Magazine Cover Elements

The components:

Masthead-The name of the magazine displayed on the front cover. This is done with a   unique typeface so that it is eye catching.

Selling lines- Is a short description of the titles main marketing point

Dateline- Day, month and year of publication this usually contents price

Main image- The largest image shown on the main cover in relations to the story in the magazine.

Cover lines- Sentences that explain the main stories featured in the magazine. Some cover lines do content images.

Main cover lines- Is very large and stands out more than the cover lines and takes up most of the cover area. It relates to the model on the cover.

Barcode- standard bar that is used by all retailers

When producing a college front cover and contents page

At the start of our foundation portfolio preliminary task as a class we looked at the media key concepts of how to it could be applied to produce a magazine. When creating my front cover and contents page I used the acronym LIIAR: Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience and Representation. 

L- language. The language of the magazine is what allows the reader to carry on reading and the print layout of the magazine is extremely important. However the contents page is not as immensely important as the front cover due to the fact that if the front cover does not impress the reader it’s very likely that the will buy the magazine. The languages aim on the front cover of a magazine is to impress and to inform the reader what type of magazine they are going to buy

I-institution. The institution of a magazine is what controls the production process and how it affects the final product. The cover of the magazine will appeal to student more than the staff because it’s a college magazine and it will have a more direct approach to then.

I-ideology.  Ideology is the main set ideas and the system of beliefs about social groups and values which is shared in within the society. For example the ideology is what is what the main cover of a magazine is telling you.

A- audience. The audience is who the magazine is aimed at or the consumer of the media. The target audience for magazines are highly important because without the audience the magazine will not sell. For a college magazine the target audience will be the students from age 16-19 and the staff in thee college

R- representation. The representations are the people who appear in the magazine and how they are portrayed. Students and teachers are the people that normally appear on the front cover or something that is college related.

Planning and ideas for college magazine

My preliminary task was to create a front cover and a contents page for a new school magazine using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. I also used Microsoft word to create my draft for my front cover and contents page.

This is my final design for my front cover school magazine. The first thing I needed to do was to create my blog where I would be presenting all my creative work.  The second thing I had to was to come with a name, cover lines, selling lines, and target audience for my front cover.

College Magazine Ideas

Masthead:

·         Student dreams

·         PROUD

·         Aim high

·         Dreams

·         Believe

·         The Refined

I did not choose any of these mast headings because most of these headings have already been used by other students and I wanted mine to be different so I decided to look up the word Educated in the thesaurus and I chose the word ‘Cultivated’. ‘Cultivated’ means educated or refine. I used the name ‘Cultivated’ because it’s short and yet simple also memorable.

Cover lines:

·         Student shock - Rise in university tuition fees by £9000

·         Open days – get information on upcoming open days at your university

·         Uniform day

·         Revision tips- how to get on top of your revision  

·         Nus Extra- Discounts in all your favourite shops

·         Halloween – Trick or Treat give me something good to eat

·         UCAS- difficulties with your ucas application? Get help now

·         Take the stage- How talented are you

·         Black History Month

·         Oscars –Find out who won

I only selected eight cover lines from my ideas because having all ten on my front cover will be too much as I just want my front cover too look simple and not over crowed with words and also because I wanted to picture to be seen without the cover lines detracting from it too much.

Target audience:

·         Students 16-19 year old

Selling lines:

·         Plan for success

·         Desire to learn

·         Limit is the sky

·         Student resource of the month

Others components:

·         Barcode

·         Dateline – 10 October 2011

·         Image – male or female  students