This document compares the layout and design conventions used in the student's media magazine project and a real magazine called "The Source". [1] Some key differences noted are that the student's magazine uses a colored background for the main image on the cover, lists page contents down the side, and offers subscription deals to encourage repeat purchases. [2] The interview section in the student's magazine splits up the text more with bolding, italics, and colored fonts. [3] Overall, the student aimed to develop a consistent "house style" with their color and font choices to make the magazine look professionally designed.

1. Evaluation Question 1 Rebecca Hopkins

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

3. This is one of the magazines from my planning, when I compare mine to this to mine I can see similarities in the lay out. Selling Line - Selling line, This is something a magazine uses to ‘sell’ the magazine. Something they think the reader needs to know and that will make them want to buy there magazine. But on theirs they have put the selling line in a box where as I have haven’t. The Main Image - I’ve used a main image, but instead I have a background and they just have grey. It think that the background makes it look more interesting and I like the way there not just look stood there, I think that this meets the target of young girls because they look like there having fun. Cover Lines - For my cover lines I have written the main bit in larger writing and a bit about it in smaller writing. Where as ‘The Source’ Has used colour instead, white and red. Masthead – For the Masthead I used a ‘girlier’ font seeing as my magazine is for girls. Also instead of having the title in the middle its to the left of the page. Also there is nothing covering it. I have also placed it just below the selling line. Font – For ‘the source’ their magazine uses only one different font, and to differentiate things they use the two colours black and whit where as I have used 3 different fonts, two I found on the internet and one from the photoshops font collection.

4. This week in … I used that line because it think it looked really go and introduced the magazine really well and you will always be able to use it in every issue. Photographs – I have used photographs to represent what is going to be on those pages like they have done on the ok magazine, with my first copy of my magazine I used images off the internet, I think that this looked better; but I had to change them and take some of my own. Listing the pages – Instead of listing all the pages and having little quotes under them like the ‘OK!’ magazine I listed mine down the side, under headlines of what category they are in. Subscription – I got this idea from another magazine, to get people interested and continue buying the magazine I think you have to offer them special offers so that they think they are getting a good deal. This means they are more likely to subscribe, which means that the customer doesn’t just buy one every so often, they keep having them. Colours – I have tried using the same colours all the way through the magazine, different shades of pink, this is part of the house style. Font – I have also tried to keep to the same fonts throughout the magazine, this is also part of the house style. I kept the same font for the ‘this week in creampuff’ as I did for the title of the magazine on the front cover. I have also tried to use the same fonts for the category headings.

5. The Interview – For the interview I split the writing up, I used the bold italics tool on the introduction which split that from the rest of the interview. I used a pink font for the question and black for the answers, I did this so that you could see the difference and so that it split the page up. I also highlighted the names of the band with the bold tool so that you could see that clearly. For the ending paragraph I highlighted it in bold and basically concluded the interview and gave information on where to go to see and hear more about the band I was interviewing. The title of the interview – I tried to do this similar to the other magazine because I thought it looked good, but instead I made it look more girly by using pink and white. Other things on the page – I used a post it note and put the names of the band on, I mostly did this to fill the page up more and make it look more interesting, I also used the ides of ‘LOVE THIS’ because it made the page look more interesting. The Quotes – I used more quotes than the other magazine, I did this because it breaks up the page more. Colours – I have kept using these pinks because I think that it fits into the house style, also it looks a lot more interesting than just plain black and white. I think by using a house style I have not made the magazine look a 5 year old made it.