Preliminary Task Evaluation

Evaluation

The preliminary task has allowed me to gain an understanding for how I will approach the development of all three pieces of the magazine task. For the creation of my sample cover page, I used an application (PicsArt) that I’m comfortable with to have a basis on which to edit my content. However, I will be using more sophisticated applications, such as Photoshop and InDesign, to create my final content and be exposed to more design options to strengthen my content.

Layout

The layout of the cover page was based on the sample single-athlete covers I uploaded to my blog. The mast head is not obstructed in any way and centered above the main image. The cover athlete (or cover model) is centered just under the mast head, allowing him to be the focus of the cover. Sub-headings can be found on the sides of the model, with different colors to separate them from other aspects in the cover page.

Text Styles

Through my research of magazine conventions, I found out the importance of using different fonts in a magazine. The use of fonts is imperative to guide readers’ attention to a specific story or headline in your magazine. On my cover page, the title font is noticeably different from the fonts that are used for the articles about the school’s teams and the story about the cover athlete. Further, the text to the right of the cover athlete is bolded, adding to the distinctive quality of the fonts on the cover page.

Photography 

I wanted to limit the possible distractions of a cluttered background on the cover image. For this reason, I cropped out the background of the original photo of the cover model and merged it with a blank image. This created the base of the cover page. While this is a learning process, perhaps in future examples I will take images of a model with a naturally, non-distracting background to use on the cover page of my magazine.