in that edition, in this edition some cover lines have a rhetorical question, the magazine are making we the readers think about that specific topic they have covered and they have printed the article. In this edition the dateline is on the top of the barcode. The dateline often consists of they year and the month. Meanwhile if we see the barcode, at the bottom of the the magazine have the magazines website, this is another advertising method used by magazines to sell there brand, regular customers would most likely order either online on there website or in stores.

Final Prelim front cover.

Here is my final front cover to my college magazine, I think this design that I have kept is simple, the page looks empty, but I wanted to see how a front cover looked without loads of cover lines. Personally my view is that this one done for my preliminary one, is too simple but the image looks affective because we have someone reading a book, then other students working in the background on the computers.  
For the cover lines on the right are just what I thought of when designing the cover, but one aspect I like is the colour scheme of the cover-lines, the green goes well with the background image.

Overall, I have learned,some key points like keeping the front cover simple may make the magazine look boring and less appealing. The main thing i have learned, is to play with colour, for example, deciding which colour looks good with which colour background.  

cover adjustments

Here is a screenshot of me developing my front cover.

On the left, is me playing with the colours of my sub headings, adjusting background colour, fonts and spacing between the letters

As i am developing my prelim college magazine, i am playing with photoshop and illustrator, to make my magazine work, as in font and background colours going together. Also I have adjusted brightness and levels to enable the text on the magazine to stand out and get the image on the front cover more appealing.

Moodboard 1 artists

Here are some of my inspirational artists/rappers used on my mood-board which I can use on my magazine initially. There is a mix of British rappers and American Rappers, some are also hip/hop artists aswell.