5. Comparison of front covers
• Throughout the progression of my preliminary task to my full product I have
learnt and discovered new things to help make my music magazine front cover look
more professional and suit my target market more.
• On both my college magazine and my music magazine I have used a large, bold font
for the masthead. This is as it makes the masthead stand out, as it needs to grab the
audiences attention. I thought my masthead on my college magazine was successful
and therefore carried it on to my full product.
• I changed the colour of my cover lines from white to black (bar one) as I believe they
stand out more which is important so they grab the audiences attention.
• My main image on my preliminary task front cover is a medium shot, whereas on my
music magazine my main image is a medium close-up. I decided to use this shot type
as most professional magazines use medium close-ups and I wanted my magazine to
look as professional as possible.
• I changed the colour of my theme from a burgundy colour to pink as I thought this
suited my target audience more. My target audience for my music magazine is mainly
girls between the ages of 16 and 20. This is different for my target audience for my
college magazine, which was college students. Therefore that's why I changed the
colour scheme.
• Overall I have learnt that researching into similar magazines and using more advanced
software concludes to a better suited, more professional magazine front cover.
7. Comparison of contents pages
• The main thing I learned from the progression of my college magazine to my music
magazine is a convention of magazines, which is to used more than one image on the
contents page. For my college magazine only used one and for my music magazine I
have used 3 (1 main one and 2 smaller ones). I think my music magazine contents
page looks more professional as I have used more than 1 image, following a
convention.
• Another thing I learned is that there’s usually 7-12 features listed on a contents page.
For my college magazine I listed 5, however on my music magazine I listed 7. I think
this makes my music magazine contents page more professional looking.
• I placed the features in the middle of my contents page for my college magazine,
however I decided to put it on the left hand side for my music magazine. Most
magazines place the features there, therefore that's why I did.
• For my music magazine I added a page number which I did not do on my college
magazine. I learnt that this was a convention and I needed to add one to my full
product.
• However I did stick to some of the same things. I still used a big bold title, using the
same font from my front cover (I did this on both magazines). Also I put ‘Inside this
issue’ under both of them so it’s clear to the reader that there reading what will be
coming up in the magazine.
• Also I added my magazine title at the bottom of my music magazine, as most
professional magazines do this, reminding the reader what magazine they are reading.
9. Double Page Spread
• I didn’t do a double page spread for my preliminary task so therefore when I was creating my
double page spread for my full product I learnt loads of things about InDesign.
• I learnt that conventionally the article is on the left and the image is on the right so that’s what I
did.
• I used the text tool to write my double page spread up and then I placed it into 3 columns. I
placed it into 3 columns as this is a convention of magazine double page spread articles. I learnt
this when researching and analysing successful music magazines. Therefore when I put my article
into 3 columns it instantly looked professional.
• I learned that a lot of magazines change the colour of the questions in their articles so the reader
can tell which is the question and what’s the answer clearly. I changed the colour of my text just
using a colour tool.
• I used an eyedropper tool to get the same pink throughout my double page spread, also through
my whole magazine, so it was consistent.
• I used a quote from the article as the title of my double page spread: ‘Rise to fame, now the
Queen Of Pop- what next?’ This is called a ‘pull quote’. It’s usually a shocking or cliff-hanger from
the article so the reader will want to read on.
• I also made a quote from my article larger then the rest of the text so it stands out, and it was a
part of the article that was interesting, so the reader would want to read on. I also added a quote
on the large image I used on the right hand side.
• I added page numbers which I made sure matched the page number on my contents page.
• I also added another image into the article that was a behind the scenes. Having something other
than text in the article grabs the audiences attention, because if they look at the article and see
loads of text they might be put off reading it.
