Evaluation of college magazine

2. My college magazine both follows and challenges the usual
conventions of magazines.
The masthead of my magazine follows the conventions of a
magazine as it is at the top of the page, in the largest font and is
very easily noticeable to attract the audience from first glance.
However, it challenges conventions as it does not have a different
font type to other bits of text on the page and is not in its own
colour as other text has yellow and the stroke effect around them,
this could be an improvement that I could make if I were to do this
magazine again.
The skyline on my magazine follows the convention of a usual
skyline on a real magazine as it has a different solid coloured
background that is contrasting to the text on top of it. The topic of
the skyline also works as a persuasive feature and creates an
incentive to buy the magazine as it is in some way special or good
as it is “best selling”.
The coverlines on my front cover both follow and do not follow the
conventions of a real magazine. It follows them in the way they are
positioned going around the main image so it does not get covered
up and take any attention away from it. They all have a larger font
at the start to attract attention to them and the information is
smaller so the audience are forced to read it after seeing the bold
text at the front. However, they are in the same font as the
masthead which challenges the conventions of a real magazine and
would be an area for improvement if it were to be redone as well
as the positioning being slightly changed as some look like they are
too close to other feature. The information that the coverlines
contain also have relevance and/or are important to the audiences
needs.
The main image of my magazine follows the conventions of a real magazine completely with one very small difference. The image is slightly centred off to the left of the page purposely so the
coverlines could be positioned around the side without the main image taking up too much space resulting in the coverlines going over the image. It follows the conventions as it is of a
person who relates to the topic of the magazine (in this case a student of the college) on a plainly coloured background, the model is also giving direct address to the audience making the
magazine look more inviting as the model is looking directly at them.
The splash on my magazine follows the conventions of a magazine as it
is a contrasting colour shape on top of the background making it stand
out over the other features. However, the shape on a real magazine is
usually more noticeable e.g. spiky but Photoshop would not allow me
to create my own shape of make and abstract shape, this could be an
area for improvement if done again. The splash, like a real magazine,
creates an incentive to buy the magazine as it promises something that
is of importance or is relevant to what the audience requires in their
day to day life. The text is also a contrasting colour to the shape colour
so it is easy to read and people will not have difficulty retaining the
information it offers.
The price of my magazine follows the conventions of a magazine as it is
quite small and does not take much attention away from the rest of
the magazine. However, as it is cheap, I made it noticeable to the
audience so it could be considered another persuasive feature that
creates an incentive to buy it. It is correctly placed just above the
barcode at the bottom of the page. It is in the same font as the rest of
the text which challenges the conventions and could be an area for
improvements.
The barcode follows the conventions perfectly in which it is placed at
the bottom of the page in a corner and is fairly small so it doesn’t take
any attention away from the rest of the magazine as it is not of
importance to the audience. One improvement that could be made is
that it could arguably be a bit smaller on the page.

4. My contents page of my college magazine follows the
conventions of a magazine very well and also does a small
amount of things to challenge the conventions in its own
unique way.
The title of the page is directly at the top and in the
middle so if the audience are looking for this page it is
very clear and easy to see as it has its own large bold font
and colour making it unique. This means that thee
audience knows exactly what page it is when they are
looking for it and know what to expect to see on the
page.
The images of the contents page follow the conventions
in the sense that they are all relevant to what is in the
magazine and give the audience an idea of what they
expect to read about. However, real magazines tend to
use a large main image on the page which mine does not
so the text can be easily seen and so it is not
overcomplicated. The images are placed across the top
and together so they do not take up too much space
where the information is meant to go.
The information on my contents page follows the
conventions perfectly in which they firstly are in two
separate columns, news and features which real
magazines do. News is the regular information and the
features are special to the individual magazine. The font
used looks very professional and easy to read so the
reader does not have difficulty seeing it. Due to the
column arrangement and also the page numbers being
next to the corresponding information, the magazine
becomes extremely easy to navigate around and the
reader can clearly see what page has contains the information that they intend to read. Real magazines always try to make it
easy to navigate through so the reader does not get bored attempting to find what they want when they should be able to
see clearly like this contents page allows them to do. The text size is a perfect size for the page and is bigger than the text
underneath as it is more important.
At the bottom of my contents page I put a convention
challenging feature that is a competition. This is not in
all magazines and isn’t often seen on this page but
creates an incentive to buy the magazine as the buyer
would have the chance to win something the is of
interest to them and this tells them exactly where to
go to enter. The word competition is in big bold letters
so it attracts the attention of the reader and
encourages them to read about the prizes they can win
which will convince them to get the magazine in order
to be a part of the competition.
The text next to the competition is about a
subscription offer and offers the students it is aimed at
an opportunity to get information about their college
and help them to keep up with what is going on which
they would want to do if they had the option to. It tells
them exactly where to go to subscribe as the contents
page should do and makes it simple and easy for them
to do the task.
The small image of the front cover is placed correctly
at the bottom of the page possibly showing the
magazine is a collectors item of some sort and shows
what magazine the information corresponds to. It does
not take any attention away from the important
features of the magazine as it is a lot smaller than the
other images.