My Completed Magazine Cover

This is my completed magazine cover I added background shapes the same colour as the guitar to keep a theme for this cover. I added these shapes to make the cover less formal as if it was formal then this wouldn't appeal to my audience. It is important that this appeals to my audience as if my target market don't like or find the cover appealing the they won't read the magazine. I used the same colour as my guitar as I wanted to have an ongoing theme to make the magazine look more pleasing to the eye, which is also a key concept if I want to achieve the aim of providing a college magazine that is read by the whole student community. Also I used red as it is an eye catching colour and will make it more likely that people will see this over other magazine. I will use the same shade red on the contents page and if I was produce a whole issue then it would be repeated throughout as it would contribute towards a house style. I decided not to use many cover lines or buzz words as I find they clutter and ruin the front cover although this is generally convention to convey the contents of a magazine, this means that I will have to provide more information on the articles within my college magazine to make up for the lack of cover lines on my front cover. I have followed convention as the one cover line I do have is on the left, this is to do with the way the magazine will first be presented as the right side will be covered so if I did place any cover lines on the right then these would be covered and unseen. I also decided to put my bar code in the bottom right corner as when it is presented to be picked up it won't be seen, also by placing it in the corner is allows it to be discrete and not ruin my design. I could have improved my front cover by including the information that shows its free and you won't have to charge for the magazine. This is a huge flaw in my cover as it can put off people picking it up as they can be confused to whether money can be exchanged which I know from my audience research that my target market lack money as quite often their money has to go towards college supplies or if they are in accommodation then they will have to spend it on food. So I have learnt that for future projects that I must make sure that all needed information is provided before I finish the project.