Magazine I'm designing

[Junkers]

As part of the Computer Aided Design unit in my Graphic Communication (Tech Drawing or whatever, Google it, it's a Scottish course) class, I have to design a magazine. I've designed most of the pages but I'm doing my 3rd massive overhaul of all my pages, starting with my front page, and I'd like your opinions plus som criticism as to how I can improve the magazine. Take note, the pictures are a little bit grainy due to the file format I saved the picture in.

My front cover:

Spoiler

URL: [IMG]https://forum.ragezone.com/ima...ive criticism would be very much appreciated.

 

[xDragonZer]

hmm... i dont like to fonts....
can use others fonts?

 

[IQstim]

the computer tower at right top corner didn't stand out!

the rest are okay!

 

[heartbeat]

Doesn't really "flow" or look professional-like.
Text doesn't really stand out, you should use stroke or drop shadow
to make it more noticeable.
The Colour choice for text and placement isn't really the best
and you can see a build up of pixelation in various areas.
Overall i would like to say it's a good first try but could be a lot better,
sorry for my constructive criticism.

 

[Canon]

I did this when I was doing my BTEC in digital media as a side project, going from the way ours were marked, you've covered almost everything, looks fantastic and will already get a good mark. I must pick you up on your 'Dawn of war II' I wouldn't have had this centred in relation to it's image as it breaks consistency, which should gain you marks as consistency = familiarity = ease of reading = good magazine

 

[DaCheat]

You have to put cells behind your words... with that picture they're very hard to read. I'd also change fonts.

 

[Genryu]

Don't have to put cells, strokes are also good

 

[TriumpH]

gonna make summin to inspire ya :-D
goonna suck dohh

 

[the coolest cat]

Don't put a stroke on the text with the layer settings - you get rounded corners that look weird. Instead, to make text more visible, you can put a soft drop shadow with a low opacity to make it easier to read.

I think the images on the bottom of the magazine should have some sort of border/bg, maybe even cover the whole bottom section of the newspaper with a white fill and put the pictures/text on top of it..

I would change the font too and move "Reviews | Previews" maybe 10 pixels lower or smaller, it seems too close to the title..

Other than that I think it's good!

Oh and change the color, the red is hard to read...

 

[Skycut]

Anti-aliasing on text.

 

[yjlasher22]

1. computer tower. I didn't even notice it until IQstim pointed it out
2. text can't be seen. change font/ colour. add shadow. you don't use white text on a bright background!
3. title/ header does not stand out. make it strong. give it emphasis. plus, there is an image below, which makes it hard to read. check out other mag covers, most of the time, the text is placed on somewhere with a fixed colour/ gradient/ texture.
4. pics at bottom stick out like a sore thumb. it must blend into the mag, yet look nice. consider overlaying the bottom so it blends in.
5. consider a border. makes it more appealing.
6. yeah, not much flow. my focus is pulled from one place to another.

my two cents. no offense, but a lot more can be done.

 

[Junkers]

Thanks for the criticism, gives me something to work on :tongue:

My teacher has mentioned a change in the font of the main headlines (which I have changed to the 28 Days Later font), so with those adjustments and some of your recommendations I'll fix something up. I can only do so much as my school are pretty much broke and I'm using MS Office Publisher to do this.

 

[St. Paddy]

It looks good.
1. I wouldn't use white as a background, hard to see.
2. I didn't see the PC until I read yjlasher's post, i don't like it that much anyway but yeah.
3. Pictures at bottom need some kind of border to make them stand out.

Overall, nice job

EDIT:
Just one more thing, download a font, that maybe fits the picture more.

You must be registered to see links

 

[purpleNblack2]

I think it doesn't look appealing because, the magazine's ads are all red and white, some in front of a bright background and some in front of dark areas. So, it levels out to become unappealing.

Some of the ads, like where it says Left 4 Dead 2, maybe it would have been better if you actually used the Left4Dead font too, or the logo.

and one more minus, is the quality of the stock.

But all in all, I guess it's okay, but I don't like it.

 

[SeraphiPod]

I don't like the colors used,
also its crispy, the texts.