Preliminary Task: Contents Page Evaluation

Preliminary Task: Contents Page Evaluation

Above is my contents page and editing and layout wise I'm very happy with it, however there are places that I feel a few improvements could be made to make my contents page even better. Originally we were supposed to do a contents page not a contents page that was spread over two pages however looking at Magazines the majority had a contents page that was spread over two pages.

Improvements that could be made:

1. Layout

   Majority of the layout I am happy with, but I do feel like it could be better. All the images that are used are relevant to the stories that are on the pages but some of them are not near the story they are related to. Also the main image in the background of the lad (Henry) smiling is difficult to see that that is related to the ;Study or Chill' title as he has a pen in his had but that is in the bottom left corner. Also putting everything on one page would make it look much more full, as you can see there is a bit of white space that is left over on both pages what could easily be filled up using the content from the other pages.    

2. Page Numbers

  Its not the titles of the stories themselves however its the part at the end of each that tells you what page it is on, looking at other magazines the number for the page for the reader to turn to should be next to the text in a different colour and bigger than the rest of the text so it is clear to see what page specific stories are on.

3. Text

   Although it is easier to see which is the head title and the text for each title just to make it more pleasing to the eye I could make the text bold and underline it to make it look more professional maybe.  

Examples Below:

Preliminary: Front Cover Evaluation

Preliminary Task: Front Cover Evaluation

For my front cover, although fairly satisfied with it there are a few improvements that i could make to it that would make it more like a magazine cover that are used by real magazines like NME, Blender and Vibe.

1. Layout

    Although the boxes behind the text are translusent and you can see the model behind them, I feel that the boxes should either not touch the model so you can see the image clearly or just not be there at all. It depends on which one looks better. Personally I think that it would look better without the boxes but the colour of the text would have to be a different colour so that it stands out from the models shirt.

2. Text

     The size of the text used are quite similar and to use them correctly like other magazines do my Masthead would be the size it is as well as the cover line but the text explaining the story should be in a smaller text so it takes up less space and this would allow me to add more things to the front page.

3. Cover lines

     To bring more of a Magazine cover feel to it there needs to be more story titles on the front cover and not just the one. This would fill up the empty space that is on the right side of my cover and make it look more complete as it looks like something is missing from the right side.

4. Colour Scheme

   For my magazine cover I feel like i have used to many colours and some of these colours clash so I need a smaller pool of colours to use on my magazine, so three to four colours. the colours selected must stand out from each other so when they are used the text is clearly readable.

Examples are below:

Preliminary: Sketch Drawing of Front Cover and Contents

Preliminary: Sketch Drawing of Front Cover and Contents

Preliminary: School magazine conventions

Preliminary Task: School Magazine Conventions

                           

Introduction

Introduction

Hi my name is Alex Dawson and this is my blog about my AS Media-Studies Coursework. For this task I will be working by myself on the print task which is to produce a Magazine cover, contents page and a two page spread on a selected theme or selected object.

There is a Preliminary task and a Main task that we have to complete:

Preliminary Task:

  Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page and contents page of a new school/college magazine. The front page should feature a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead.

Main Task:

  The front page, contents and double-page spread of a new magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). There should be a maximum of four members to a group.