Evaluation of College Magazine

After studying several magazines I was able to create a list of codes and conventions of a modern day magazine, whilst making my magazine I was able to use this list to follow the ‘rules’ magazines generally follow to create a more realistic looking magazine cover and contents page. I added a main central image, a bar code, along with price and dates and a featuring column, mentioning things within the magazine. All of these are generally part of the real magazines Codes and Conventions. I also used a colour scheme of light blue, dark red and black on both the magazine and the contents page, just as magazines do. The colour scheme helps people recognise the magazine from a distance, just by the colours used on the front cover.

Whilst making the magazine, I used two programs. One called Photoshop, the other called Quarkxpress. The program Photoshop helped me manipulate and edit original images I had taken myself, I was able to resize it and remove the background of the main image (Sean) These images were used on the front cover of my magazine. I was then able to add my dark red background behind the picture. I also added a light blue title to my magazine (Priestley Monthly) along with adding black text to advertise what is within the magazine. I also used the programme Quark to make the contents page, I was then able to add text boxes, text and images, still following the colour scheme used on the cover. Both of these programs were new to me, it took a while to get used to because they are very complicated, but they was able to help me make a good looking magazine cover in a short space of time.

Overall I am generally happy with my finished product, as it’s the first time I have used either Quarkxpress or Photoshop, I learnt new techniques and methods whilst using them that will benefit me when I come to make more. With the things I learnt I feel confident that next time I am asked to create some thing, I will be able to make something of even better quality than what I produced this time.  I believe I managed follow the codes and conventions of a professional, real life magazine well using most of the things I noted down whilst studying the magazine. However, in comparison to the professional magazine covers I was unable to create a professional looking cover. My main image was poorly cropped because once again I had never used this tool before. My colour scheme worked well, because the contents page actually looked like it would belong with my main cover.