Q7 of my media evaluation

1. How do mastheads of your final product differ to the school magazine (pre-lim), what effects and
layout have you used and why?
This is the masthead I have used for my magazine finished front cover; in contrast to the school
magazine they are using different software. The first image with the vertical text illustrates the
words the balance of the words on top of each other. It is not professional or effective. However, in
comparison to my second example in s substantial improvement in terms of layout, design and
positioning. The masthead stands out from the page significantly to put across the brand recognition
of the magazine. The font I used for my pre-lim was sans serif and looked softer smaller and didn’t
have the desired edge I was looking for. In contrast to my serif font for my full front cover has been
made bold to express the dominating effect the masthead should have. I have used the effect of
stroke to emphasise this effect on the front cover. I have also added a tagline to put an extra edge
on the masthead.
The variation between the two cover images is a significant contrast. This is mainly because of the
location of the photograph and the attitude being portrayed. With the preliminary it is obvious it
was taken with a more contemporary setting and colours compared to the more urbanised setting
and colours of the front cover. Also there is a lack of natural light from the school mag compared to
the warm colour and vibrancy of the real mag cover. Another aspect to the image is the positioning
of the model in both of these images. The aim of the preliminary was to have an image of a normal
pupil from the school to portray the story in the magazine, and with the image not being much
focused it would not be suitable for the minimalist style of my front cover. In contrast the front
cover image needed to portray the attitude of the genre and be focused because of the importance
of the image on this type of mag cover. He is filling up most of the page to get a connection with the
audience; he is also slightly angled to create more interesting perspective of the character.
Looking at the two tasks you can see I have changed my mind in what design I wanted to use for my
contents page. Originally I wanted to use two images to portray the cover lines but instead ended up
using a large that I put effects on instead. The preliminary doesn’t have the right layout structure or
magazine conventions and so I made this a priority when thinking of my main contents page. By
using the fades on the image and adjusting the opacity of it, it made the whole contents look more
professional. As well as this I tried to focus on the layout of the cover lines on the page more than in
the preliminary with the design. I decided to add graphics to make the page more vibrant and
attractive to the eye and by doing it made the magazine have a more organised feel to it.
The use of fonts on my front cover differs massively from the ones used on my preliminary. This is
evident in the preliminary when I used basic sans serif font instead attempting to explore and find a
better font reflecting the magazine. In comparison I used a serif in my real magazine front cover
which allowed me to keep a consistent house style, I also used this same font and styling for the
masthead. Another aspect on the front cover was I changed was in the sense of capital letters. I
decided to use all capital letters on the cover lines and main story on my real one to emphasise the
stories even more. In comparison on the pre-lim they quite bland and weren’t easy on the eye for
the readers. The colours of the fonts between the two magazines I have changed because I decided
to go with a more traditional house style on the real magazine that I know works (red, black, white).
This in contrast to the pre-lim when I used mainly yellow and blue which made the whole magazine
looks very unprofessional to say the least. The difference of my contents page and pre-lim contents
page is substantial. I have used more stylish fonts on the eye through dafont to help the page stand
out more for what it is. In comparison the pre-lim was too bland in the sense of the text because it

2. was just standard Microsoft text with no character too it. My content laid out differently from the
preliminary because I recognised the conventions needed to make a good contents page such the
organisation of it. This is said of the images because the original idea was to have two images
relating to the stories on offer but instead I went for one clear image. I did this so I could clearly
portray the genre of the magazine through the models attitude in the image. Also the inclusion of
the masthead behind the image acting as if was on the wall, expresses a good attempt at brand
recognition.
Overall I have learnt from my Coursework to be able to use a range of software programs to produce
and present my work in many different ways. This will then help in the future in being able to now
use these programs efficiently. Also I learnt how much it takes to produce a magazine cover to cover
for the big media companies that distribute thousands of these magazines around the world.