My Magazine Front Page Swede

This week, my class were taught how to use the features of InDesign, a popular desktop publisher. We learned some basic skills, such as how to set up a new document, navigate the toolbar, insert text and images, and export the finished product, as well as being taught how to use columns and grids in order to arrange the aspects of our covers. We also revisited the main conventions of a magazine, for example, masthead, plug, pug, and main cover star. In order to test our skills and knowledge, we were set the task to recreate a magazine cover from NME, a music magazine, as closely as possible. The main aims for this of this were to:

  • Consider and apply the main conventions of a magazine
  • Recreate the layout
  • Practice using InDesign and its features, such as fonts, sizing, spacing etc.

NME Cover to Recreate

My Recreation

Reflection

Overall, I think I managed to effectively and closely re-create the original NME cover which I was provided with. I managed to re-create the pug quite accurately with its background colour, spacing, and the dotted line through its centre. I also managed to source the exact image that was used on the original cover, which I found was very helpful when it came to recreating its layout, as well as giving it a sense of authenticity. Finally, I think that my font choices were as accurate as they could be within the options provided, and that they generally resemble the fonts on the original quite closely.

Something that I struggled with in this recreation was the accuracy of  my colours. The default colours provided weren’t the correct shade, and I particularly struggled to find a true to tone red. Another difficulty that I encountered was with the spacing and size of the letters. Most of the text on my cover needed to be edited in order to resemble the original, and I struggled to determine which aspect of the letters needed to be changed, such as font size, height, width, word spacing, or line spacing. Finally, I found it complicated to place the text correctly in relation to the image and other text. I will need to improve on these aspects when I create my own cover in order to make a magazine which is as effective as possible.

Targets

One thing that I would like to improve on is the spacing and placement of my text, as it’s something that I struggled with in this recreation, and that I feel is vital in the creation of any future pieces. Something that I would like to learn is how to create a gradient in the background of an image, as I feel this will aid me in creating an aesthetically pleasing finished product. I would also like to learn how to use more complex text effects, as I feel they are interesting, pleasing to look at, and more visually exciting.

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