Final Copy of College Magazine- 'Lock Down'

In the brief it asks us to create a front cover page for a college magazine and a draft of a contents page. I decided to call my college magazine 'Lock Down'. I wanted the name of my college magazine to appeal to my target audience which is students aged 16-18.  I choose tis name as it gives a sense of gossip which attracts the attention of my target audience. The colour of the masthead is a bright purple colour. The colour purple as I have previously mentioned gives connotations of ambition, wisdom, independence and creativity and success, which are the connotations i want for my college magazine and i think that the colour works well with a college magazine. As well as using the colour purple i have used blue and green too. Blue symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith and truth. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. These colours all should attract the attention of my target audience and as surveys show that up to 75% of teenagers prefer the colour purple to any other it should relate to my target audience. The font that i waned to use for my masthead was going to be  as i thought it would relate well to my target audience, however when it came to the actual creation of my front cover it wasn't possible as the software i was using to make this didn't allow to use this font. I previously got it off the website http://www.dafont.com/ but due to the white background of the text it wasn't do-able. Therfore i used 'Ariel', i thought that by placing  the word 'Lock' on the left hand side of the side and the word 'Down' on the right hand side of the student, the magazine would be original and new which would also appeal to my target audience as they want the newest thing out. By positioning each word of the masthead at either side of the studnets head it would draw your attention straight to the student which what a college is about and may imply that the college puts their studnets first.

 The main image I used is of a student dressed in smart, casual clothes. She is holding her handbag which looks full which implies that the college and studnets are hard working, she is holding a folder which also implies that students are hard working and ready to learn. The colour of the folder is purple which links with the masthead which shows the connection and communication between the college and the studnets.  The model is standing in a natural position and is looking at the camrea smiling. This gives the college a positive representation as she looks as if she is genuinly having a good time at college.

There are four headlines, two of them are placed at the left hand side of the cover and the other 2 are on the right hand side of the cover with the main image inbetween them which instantly draws attention to them when people look at the main image. Two headline titles are written in blue and the story is written in green and the other two headline titles are written in green and the story is written in blue, these colours stand out and will grab readers attention. The font of the headlines are also in 'Ariel' but is a bold style which gives it a professional edge, without being too formal.

My intention was to follow the usual conventions of a college magazine and include the college website at the bottom of the magazine, this would be so that students are able to gain further information, however i forgot when it came to the actual creating of my cover even though i was using my magazine cover draft as a guildline. However i remembered to date my college magazine cover. I did this so that my target audience would know if the information or advice the magazine is giving them is valid or necessary. I also included a price, even though the magazine was free i wanted to include it so that my audience wouldn't be left be wondering if it was or not. I used the same colours all the way through my magazine, so that there was a fleuency throughout and it would show the readers that the college is fluent and easy going.

If I had to re-do my cover the first thing I would do is allow myself more time for the creation of my magazine as i did feel as though i was a bit rushed. I would include the college website which i intented. I would of also liked to include another photo in the bottom right hand corner of a girl and boy studing together which is actually in my potential photos that way it would of appealed to my target audience of both sex much more. I don't think that my cover is too busy which i like. Although I would have liked to play around a lot more with the layout and the contents of it.

For this i accidently printed it out landscape rather than portrait but i meant to print it out in portrait.