Front cover and contents page for college magazine.

a. the connotation on the green in both my front cover is fresh and new as students like up to date and fresh things such as news or products. I used lime green as this denotes brightness and therefore connotes intelligent students. The yellow I chose for the same reason, but also because it contrasted well with the green background of the grass and the red bricks on the building.

The red connotes excitement and desire, and is also eye-catching to attract students to the magazine.

I used the stars to highlight the text and make it stand out more from the background photo, but also as the stars are an attractive and eye-catching shape, which again is attractive to students.

The font for the title "ENSFC" is a handwriting type of font, as this connotes work and writing that students would do whilst taking notes in class, and the font for "March £1.40" is in Times New Roman as this is the font students would use for typing up essays and formal documents.

The font used for the main headlines on the front cover is a large, blocky font sans font, as this is easy to read from a distance, and is also eye-catching when combined with the colours.

The way that Louise is standing connotes confidence and a cheekyness that is often found in students. Her black and white clothing makes her stand out from the colourful background and also says that she is unique and has her own personality as she stands out from the background so strongly.

I placed all the headings on the left hand side because of the way magazines are shown in shops, with the right hand side covered, this would allow students to see what is in the magazine even if they were just passing, and the shops could have mor copies on the shelf to be sold.

On the contents page I used the large photo of Sarah as she looks like a typical student, but happy to be at the college. I used the photo of Katie, Aimee and Abbie as their pose suggests that they are fun, jokey people that don't take themselves too seriously, which suggests that the college is a fun place to be. The photo of the media class is to give an example of students working at the college.

I used the green font for the contents of the magazine as it conotes fresh and new, and the red font to make the page numbers stand out, and make it easier for students to find what they are looking for.

The change in the logo on the contents page from the front cover is to connote that there is variation a the college in terms of the students and working methods.

The red font used for the "contents" title connotes desire, in this case a desire to be successful, it is also eye-catching and easy to see when flicking through the magazine.

B. The way I have used exclamation marks on the headings is eye-catching, and the bright colours work well in grabbing people's attention, and Louise's pose works well in creating the image of individuality, but I don't think that the bright coloured stars work so well in the layout as they clash with the photograph, and don't look very professional. I also don't think the logo looks very professional as it is very simple, and looks as though anyone could have made it on any program.

On the contents page I think the photo of Aimee, Katie and Abbie works well as it connotes jokeyness and not taking themselves seriously, and makes you think that the college is an exciting and fun place to be, also the picture of Sarah successfully makes you think that she is enjoying college. I don't think that the yellow bars are very successful as they don't have any point, and they don't look very professional.

c. Whilst I was designing this front cover and contents page I learned many new skills on photoshop. The main skill I learned was how to cut out a shape from one photo and paste it onto another, and then using a soft-edged rubber to make it blend in to the background well, just as I did to Louise. I also learned how to create shapes such as the stars and fill them with colours, and change the contrast and brightness to make the photos brighter. I learned how to use the red eye tool and the spot healing tool to edit the photographs. I now feel more confident in using Photoshop for documents.