Preliminary Magazine Task - Pre Production

For our task we had to design and create a front cover and a contents page of a magazine using Photoshop and our creative skill. I had to create a magazine cover and contents that was both eye catching and provided the reader with information about our school. I had to include a mid-shot of ourselves or a model that I had taken; any other picture included in the magazine front cover or contents had to be taken by us personally as well.

First of all I had to design our magazine cover which consisted of drawing up a rough sketch including a masthead, a photo and any other details on the front cover. I annotated my sketch, this included the expression the person was using on the front, the background, any font and colours used. When I sketched the front cover I had to take into account whom would be my target audience and what colours and fonts would attract their attention.

 After a long deliberation on what I should call my magazine I finally thought of Sticky. The main reason I decided upon this name is that it has many meanings including hot, informal and awkwardly difficult. All of these meanings represent the stories inside the magazine as they address the issues no one else asks. Also the concept of when you pick up the magazine you won’t be able to put it down, as if it was covered in glue.

The skills that I had learnt in the pre-production part of this process is that to make a successful magazine front cover and contents page is that you need to pay deep attention to the audience its produced for. For example if you include too much information on the front of the magazine then no student is going to be bothered to pick it up and read through it. Instead you need to include short stories that are going to interest the students, a good colour scheme and fonts. The most important has to be an eye catching picture that the reader can relate to and genuinely be interested in.