Designing the cover.

This is the first design that I produced for the magazine cover. The masthead is the largest piece of text and underneath it I have included the strapline 'written by students for students'. The price is included to the right of this using an eye catching star shape to make it stand out to the audience. Moving down the page, you can see the headline which is also in quite a large text to make it stand out, but not so much as the masthead. The image takes up the bottom left quarter of the page so that it becomes the main focus of the page. Then, down the right hand side I have positioned three plugs that would be used to intrigue the audience and persuade them to buy the magazine. The bar code is included below these, as most existing magazines would have one on their front page.

After looking at the first design I made, I decided to make a few changes. I thought that everything looked too spaced out. Firstly, I enlarged the image since I thought that on the first design it was way too small. Now it takes up almost the full page, becoming completely the central focus of the cover. I re-organised the positioning of the plugs and bar code, mainly because I had to ensure that they would be readable when placed on top of the image. I also decided against including a headline as the other magazines I have looked at don't actually have this convention. I kept the masthead, strapline and price the same as I thought they looked eye catching and worked well on the cover. I used a font called 'Palatino Linotype' because it is clear and easy to read. However, I will probably make a few more changes before printing the finished design. Then I will scan it to my blog and discuss it in detail in the same way as I have with both of these designs. I will also explain the reasons for the colours I have used, as I couldn't do this with these two screenshots as they would only appear in grey-scale on the screenshots. Also, I am aware that the text in these images appear small, so I will discuss my choices in that area of the cover in more detail aswell, once I have scanned my final piece of work.