The document provides an evaluation of a preliminary task to design the cover and contents page of a college magazine. The student summarizes how their design utilized conventions of real magazines, including using a masthead, cover lines, and prominent central image on the cover. For the contents page, they discuss using columns, subheadings and images but notes areas for improvement. The student also reflects on learning about using software like Photoshop, InDesign and digital photography skills through this project. They recognize the importance of layout, image editing and design for effectively communicating information to readers.

1. AS MEDIA UNIT G321
PRELIMINARY TASK-
COVER AND
CONTENTS OF A
COLLEGE MAGAZINE
PRELIMINARY TASK
EVALUATION
EXAMPLE
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
2. What have you learnt about the technologies from the
process of constructing this product

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
THE FRONT COVER-SIMILARITIES
Masthead
Cover Lines
Dominant
Image [rule of
thirds] &
Plain
background
Block
separators
Barcode/
price/website

3. Differences with front cover
Vs
The use of different
VIBE
sell and cover lines.
My college magazine
Has sell lines to dow
with students and
college. Also i have
used a student as my
main image
Use of colour
schemes, bold and
bright colours to
attract my audience
of both genders.
I have used a medium close up
shot of a female Her half smile
and eye contact make it look
and feel friendly. Hip hop
though is associated with
attitude so Lil Wayne looks
moody and creates his own
aggressive, arrogant look

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products? contents page
Initial of
magazine
masthead
Highlights
front cover
features.
Text layout
of ‘contents
Uses sub
headings to
help reader’
Layout out
of columns
for features
within the
magazine
and
categorised.

5. DIFFERENCES WITH CONTENTS PAGE
Vs VIBE
COLLEGE GUIDE
The choice of
contents within
the magazine,
adding a wider
range.
Using more then 1
image- my images
aren’t very good and
seem random. Vibe’s
1 main image looks
sexy and
professional. It also
looks more
sophisticated with the
subtle use of colour in
Vibe. The use of black
and white looks
elegant

6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of
constructing this product
ouble
o get a tures nts and d
Moodle t g the fe eate my conte
Using es. Learnin r
ign to c
resou
rc o f I n D es d .
r ea
page sp
.
se o s.
t o u op, t age
ow tosh te im
H o
cameras la
g digital Ph nipu
Usin nd type
, angle a ma
(shot
of shot).

7. Using the digital camera, i could ensure that My
image was an MCU which dominated the frame. I
also left space at the top for the masthead and I
observed the rule of thirds. Really I should have
moved the image more to the right so that the left
third had more space for cover lines. I told the
model to smile and look happy!
I use Adobe Photoshop
to make an ordinary
student into a “model”
for a college magazine.
This shows how I used Adobe to manipulate
my images, and one of my stages of
development. As you can see:
• I changed the levels of the colours, to add
more emphasis on the student. Originally she
had red eye which I corrected with the red eye
tool. I made sure everything looked perfect.
•I also added font with drop shadow and
effects to make the magazine more eye
catching. I added the blue flash to attract the
audience even more. I used the shape tool
option for this.

8. Using In-design For my Contents page
I had a main text box at the top
with the main title and I made
sure I used the same colours as I did think about layout, but I should have
on the front cover manipulated the images first of all in Photoshop. I
think it looks like a contents page but it would have
helped if I’d used the word “Contents”. I put picture
boxes in first all and then just placed my images.
Most of them didn’t fit so I had to resize them to the
frame. I think it looks a bit boring for my student
audience and I should have had different shape
boxes or at least rotated them or used some effects
(but I didn’t have time and I didn’t know how!)
I did use columns and I think I used text quite well. I
also experimented with colour to add variation. I
think Indesign was quite hard to use because I’ve
never thought about the design/layout of a page
before and this has helped me to understand how
important this is