Preliminary Task

Introduction
As part of my AS media coursework I am required to make the front cover and contents page of a school magazine. in this section I am going to talk about the process I went through in order to create the front cover and contents page. We are required to make the front cover and contents page in a programme called 'Photoshop'.

Front cover

We are required to make the front cover of a school magazine. the magazine needs to have an image of a person or people in a medium close up (waist upwards). It also needs to include a masthead, and text of some sort. My idea was to have an image of someone (from the waist up) writing on a whiteboard and then i could have the text laid out as if they had written it. Here is how I made the Front Cover.

This was the first attempt at creating the idea however it didn't turn out like the idea that I had in my head. I thought this was too plain and quite boring which wasn't what I was going for. I thought that the masthead wasn't very interesting or even a good name for the target audience of teenagers (school-age). The page is also the wrong size for the front cover of a magazine and is orientated the wrong way which a front cover can't be. I really wasn't happy with the outcome so I decided to remake the front cover; with a new name and the idea becoming more interesting and colourful.

This was the second attempt at the front cover. I am much more pleased with this as it is more towards the idea I was going for. The name of the magazine is much better as teenagers can relate to it 'Laugh Out Loud' (a.k.a LOL). I also prefer the background as it is more colourful. i took out the background of the image using the magnetic lasso tool leaving the outline of the student, which I think is a lot more successful. I also took out the pages that the articles would be on as this is what the contents page is for. I also decided to highlight the 'Win a ticket to the social' as magazines like to outline the fact that their is possibility for a prize as this makes it more desirable. I also added a date to the magazine as all magazines have the date they were sold on, which I missed off the first draft. I am much happier with this outcome as I think it is more eye catching and targets it audience a lot better.

Contents page

I then made the contents page for the school magazine. I decided to have this as colourful as the front cover to create continuity. I had the idea for the contents page to have images in a 'postik' note form and the articles to be written in lined paper to link in with the idea of school.

I have created the contents page of the school magazine, I am relatively happy with the outcome. I like the masthead as it is as if someone has written it. I decided not to use the same masthead as the front cover as this takes attention away from the front cover. I used three of the images that I decided not to use on the front cover. I thought that two of the images were to crowded to add text on top of it ,and the bottom one wasn't the type of image I was going for. I really like how the lined paper worked as again it is as if someone has written it which I really like, it also means that the text is straight which is what I wanted.

Conclusion

Overall I am happy with how the preliminary task turned out. as they have turned out exactly as I wanted them to. I am happy that I decided to re-do the front cover as I believe the second draft looks alot better than the first. I can now proceed with main task and create the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine. I have learnt from my mistakes from the preliminary task and I think that now I will be able to create a professional looking music magazine.