Evaluation

For this task I am going to evaluate my front cover and contents page of my school magazine ‘The Days of Haydon’. I created my magazine on InDesign which I have never used before the start of this task.

For my front cover, I chose a mid-close up shot of a new sixth form student smiling at the camera. I chose a new sixth form pupil because I wanted to get the new students involved within the school community. I also got the student to smile because it gives off a positive vibe to the customers who buy/see the magazine, if the student was not smiling, it would give off the effect of a quite boring and dull magazine. Also, the smart clothing that she was wearing shows people it is a high quality school, if she was wearing her own clothes it would show people that Haydon is a much laid back school, but that isn’t the case so I wanted to show that. Formal characteristics is key; which is why I didn’t fill the page with writing and pictures. I wanted a very simple look but this type of style would still attract many customers. The font that I used for the title, ‘The Days of Haydon’, was ­­­­Eras Bold ITC, I made the title have a bold outline by choosing 2 colours which are different, white and grey, and these colours stand out when with each other. I have put white as the main colour and grey as the outline colour to make it stand out. In the bottom left hand corner of the page I put the title of the 2 main pages in this week’s edition of the magazine to draw in my audience as the 2 main pages are meant to encourage people to purchase the magazine so they can read it.

Moreover, I have faded the Haydon logo into the main picture which certainly makes the front page look more appealing, it also makes it clear that the magazine is a Haydon school one and to show that it is a proud one. I faded it out at 45%.

Moving on to my contents page. The contents page is similar to the front page as it has a similar colour scheme, for example, the title for the front page and the title for the contents are the exact same, the only difference being they say different things. The writing on the contents page is also the same colours and font it’s just that writing is much smaller and the outline of the writing is darker. Keeping the same colour schemes throughout the 2 pages is a good way of keeping it simple. As I said, keeping it simple is a very formal characteristic; Haydon School is thought of very highly in the local community, if I had made an informal contents page Haydon’s reputation would drop as it would look quite childish. My main picture for my contents page is the big main tower near the sixth form centre in the school. This is a very well-known part of the school meaning people will easily recognise it, as they are familiar with the picture it will make them feel more attached to the magazine as they pass the tower every day of their school life. However, I have faded out the main picture to 50% because then the writing on the page stands out much more clearly and that’s what the contents page job is, to tell people what is in the magazine. At the bottom of the page I have put 4 pictures to give the page a better visual effect and I have also faded these pictures out but this time to 65%; I have done this again to make the writing the main part of the page. I have placed the 4 pictures in an organised fashion to keep the page formal. I also curved the pictures a little bit just to make them more interesting as every other picture is in a square form.

My design sketches and my finished magazine are not the same. On the front page, the things that I have changed/added is the font of the title and also placing the faded Haydon logo on the page. I changed the font because my first idea for the font was a very thin type of font meaning it would not stand out at all. I added the Haydon logo in to the magazine to make it appeal to my audience much more. On my contents page the things that I have changed/added is also the font again, adding a background picture and the amount of the pictures at the bottom of the page and in what type of manner I placed them in. Changing the font was the same reason to changing it on the front page. Adding a background picture is what draws the reader in, if there was no background picture the page would look really plain and would attract very few people. Even though the picture is faded out, it still has a massive effect to drawing in the audience because it is the main tower. I have already stated the significance of the tower. I reduced the amount of pictures because filling the page with pictures would make it unprofessional. I have already stated to why I have placed the pictures how I have.

Things that I thought went well was the fading out of the Haydon logo on my front page as it made the page much more interesting to look at as it was a unique feature that my audience have never seen before. I also thought that the curving of the pictures in the contents page is another thing that went well because that was also unique and it makes a change from the dull square photos that everyone sees on a daily basis.

If I was to do my front page again, I would put the student next to a popular area in the school, for example the study room, this would attract more of the students. If I was to do my contents page again I would make my title stand out more by maybe making it a little bigger.