Preliminary Task - Print part 1

Some Characteristics of Magazine Covers
-Barcode
-Masthead
-Main Image
-Secondary Images
-Sub-Headings
-Price
-Release Date
-Issue No.
-Free Gift
-Publisher

Font - A font is a set of printable or displayable text characters in a specific style and size. 

Serif and Sans Serif Fonts
Serif - A font that is more visually appealing to the eye.

Sans Serif - A font which is easier to ready than Serif, but looks more dull and basic.

The advantages to Sans Serif fonts is that it is easy to read and everyone will understand it. The font tents to be more formal and blocky than Serif fonts. 
The downside is that it doesn't look as good as Serif fonts.

A Serif font looks informal and may be used to portray a persons characteristics or personality. They can also be used to portray a particular era. 
Despite their appearance, they may be difficult to read for some viewers.

Magazines use various colours and fonts to make the magazine cover more visually appealing to buyers. The editors would use complementary colours to make the magazine covers features, like the Masthead and Cover Lines, stand out to potential audience members. They would also use a range of different fonts and font sizes to make particular texts stand out over the others. For example: The masthead would be the largest text on the cover as it's usually the companies name. Cover Lines would usually be in bold to drawn the audience to the text below.


A Complementary colour is a colour that stands out when combined with another which is opposite to it on the colour wheel. For Example: Yellow and Violet are complementary colours. Tones, such as Black and White, can also be used in this aspect.

Analogous colors are groups of three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, with one being the dominant color, which tends to be a primary or secondary color, and a tertiary. Red, orange, and red-orange are examples.

A Masthead is simply the main heading of the magazine. For example: Vogue would be the Masthead of Vogue magazine. 
A Coverline is used to present additional features that are within the magazine. Furthermore, the Main Coverline is the main aspect of the magazine, it should be the second biggest piece of text. It presents the main article of the magazine.
A left and right third is where the main information is on either the left or right side of the magazine. The right side is used usually for the main image and the barcode. Publishers sometimes use this rule because of the way the magazines are stacked in the shops. Similarly the Skyline works the same way. 

A Barcode is used to simply purchase the magazine. Magazines that are more professional may have the barcode on the back of the magazine to not hinder the visual appearance of the magazine cover. A Date and Issue No. is used to keep track of the magazines. They can also be used to search for particular stories and features that may be in that particular issue. 

Magazine Cover
This is the first magazine cover that I have created in AS Media studies. 
As the magazine had to be based around Harlow College, I have decided that instead of doing it just about what is going on in college to also add a sub genre to the magazine, in this case - Halloween. As for the main image we used a orange background, I already had one of the main colours that are associated with Halloween. Green and black are the other colours associated and therefore I used them for the texts colouring. 

The Masthead of 'Harlow College' is in big, bold and capital letters. By doing this I have achieved one of the features of a successful magazine cover by making the Masthead the biggest piece of text on the cover. 

The second biggest text is the Main Cover Line - 'Happy Harlow Halloween!' This Cover Line is the second biggest piece of text and holds the key information about what this issue of the magazine is about. I have chosen to put this text in green as it is an analogous colour and works in harmony with both the orange background and the person in black clothing. 

The other Cover Lines are also highlighted with this vibrant green colour to make them stand out to the audience. Both the titles of the Cover Lines and important words are highlighted in the Green to again, stand out to readers. By using a range of Cover Lines such as: 'NCS!' and 'Fashion Week!' I have successfully appealed the magazine to a range of audiences by using a range of topics. 

All of these pieces of text have drop shadows to make them stand out even more to the audience. The shadows also add dimension and shape to the magazine making it more interesting to look at. There is also a range of Serif and Sans Serif fonts which make the magazine cover more visually appealing. 

The main image used is one of an AS Learner at Harlow College. The positives of using this image as the Main Image is that audience members may recognise the learner and pick up the magazine to see why that particular person is on the cover. The negative to this image is that it doesn't link particularly well to the theme of Halloween but does link to the magazines purpose of documenting college life and providing news about the college to AS Learners.

The secondary images used both link to the theme and appeal to the target audience of teenagers at Harlow College. I have used a Ghost Emoji in the bottom right as a decorative feature which may catch a passerby's attention. The second image used is that of a pumpkin silhouette. This is used to make the freebie stand out and to also add to the theme of Halloween. 

Most of this information is in the left third of the page. This would be useful to shop workers who stack these magazines as if they stack them overlapping side to side, the magazines main information still stands out to passerbys. 

Finally, the Magazine has been finished off with the Date of August, The Issue No. and the Barcode in the bottom left cover.

Improvements
There are a few things I could do to improve this magazine cover. The main thing I would change is the main image. I would make the main image more festive to halloween by having him wear the colours used for the text (Green and Black) to link to the theme further. 

As there is a rather larger space in the centre left of the cover, I would add another Cover Line to fill up the space and to also appeal to another audience group by adding a different topic to the Cover.

Finally, to the text itself, I would make more words and lines italic or bold to make them particular words stand out to all the rest. The Ghost on the bottom right I feel makes the magazine look unprofessional and therefore it will be removed. 

Old VS. New

I feel that the new magazine cover is far better than the previous one. The magazine looks like it has more information and therefore would attract more audiences. All of the important words are now highlighted and made italic and finally, the ghost in the bottom right corner has been removed allowing for the magazine cover to look more professional.