MastheadHere is the denotation of my headline. I used the constant same font throughout to give it a neat and professional look to the mag. However it does look quite plain and boring an d doesn’t quite catch the eye. To improve this I should have made the font more bold and eye catching to grab the readers attention.

Feature article photographHere I took a photograph of a sixth form student using one of the cameras supplied by the media department. I cropped the background of the original photo out as I felt it did not look as appealing as a plain red background. This medium shot has been cut out well using the magnetic lasso and cropping tools in Photoshop. Despite this, the photograph could look more appealing if I was more neater with the lasso tool and remove the light on his back from the original background. Furthermore I could have made the image more effective if the original shot was more of a close up and made it cover more of the page to give it more of an impact.

PuffHere is a puff advertising the schools social media twitter account on the front cover. This allows readers to be able to find the school online and will gain more of an reputation. To improve this is could have added the twitter logo and made it in small print as the text does not have to be this large where it covers over some of the image. Furthermore, I could have added more social media links instead of just twitter like Facebook or the schools website.

PlugThis is used to entice the reader into reading the magazine to find out what this plug means. It doesn’t relate to the cover photograph of the student and whereas it should have had some relevance to the cover photo. However, the text is again very bland and boring and in that sense does not attract as many readers as it could. Furthermore, the language itself could be more enticing, what it currently says isn’t as engrossing as saying something else.

StyleThe front cover is in quite a plain and simple style with a simple red colour background to somewhat match the cover photo and white text and title. I have also include a logo and multiple plugs and puffs. I feel like the colour isn’t quite exciting enough to entice readers in as it is quite bland and almost too simple. The text follows the same pattern as the background colour as it is not appealing or enticing enough for a front cover. I should have made the plugs stand out more prominently and to make up for the lack of background by either enlarging the photograph to take up more of the page or by changing the background to something that is both enticing and compliments the cover photo.

Contents headlineHere is the bold heading for my contents page which equally needs to grab the readers attention and entice the reader in; it has to let the reader know that this is where the content page is. In that regard, I could have made the headline more extravagant by changing the font or size of it to make it more eye-catching. It is very plain and consistent, by changing this the title would have stood out more then before.

Contents textThis where I list the contents of what is inside this particular edition of the magazine. I have centralised the text which is perhaps not the most appealing thing to do in regards to a magazine contents page. The txt should be in vertical columns to make it look more neat and easier to follow. Furthermore, the text is again plain and consistent and follows a similar trend to the headline in that it does not excite or catch the attention of the reader; However, this isn’t as important to do for just the text but shouldn’t be disregarded nonetheless. I have kept a consistent house style throughout my front cover and have done the same here with the same white font and red background.

ImagesHere I have provided images with some sort of meaning to the mag. They are images I captured using a camera provided by the media department whilst in the school and they are relevant to mag. Despite this, the mis-en-scene doesn’t suggest anything exciting going on; there is no life in any of the pictures. This doesn’t quite entice the reader into reading about these images as it most likely wont have any interest with them as there is seems to be nothing interesting going on.

StyleThe contents page has quite a plain and boring mode of address. The background has remained as dull as the cover despite keeping the house style, the txt has remained the same despite getting the point across and the images are not as enticing despite having a particular meaning to the school and contents page. Furthermore there is also quite a lot of blank space, space that is not filled with images or any text. I could have added more variation to this page by filling the whole page with useful things to sell the magazine on as currently I have not sold the magazine that well as it does not look that interesting or an exciting read.

Text toolThis is the tool I used to place text onto my magazine cover. I would then adjust the colour and the font to match the house style. I made the headline a larger and more bolder font but kept the colour the same. This made it stand out above the text, but perhaps a change in colour could have made it even more bolder and stand out more.

Fill toolThis is a tool I used to quickly colour a certain image in instead of going over it with the brush or pencil tool. This is a more quick and effective method when it came to giving colour to a large plain object like the background.

Magic wand and Magnetic lasso toolThe two tools I used here was to cut the image of the student out of the background as neatly and easily as possible. I started with the magic wand tool, however this proved rather difficult as the background was not a plain, consistent colour but rather a combination of objects and colours which made the magic wand tool difficult to use and navigate. I was better off by drawing around the student with the magnetic lasso tool as it doesn’t take into account the inconsistent background.

Eraser toolThis tool was used to correct any mistakes made and to sharpen out the edges made when cutting the image with a lasso tool.

Google imagesI used google images to import a picture of the school logo to give the mag a feel of the school it is representing. I also used it to give the magazine a barcode to make it more authentic.

Cannon 100D cameraI used this camera to capture the images around the school for the contents and image on the front cover of the magazine.