Evaluation

This is my school magazine front cover and contents page:

Overall, I think that I managed to use all the codes and conventions when designing a front cover and a contents page of a school magazine. In my magazine cover, I used a medium close-up image of a female student to relate on the theme of the magazine, as well as, attempting to add text on top of the main image with small photos along the bottom to create a sense of a real magazine. The background of the main image with some art work of other students, relates to the main story of the magazine. I chose the colour scheme of white, black and red which works together and as it also reflect to the house colour of the school. I originally used the colour blue for the selling line, because I want it to stand out on the magazine. Personally, I think that the colours goes well together, as they stand out clearly in their own ways.
The language that I used on the front cover is very simple and with no difficult words, as my target audience is all the year groups in the school.
In this project, the equipments that I used are a camera, and a computer. The software that I used is Microsoft Word. I also used Paint to delete the background of the image.
The font that I used for my masthead is Blue Highway Linocut in Microsoft Word. I attempted to add an ON symbol instead for using O, to suggest that students should be turned on in school. However, the irony to this is that the ON symbol is in red instead of green which I have forgotten to change the colour. The other font that I used throughout the whole magazine is Impact, because its easy to understand and it also goes well with the masthead font.
Furthermore, my contents page uses images with page references, which is parable to a real magazine. I did this to engage the reader to read the inside of the magazine. I still followed the house style colour of white, red and black.

To improve my design of the school magazine, I could have used Photoshop to edit and manipulate the texts and images, such as making my model block some bits of the masthead, as this is usually done in some magazines; however, I am not confident at using Photoshop because I do not know how to use it very well.
Also, for the contents page, the final design looked rush, so I could have improved this by spending more time with it by using the same font as the masthead to follow the house style of the magazine.
I could improve my skills of designing a magazine by practising and attempting to use a publisher so that I have a variety of software used, in order to publish a professional looking magazine.

Front Page - Mock-Up Design

This is my preliminary Front Page mock-up that I have designed in Microsoft Word after I have created a draft of a Front Page. As you can see, I still followed the same house style by using our school colours such as: red, black and white. The fonts that I used are Impact and Blue Highway Linocut for the masthead. I decided to add four more pictures at the bottom of the page so that the front page doesnt look too boring, and also, to suggest that this magazine has a lot of stories to tell. I placed the barcode on the bottom right hand corner so that it can be easily seen by people. I added the date and price on top of the masthead so that it can be easily seen by the customers. The selling line in this magazine is in blue so that its notisable and unique to the magazine. I placed the coverlines on the side of the magazine to follow the codes and conventions of the magazine. 

I can improve this front cover magazine by using photoshop to edit and manipulate the images, because I want this magazine to look proffesional.  

4. Codes & Conventions

I have designed a mass market magazine called Pitch, which targets people who are interested in metal music, particularly Marilyn Manson.

I followed the normal codes and conventions by placing the masthead on the top left corner of the page. I placed the barcode on the bottom left corner so that it can be easily seen by the people. I also placed the date and price on the top right corner and changed the colour to white to follow the house style of this magazine. I added a pug which offers a free authograph of Marilyn Manson. Then I added a lot of puffs in this magazine especially in the middle of the page, so that the reader would want to buy this magazine. The colours that I used are red, black, yellow and black to follow the house style of this magazine.

3. Codes & Conventions

I have created a front cover for a niche market magazine that is appealing to 'culture-vultures' that has issues with the society, culture, tv and art. The magazine is called FREEDOM, and the theme for this magazine is all about BIG BROTHER.

I followed the normal codes and conventions of a magazine, but instead of placing the masthead on the top, i placed the masthead on the bottom of the page. As usual, I placed the date and price near the barcode so that it can be easily find in the magazine. The pug offers a makeover special to look like Josie Gibson. I also added many puffs in this magazine so that  the reader would want to buy a magazine. In this magazine, I placed the cover lines in each side of the magazine. I followed the house style of this magazine by following the colour of the main image. The colours that I used are black and purple. The font that I used is Arial Black.

2. Codes & Conventions

This is a niche market magazine that I have created in the Microsoft Word which is aimed at a cult film audience called FILM_ X.



I followed the normal codes and conventions of a magazine, however, the masthead is placed on the side rather than having it on the top left of the cover. I followed the house style of this magazine by using the same colour and font of the masthead throughout the whole page. The font style that I used is Arial Black, and the colours that I used are red and white. I placed the date and price on the top left corner so that it can be easily seen by the audience. I also placed the barcode on the bottom right corner as it can also be easily seen by everyone. I added a pug on this magazine on the top right corner. I chose the colour red so that it stands out and also to follow the house style of this magazine. The pug offers an information of a game called Saw 3 that is available to buy. I added many puffs in this magazine so that the reader would want to buy this magazine. In this magazine, I placed the Main cover line on the left and placed the cover lines on the right rather than placing it on the left hand side. To follow the house style of this magazine, I added a '_ X' on each ending of the sentences so that it can be easily recognise by the target audience.

1. Codes & Conventions

This is a front cover for a magazine that I have created in Microsoft Word. The magazine is called PHOTOGRAPHY NOW. This is a mass market magazine aimed at professional and amateur photographers.

I followed the normal conventions of a magazine by placing the masthead on the left hand side so that it can be easily recognise by the reader, and also, by placing the cover lines which are distributed around the corner. I placed the date and price close to the masthead, so that it can be seen easily by everyone. The main image of the magazine shows an interesting type of photography which captions the winner of the competition. I followed the house style of the masthead which I used the font Times New Roman and uses a light yellow colour in some parts of the magazine. The reason I used the colour orange on the pug, is because I want it to stand out more. The pug that I have used is a product review of the Canon E0S camera, which emphasises the interest of the target audience. I wanted to emphasise the number 20 on the main cover line because it is the key theme for this issue, to draw the readers attention. I provided many puffs in this issue such as, 'exclusive' and 'hottest', to make the reader buy this magazine. I added a bottom line article as a competition, to provide more interest for the target audience.

Forms and Conventions of a Magazine Cover

This is a front cover from 'Glamour' magazine. I have analysed this using forms and conventions. This magazine is a good example for designing a front cover page for my preliminary school magazine and also for my final task. I should follow all this forms and conventions when I make my magazine cover.