PRELIMINARY TASKEvaluation of the College Magazine and Contents Page

Typical Conventions Of A Magazine MASTHEAD COVER LINES

MAIN IMAGE

BARCODE

SELLING LINE

These are the main conventions of a magazine front cover and I have used these features on the cover of my magazine ‘The College Life.’

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

SIMILARITIES - Front Cover The similarities

between my college magazine and the

Cosmopolitan magazine is that they

both include a masthead, cover

lines, a main image, a barcode and date

lines. The main images are similar also because they

both have a friendly expression so it links to the genre of the

magazine.

DIFFERENCES

The differences between my college

magazine and the Cosmopolitan

magazine is that the Cosmopolitan

magazine has a selling line and the colours that have been used are more vibrant and

girly as the magazine is aimed at women. For my magazine I have used these colours

because it’s aimed at both male and female.

The cover lines are different as the genre of the magazines are different so they are aimed at a specific

audience.

SIMILARITIES - Contents Page

The similarities between my college magazine contents page and the Cosmopolitan contents page is that they both include headings, 3 images or more, page numbers,

website address and the date line. Also the images on both of the contents pages relate to the genre of the magazine.

Date Line

Heading

Page Numbers

Date Line

Heading

Page Numbers

Website Address

Website Address

Differences- Contents PageI have incorporated a title for my contents page, however Cosmopolitan are a well known magazine so they don’t need to.

Cosmopolitan have a more headings and sub-headings as their magazine has more content.

On my contents page I have lots of white space which is not as professional as the Cosmopolitan contents page as theirs is full of images and text and there is hardly any white space.

The main differences between both of the contents pages are that the Cosmo contents page is more busy and full of information as the magazine has more content in it. Also the images are

different as the genre’s of the magazine are different. For my magazine the expression portrayed in the images are friendly and on the Cosmo contents page the expression portrayed is more

serious.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

First of all, to create my magazine front cover I used Adobe Photoshop CS6. Photoshop is a desktop publishing software that is used by many large industries to create magazine

front covers and to manipulate images. In Photoshop I have learnt how to create a masthead, cover lines and how to create layers for each convention I incorporate. I have

also learned how to insert an image and manipulate it.

To create my contents page I used Adobe InDesign CS6. This is another desktop publishing software that many large companies use to create contents pages and front covers for magazines. I have learnt how to place my masthead from the front cover of

my magazine to my contents page so that it is consistent. I have also learnt how to insert my front cover onto the same document as my contents page.

I used Blogger to upload all of my coursework to get examined. Blogger is a good way to upload and publish documents. I have learnt how to set up a blog and how to post

my work. I have also learnt how to upload images.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths - I feel that the strengths of my magazine front cover would be that the masthead stands out as it’s big and bold which would attract attention off the target audience. Another strength would be that I took into account the rule of thirds when taking a photo for the main image. The image takes up most of the page so that is the main focus on the page. Also I feel that I have included all of the main conventions of a magazine front cover. I feel that the strengths of the contents page would be that I have also included the main conventions of a magazine contents page. Also I have included 3 images that relate to the content of the magazine.

Weaknesses – I feel that for the front cover of the magazine I could've improved the colour scheme by making more vibrant and eye catching. Also I should've made the masthead bigger as it only takes up a little bit of space. For the contents page I feel that I have left a lot of space empty and that could’ve been filled up more. The images have been distorted as I tried to fill up the space more and that has made it look stretched and un-professional. I should’ve added more cover lines and features to make the contents page seem more busy.