My evaluation of my magazine front cover

My magazine front cover is now complete after roughly 3 hours preparing and creating it.
I think the name of the masthead is appropriate as it refers to King Henry Viii School with 'Henry' and also seems magazine friendly like with 'Weekly'. This also implies that the magazine will be produced weekly to students to get. The colours used for the masthead were a yellow infill of the writing and a thick dark blue outline. I think these are very suitable for the magazine as the blue outline make the yellow stands out on the cover which draws attention, and the colours are also associated with King Henry School itself. At first my magazine was designed to have 'Henry's' slightly above 'Weekly' on the cover as I thought it would be easier to fit the masthead on. However I then decided to change this to having them on the same line by altering the thickness and height of the writing which I think worked better. The masthead also was in capital letters and a large thick font which I think made more noticeable.
      The main image on the cover continued to be the two children in uniform which I had currently planned. I think this worked really well on my front cover as the photo had good lighting as it was taken outside on the King Henry site. Although I think my image would've been more successful if I had taken the photo directly in the light, as on the photo it is evident to see that there is a slight shadow on the side of one of the students face. I also think that my main image implies that the magazine is both for male and female that attend the school, as a girl and boy are both in the picture. The picture also relates to the main story in the magazine being 'New Uniform Special' as they are both currently wearing the new uniform and it also visible to see the King Henry Logo which joins the theme of the school magazine.
       My magazine front cover consisted of two subsidiary images, covering two different stories that are involved in the magazine. One of these pictures are Year 7 boys playing rugby on the school field in their school rugby kit. I think this is a good image as it relates to the story 'NEW AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS NOW ON'. I think the image is good as it shows a number of six boys playing the sport, and showing they're having fun which I think will invite pupils to get the magazine and be interested in what it involves. The second image includes four six formers holding their exam papers showing a happy emotion to celebrate their exam success. This also relates to the story shown on the cover of 'Students pass with flying colours'. Both images are both placed at the bottom of the cover as they both fitted perfect in this location and if they were placed anywhere else it would have affected the main image massively. The images also have a think outline around this which makes them stand out and matches the yellow theme of the front cover, they are also rotated slightly to make the magazine seem more exciting.
The following sell lines and stories used on my front cover are : 'New Uniform Special' 'Your non weekly work book!' 'Students Pass with flying colours!' and 'NEW AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS NOW ON!'. I think that all lines direct clearly to the magazine and also link up to the images on the page. The language used for these sell lines are simple and easy to understand, think this worked best because the magazine is aimed at children as young as 11 years old which they wouldn't find difficult. It is evident that there are no mistakes including spelling of the lines on the cover.  All sell lines consists of a different font and size, one of them being,
'Arial'. This mixture of fonts and sizes does not make the cover seem plain but amusing. I also did this by using different coloured fonts including the colours blue and white as I thought they stood out the most sufficiently.
         I think the design and layout works successfully as it is not too over crowded with things and kept simple which is clear to understand. By immediately looking at the cover I think it is possible to see that it is aimed to a school pupil as a school magazine, which is most important. The layout seems colourful and exciting to appeal to the reader other than being boring and plain.
         I think the most successful parts of my magazine font cover is the main image as it stands out massively and has a big impact on the cover itself. I also think my masthead is well done as it is very appealing to the eye with bold colours a catching name to go with it. I finally think the design and colour themes of the magazine work extremely well as it seems 'friendly' to welcome the pupils of the school.
         However if I could improve my magazine cover in any way it would be to put a price sign on the magazine which I originally planned to do when I carried out my market research when asking the price of the magazine. Although forgetting this I think that I should put a bold colour star on the magazine including '99p' in it which would show the cheap price of the magazine which would also encourage people to buy it, however I would then struggle to find a place for it on the cover. The other thing that I would improve on the magazine is taking the image in a better lighting because of the shadow on one of the pupils face, although I don't think it affects the magazine greatly. Overall I think that my magazine cover is successful and would achieve alot of purchases in King Henry Viii School!