Photography Composition

Flat Plan Rationale

For the design of my front cover and contents page of my magazine 'Fresh', I have selected a 3 colour palette scheme of purple, black and white; this colour scheme will be consistent throughout my magazine. I have chosen these colours as they are suitable to that of my audience. The audience for my magazine is aimed at 16-18 year old male and females. The colour purple is the main college colour so I thought it would be suitable to use that colour as it is a college magazine. I then decided on using the colours black and white because they are basic colours which are suited to both male and females, my audience. I called the magazine 'Fresh' because it relates to 'freshers' at college, and also because the magazine contains fresh news and gossip about the college.

On my front cover the main image is a picture of a student at QE college and is positioned in the centre of the page so it is the main feature of the cover. I have positioned the main sell line infront of the main image on the cover because it is the main content of the magazine so being bold and centered, lets the reader know that it is the main content of the magazine. I positioned the other sell lines around the main image in background space. I have used a large masthead which I have positioned at the top of the front cover. It is easily noticeable so customers can easily recognise the magazine. I have included a skyline above my masthead, and I have also included an easily recognisable bar code. I have layed my text out like in Kerrang magazine as I thought it was presented well. The sell lines in my magazine are subjects to do with college, and as it is a college magazine them subjects appeal to my target audience. For my main image, I am going to take a medium close-up shot which will be placed in the centre of my magazine front cover, taking up most of the room. The photograph of the student will be taken with their hands behind their back and taken as a frontal shot as it shows they are relaxed and confident which is one of the topics the magazine is trying to get the students to become. My font size is largest on my masthead, smallest on my sell lines and a medium sized font for my main sell line.

On my contents page, I have continued the purple, black and white colour scheme like on my front cover to keep the colour scheme consistent. I have included a close up face image of the same student as pictured on the front cover, which will be positioned in the top right hand corner, taking up 25% of the room on the page. I have included a close up image of the student to relate to the 'beauty' content in the magazine. I have listed a table of contents, including page numbers and additional information about the pages, which makes it useful for the reader. I have also included information on subscription to the magazine. The font size on the contents page is relatively small, ranging for different parts of the contents; the font used for the page content is larger than that of the font used for the additional information about the pages.

Inspirational Texts

I like the use of images on this front cover as they stand out in the magazine and the use of lots of images, rather than text may appeal more to customers. The bold font and use of white colour, against the dark main background image, of the main sell line brings the text out, which makes it stand out from the rest of the magazine. Also, the text on the skyline and the sell lines is in a white colour against a black background so is easily readable. As the masthead is brought behind the main image, it doesn't stand out as much and customers may not be able to read what the magazine title actually is which is important. The bar code is easily found, as it is, like most of the text, white against a black background. Kerrang magazine uses a 4 colour palette scheme of black, white, yellow and red. 

The 4 colour palette scheme is consistent throughout Kerrang magazine as the contents uses the colours black, white, yellow and red for the font like the front cover does. I like how the main image which promotes the content of the magazine is large and takes up approximately half the page as it is the main subject of the magazine. I also like how the table of contents is arranged into different headings depending on the subject, so the page the reader is looking for is easily found from looking under the subject heading. This page also includes information on subscription, and writer's comments.

I like the colour scheme used in this issue of Rock Sound magazine; the main colour pallete used is black, white and blue. The main image is the only image on the front cover of the magazine, apart from a few smaller ones. This makes the image stand out a lot more on the cover and promotes the main content of the magazine. Like Kerrang, the masthead is sent behind the main image making it hard to read. The white font on the sell lines is hard to read in places where the background image is lighter. The bar code and main sell line are easily readable.

The 3 colour palette scheme of black, white and blue is kept consistent throughout the magazine. I like the large use of image taking up half the contents page as it stands out and makes the contents page less boring as the rest is just text. There is additional information included about each of the main features on the contents which is useful for the reader. There is no information on subscription on this page.

Brief: Print

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/ college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.

Main Task: The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.

A minimum of 4 images must be used. All images and graphics must be produced by the candidate.