The document discusses the codes and conventions of magazine covers and contents pages and evaluates how the author's designs fit or fail to meet these standards. For the cover, some strengths identified are the unique masthead font and color scheme. Some weaknesses are that the main cover line and cover lines are unclear and messy looking. For the contents page, strengths include using the same font styles and colors for consistency, but weaknesses are a lack of headings for sublines and not including an issue number. The author also discusses using a camera, Photoshop and Quark to design the pages and highlights strengths like customizing fonts and layers, but also weaknesses in crowded banners and inconsistent formatting.

2. Masthead in a bold font which
stands out to the reader
How does my magazine fit with the
Codes and Conventions of a typical
Magazine cover?
Splash
Colour scheme-
unique house style,
few colours used in a
professional way
Central Image
illustrating the main
cover line of the
Magazine
Direct mode of Address so
that the reader is directly
addressed and is attracted
by the magazine cover
Main cover line to give the reader
an idea of the top story
Price and issue
number
Date
Cover Lines giving
detail on what is inside
Banners to highlight certain
important information
Tag Line which is repeated
on every magazine

3. Which Codes and Conventions does
my Magazine cover fail to suit?
The Masthead font is not
unique to the title therefore
is not as recognisable and
identifiable to the reader.
The Main cover line is not as
clear as intended which could
cause confusion to the reader
as the cover story fails to
stand out
The Cover lines fail to
comply with the unique
house style meaning they
look mismatched
The size of fonts for Cover
lines differs greatly making the
cover appear messy
There is a lot of
unwanted empty space
which gives the cover an
unprofessional finish
Much of the image does
not stand out- including
the titles of the folders,
which are key to the
theme
The banners are cluttered
and full meaning they are
quite difficult to read and
look messy

4. How does my Contents page fit with
the Codes and Conventions of a
typical Contents page?
Page title in a bold font which stands out
Title of magazine
Date
3 Columns so that the page is
well laid out and easy to read
Categories Page numbers so that the
reader knows where to
find the information
described in the subline
Plain Background on
which information can
stand out
Small font (11/12 point) so
that the font is readable but
the page is not too cluttered
Few colours
Images complimenting the articles
Image from front cover
Sublines to give an
overview of the pages

5. Which Codes and Conventions does
my Contents page fail to suit?
There is no headings
for my sublines which
could mean that the
articles are not as eye
catching on the page
There is no main
distinctive image relating
to the cover story making
the contents page almost
irrelevant to the
magazine theme
I have failed to give the Contents
page its own page number
meaning it will not fit with the
rest of the magazine
The issue number of the
Magazine is absent which Is
misleading for the reader
The images differ from
the colour scheme of the
magazine which means
they stand out but do not
fit in.
The Title of the Magazine
is small and therefore does
not stand out on the page
The sublines are long and
possibly boring
Again there is unwanted space
affecting the professional look
and feel of the page

6. How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your project?
Strengths and Weaknesses
To take the photos that would feature on my magazine cover and
contents page I used a camera and experimented with different
camera techniques that I had learnt during lesson. I feel as if I was
successful with capturing images that had a professional feel
however I could have varied the shots quite a bit more, featuring
different angles and distances for my images.
I decided not to use this
image as the lighting wasn't
right which meant that parts
of the image were extremely
bright and it was unclear to
see what it was. Instead I took
a close up of a Starbucks
coffee cup to go with my
article on college food and
drink.
This is my main cover photo. I
chose to take a medium close up so
that the image focused on the top
part of the body and didn’t fill too
much of the space where the other
parts of the cover would be. I like
the cover however I wish that the
model was further up so that I
didn’t have to cut some of the
image off with the bottom banner.

7. How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your project?
I used Photoshop to develop my magazine front cover. I was new to this program which meant
that I found it quite difficult at first but began to get used to it. I added various layers on top of
my original image so that I could create an authentic looking cover and I think I was successful
with this to some extent. I chose my Mast Head font and then expanded it so that it would fit
perfectly along the top of the page and would stand out to the reader. I added banners which
matched the colour scheme at the top and bottom of the page- inserting important
information such as the magazine tag line, the date and the issue number. I feel this was a
weakness as the information was very close together and the banners look overcrowded. I
inserted a shape with the shape tool and filled it with the paint bucket, complimenting the
colour scheme, to create a ‘splash’ so exciting prize information could stand out, the colour
could be slightly lighter but I still feel that this was successful. When putting in my cover lines
with the text tool, I changed the positioning so that they fitted around the photograph and
used the ‘bold’ and ‘italic’ tools as well as the size in the tool bar to change the way the cover
lines look. I dislike the final look of these as they look odd and mismatched, I wish I had have
kept them all a uniform size and style.
Strengths and Weaknesses

8. How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your project?
Strengths and Weaknesses
In order to create my contents page I used the program Quark. I found this quite difficult
throughout as it is quite complicated to use and I have never used it before. I used the same
font as the Mast Head for the title of the contents page as well as including the title of my
magazine so that the theme flowed throughout and the pages had a similar appearance. In
Quark I inserted columns so that my contents page fit with the main code/ conventions of a
typical contents page and after this I used the photo tool and scaled my images to the boxes
that I has drawn that fitted into the columns on the page. After this I decided to put
categories on my columns so that the sublines has common themes, I did this by using the
text tool and again used the same font in order to comply to themes. By using my plan as
well as the cover lines on my Front cover I inserted the sublines to give overviews of the
‘other’ pages as well as giving page numbers so that the reader knew where to look. I did
this in a red colour so that the page numbers stood out to the reader. I feel that my contents
page could be improved in terms of the organisation as it is quite spacious, additional
sublines would be preferable. However, I feel that in the time I had I was able to achieve a
mostly successful contents page sharing many of the codes and conventions of a contents
page