When designing a magazine, I knew that mockups would help my vision come to life. It would give me an idea of what the magazine would look like after printing it out. I downloaded a free mock up from [mockuptree.com 2026], that was the front of a magazine cover but also textured like a real magazine. It helped me know if I liked the cover or had any things that I wanted to change. One thing I didn’t like about it in the mock up was that the tone of the text was made a lot lighter, making it harder for anyone to read. A lot similar with the photo used for the cover, it was made a lot lighter. I know it wouldn’t come out like this if it got printed, however it did make me consider some changes such as changing the photo I used and the text of the colour. One thing I did like was how the layout was, after this I continued using the same layout of the masthead and smaller titles just because I liked how it looked overall.

For this page, I designed a double page about travelling. I used a famous title like ‘catch flights not feelings’ on one side and then on the other side I came up with ‘collect trips, not things’ to match the same catchy title on both pages. I went in knowing I wanted to do something related to the topic of travelling. Being a teenager, all you think about is growing up, and with the benefit of growing up girl’s holidays become a topic on the mind. Girl’s holidays with your friends are so romanticised on social media in today’s society making it a big thing to want to do.  The target audience for these two pages are teenage girls who might be working on planning a holiday between friends, or family or even if they want to do solo travelling.

One key visual element on the pages I would definitely say the text that has been filled with the image. When looking at this design technique, it is called the type-mask tool. This is where you mask the text and add an image as an overlay, causing the text to be filled by the photo instead of being filled by a solid colour. I learnt this technique in the first year so I wanted to use it again in this project to see if I could still figure out how to do it. I think it adds a cool effect to the pages, and it looks more professional. Another key visual element on the pages is the imagery. For the imagery on the page, I used my own photos and turned them into little polaroid on Canva. Canva has already installed mock ups where you drag the photos inside and it automatically fills the mock up. It is not as advanced in comparison to downloading one off the internet and opening it in Photoshop. However, I chose to use Canva simply to save time which gives me more time to do other designs. I used a royalty free image of the ocean to really give the aesthetic of travelling.

I followed the AIDA model when designing the two pages. The AIDA model consists of four different things. Attention, interest, desire and action. When discussing the attention part, my idea was to pull the readers in by noticing the bright pop of colour from the photo of the sea that I used. Due to it being in the centre of the two pages, their attention not only gets pulled to the middle, but also is automatically drawn to it. “Three explanations were explored for the finding that people prefer the middle option rather than the extremes when choosing from an array of similar options. In Study 1, 68% chose the middle item from a set of three highlighters and three surveys, whereas 32% chose an item from either end, p < .0001.” [pubmed.com 2000]. Now talking about the interest side, I focused on the titles. I wanted the titles to be very much the largest thing on the pages, simply to draw the readers in and make them interested by what the rest of the pages could be about. Moving on to talking about desire. When the readers see how much girly holidays are romanticised, it will give them a feeling of wanting to enjoy the very same thing, a sense of desire. They could want to ask their friends or family or even show them the page to explain why the sudden urge to have a fun holiday. Lastly there is action, relating back to what I have previously said. They might go ahead and book the holiday or again show the pages to their friends. The AIDA model is important to follow because it is structured stages that can help the phycology of marketing my magazine.

As for the layout of my magazine, let’s start with discussing the titles. The titles have been purposely made to be the biggest text on the pages because it would be the first thing that the readers see, grabbing their attention. Moving further down the magazine, we can see the information paragraphs and images. After doing my research, I found that images are an important factor. Why? Well, they grab the possible consumer’s interest based on the things in the image itself. For instance, if the image has something to do with football, then the target audience would most likely be for people interested in football, leading to them buying the magazine. It’s almost like images have to persuade people to buy the magazine.

For the colour on the images on the pages, they include a range of blues as the primary colour. According to colour theory, “Blue tends to evoke feelings of calmness and relaxation, often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly.” [verywellmind.com 2026] Those words align perfectly with our brand ethos; we want teenage girls to feel like the magazine is peaceful whilst still being realistic. It isn’t full of negative drama in society. Now for the typefaces that I used. I primarily used ‘Courier’ for most of the text. This typeface is a part of the serif typeface family and is known for the history of being printed in most magazines as giving the typewriter effect. For the masthead I used the typeface, ‘Cesso’. In my opinion, that gives the title the ‘wow factor’ look of what vibe the magazine brings. Due to the size, it grabs consumers attention whilst they walk past the shelf.

What worked well was the photo I chose for the cover. I purposely chose that specific photo as the photo id of the ocean, giving the holiday aesthetic That aligns with the AIDA model as it grabs the attention of consumers. For example, “Where could we go with the ocean being there?”. What didn’t work well was that some text doesn’t align exactly next to the image. However, it is an easy fix as I can redesign the pages. I would improve on the layout as because it was my first time designing something like this, I felt the layout was a bit scattered. I would do it differently next time by looking at other magazine layouts and take some inspiration.

To conclude, I would say I met my goal as it does look good without looking unrealistic. One goal was to achieve time management skills, and I did this by working at home and college to complete pages.

Across these two pages, I designed an informative spread that can help teenage girls grow confidence when using skincare and makeup. When building a skincare routine, it is so important you know your skin type, and how harsh the skincare products could be. As someone who has previously burnt their face by a harsh skincare product, I try advocate for the importance of knowing things as much as I can. When building a makeup routine, it is important to know what products work well with your skin. With such fragile skin as a teenager that could be prone to acne breakouts, knowing what products irritate your skin is part of the process. The purpose of the pages is to expand teenage girls’ knowledge of things like this, embracing the idea of being ‘the big sister’ magazine. Not having anyone to help you can be hard so I thought if there is a page that can help those who aren’t fortunate to get the help, then it would work well. The target audience for these pages link to what I just said. It ideally is for those who need the help of someone guiding them in the right direction when it comes to skincare and makeup. However, anyone can follow the guidance.

The key feature of this page is the actual products themselves. The imagery’s aim is to attract the attentions reader if they were to flick through the magazine before buying. For instance, we all would flick through a magazine before buying just to see if it is actually worth it. If the consumer were to see the imagery of trendy products, it can catch their attention and pull them towards the idea of actually buying the magazine. Another key feature is the big O at the beginning of both titles. I was inspired by the history of literature using the design term of ‘Drop Cap’. What is drop cap? Drop cap is where the first letter of the sentence or word, drops below the normal text line whilst increasing in size, giving It a dramatic effect. For the typefaces, I used ‘Bondi 72 Smallcaps’ for the titles. This font is a part of the serif typeface family. The phycology of this typeface says, “The popularity comes from the elegant “serifs” that give this font style its unique name. It’s a classic typeface with years of tradition and usage among the formal institutes and academic circles due to its conservative nature and respectable appearance.” [designmodo.com, 2026]. I loved the classical look I got when using this on the pages because I felt it made it look more professional. The other font I used was ‘Grantha Sangam MN’. I mainly used this font for the basic writing, the paragraphs and any subtitles. I felt the font was quite clear which makes it easier for the reader to actually read it.

For the layout of the two pages, I didn’t plan anything out as I felt it would just be better if I just went with it. One thing that did stay the same was the alignment of the titles being on the left hand side. Even on the right page, the text has a left alignment. I placed each product differently whilst ensuring I had the space to write some paragraphs that could persuade the reader to purchase. The key visual elements of these pages are definitely the products. The products were selected based of research from what things teenagers struggle with. For example, the dark circle serum can tackle tired, dark eyebags which teenagers can get from lack of sleep due to things like poor diet, electronic time or just stress from education.

This page does not have a particular colour scheme because I felt that due to it being an informative page, I didn’t want any colours or bright things being distractions. I kept it simple with the only colours being Black and white. Let’s talk colour theory. From my knowledge, white resembles the sense of peace and cleanliness. This is exactly the vibe I want for these pages. Why? Well, the pages are about starting a new skincare and makeup routine, and skincare links to cleanliness. Now for the colour black, this means feelings of luxury. Again, this is what I want readers to feel because the products on the page are luxury items that they are going to want to buy.

What worked well was the subtitles and the titles on the page. I feel like it pulled it all together giving a professional effect. They both explain to the readers what the pages are about whilst looking aesthetically pleasing, matching the theme of the magazine. What didn’t work well was the alignment of the title on the right page. I wanted it to match but if I were to flip the text to put the O on a right alignment, it wouldn’t look right but would only look messy. I could have changed this by placing the text on the left anyway to match the other title text on the other page. I would improve on trying to get brands to collab with the magazine and using these pages to promote their products. This will make the magazine more trusting to teenage girls if they see the products they see other people using on social media.

In conclusion, I met my goal for these pages as I knew I wanted to have a beauty and skincare page to help teenage girls create a routine. I would add some colours if I were to do it again as it is my least favourite page in the magazine. However, I am happy with the result of the purpose of the pages.

For this page I dedicated it to the role of girlhood. Girlhood has quite an impact on a teenage girl’s life because it could be a really nice experience with it, or some girls have a difficult experience due to drama, or friends in general. I created the idea of having the readers ‘send in’ questions for us to answer for reasons like not having the support around them or feeling uncomfortable asking the people they have around them just incas they ‘don’t relate’. The purpose of the of this page was to relax the readers into thinking about normal situations happen to everyone and it is actually normal. The target audience are for those who feel like they can’t ask these questions to people they know personally in case they get embarrassed or made uncomfortable about relatable situations.

One key feature of the pages is the big photo that I used across one page and a small section on the other page. The image that I used is a photo of me and my friend laughing together, giving the audience a way to connect to our emotions in the photo, when thinking about girlhood as a topic. According to @dunnedwards.com, “As with most colours in colour theory, what the colour blue means depends on context—it carries both positive and negative connections. With a sense of calm, relaxation, trust, loyalty, and authority, the positive highlights convey honesty, commitment, serenity, and peace.” [dunnedwards.com 2025]. I specifically chose this photo due to it having a blue colour background, and that it comes with meanings that align with our brand ethos. For example, as from the reference above it says that the colour blue can resemble different emotions such as trust and loyalty. Those emotions are two important factors when it comes to your friends and ‘girlhood’, you want friends who you can trust with your secrets whilst also being loyal to you, always being there for you when you need each other. Not having a best friend is hard because you feel as if you’re the ‘floater’ friend, where you have friends but not a best friend. Finding your person can definitely help shape your experiences with school, university and more. Another key feature on the page is the title ‘girlhood advice’ in big writing to draw the reader’s attention to it. If I saw a big title that said advice I would definitely stop flicking through and juts have a quick look. I matched the colour of the text to the background colour on the image to pull it all together and make it look aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

For the layout, I looked into layouts of other magazines and found a similar pattern across different magazines about how they have their pictures covering a whole page whilst fitting on to the other page. I had a small search to see whether there is a name for this method and discovered it is called partial double-page spread. I have used this across most of the magazine as I believe it gives it a professional look, meaning that consumers are likely to take the brand seriously if it has that professional look to it. I then had the title in a bigger text size to the other text on the page so it could do its purpose of being a title and entice people to stop and look at the page. Below that is a small subtitle that just gives the readers a small overview on what the page is about, giving it that bit of extra information the title wouldn’t give. For example, people wouldn’t know that readers can send in their questions for this section as the title just said ‘girlhood advice’ whereas the subtitle is more informative.

Moving on to talking about why. So why did I chose the fonts I used? For the title, I used the typeface ‘Cesso’. This typeface is a part of the serif font family meaning that it has quite the royal look. I have continued to use this typeface around the whole magazine due to how I like the look of it as the main text of the pages. I think it looks really classy whilst appealing to those who might be reading, giving it the vibe that it is something that could be classed as a luxury.  For the other text on the pages, I used ‘Courier’. Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface that has a typewriter appearance to it. I wanted to switch up the usual font I used for just the writing, so I used courier to give it the classical magazine vibe, with the typewriter aesthetic. However, on reflection, some people would find it difficult to read due to the point size of the text.

What worked well was the whole idea of this page. In my pitch, I knew I wanted to create a safe space for girls to ask any questions they felt awkward about without feeling like they were to be judged. I liked how I designed it and how it turned out with using personal images, and just how I layout the questions and answers. What didn’t work well was the typeface I used for the normal text. I used a specific font where it is readable to some and unreadable for the others. I didn’t realise this until after I designed and uploaded it to the magazine layout, my peers commented on it making me realise. I would say the pages can be effective to the readers who don’t have anyone to talk to about personal topics, it creates a safe space for the reader to feel at ease and comfortable. What I’d do differently next time is create a fake email or QR code and put it somewhere on the page so that readers know where they could send their questions to.

Overall, I would say I met my goal of the purpose for the pages by executing it out good, but I would just design it differently next time, maybe with more detail. I would try adding more colour rather than just using the same colour for the whole page. Possible more pinks and yellows.