Completed Sixth Form Magazine Cover

This is my completed sixth form magazine cover. Due to my lack of experience with Photoshop I had not expected the end result to be so similar to the flat-plan, and for that reason I am rather pleased with the product. 

Masthead: Although some minor alterations have been made in the process, the cover does look very much like the flat-plan. These changes consist of the font being adjusted to Tw Cen MT Condensed Extra Bold, and I have also added a dark shadow and bevel to add an almost three dimensional aspect. In my opinion this adds much more visual interest since the majority of magazines, in particular academic ones, seem to be very flat and in my opinion quite dull.

Main Cover Image(s): Inspired by a cover of Clash, a popular music magazine that also focuses on fashion that I analysed in a previous post, I wanted the design to be somewhat similar. Whilst still maintaining a sense of originality, I tried to achieve a once again unique appearance that would lead to the cover standing out against other magazines that would only consist of one main cover image. So, I used Photoshop to attain this look which I hadn't really used before, having said that I am satisfied with it as it is bright and eye-catching; I do believe that it could glow better and therefore look better. This is most likely a result of my little knowledge of the software, therefore if I were to repeat this task I would try to aim for something that is more impressive and not so amateurish in it's appearance.

Main Cover Line:  Once again the main cover line is rather indistinguishable when trying to differentiate between the two, which I am happy about. I also think that it still stands out as a result of it being a very relateable topic to each sixth form student, regardless of one's intellect and organisational skills learning new ways of doing things can always benefit an individual. 

Cover Lines: Previously I had chosen to do one of the articles on an interview with past student, Samuel Moore, who is a London graffiti artist; whilst the other being about how students can adapt their school uniforms. I decided to change the articles as I thought these would be more relevant to students and interesting. Furthermore, I also added the dark shadow and bevel effect to these so that they would stand out against the background images, prior to adding the effect I found that they were very difficult to read.

Extras: - Dateline and slogan became one, because I thought it looked better and the black added something which I think has improved the overall look.

- I removed the barcode as the cover looked too crammed and needed some more space.

- I changed the colour palette to blue, green and red since it worked better; but I still believe that colours can be relevant to any audience as oppose to going for more particular colours that only suited one audience.

Opinion

Overall, I am glad with the cover for many reasons: I hadn't expected it to look so much like the flat-plan due to my lack of experience with the software; it looks better in some places when compared to the draft copy; it also stands out and is eye-catching. Despite the fact that there may be certain things that I would slightly alter, such as the cover images flowing better, this is essentially what I was aiming for.