I chose to pick a black background for my magazine because despite most of the magazines I came across during my research, most of them had a white or neutral background and I wanted my college magazine to be more bold.

When it came to designing my front cover I thought I would use Photoshop to add some graphics before I added the main photo, this is because although I wanted to draw the attention to my photo, I thought that it would add more colour and make an otherwise bland front cover more interesting and more appealing to students. All the brushes were found on http://psbrushes.net

I wanted my magazine to be colourful and appealing but also unisex, for example, the magazine for the London College of Fashion was interesting but based on colour and layout it was aimed at a predominantly female audience. So I thought I would download brushes both masculine and feminine, for example, the pink tape and red lips contrast with the green gasmask and the mustard yellow warning sign, but still look good on the same page.

I took a number of photos of Kyanna for my magazine front cover, I chose this one however, because it gives the magazine a sort of edgy look, and includes both the drawings on her face, which I wanted incorporated into the art side of my college, but also some musical aspects, which is why I gave her a set of headphones to wear, I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool on Photoshop to eliminate the background.

I had some difficulties when it came to selecting a title for my magazine, I wanted it to be humorous but not too obvious or brazen, I thought “Waste Of Paper” would be an interesting title, and plus the concept behind it fit in with the style of my magazine contents pages. I used a font from www.dafont.com

I wanted a “quote” to use for my front cover that wasn’t too outrageous, but still what I thought would make students want to read it but I had to be careful that it didn’t either advocate the use of drugs, or be preachy towards students about drug use. I used a bold white font for this because it co-ordinated with the title as well as stand out against the black background.

For my skyline, I wanted it to keep in with the sense of humour included with my title, as well as use the same font as Kyanna’s quote. For the information about the magazine, the name of the college and the price, I wanted people to be able to read it, but for it not to take too much space or draw attention away from any of the front cover’s other features.