This document discusses improvements made to a student magazine cover and contents page from a preliminary version. For the cover, elements like the masthead, cover lines, photo size, strapline, sub-headline, pull quote, and competition details were enhanced to make the design less empty. For the contents page, changes such as increasing the title size, including a scaled cover image, adding page number details, and a subscription box made the layout feel fuller. Images were also improved across pages for continuity and impact. Overall, the revisions filled out empty space and added more engaging elements to draw in readers.

3. Masthead: In my student
magazine, the masthead was too
small and seemed to get lost in
the emptiness of the cover. A
masthead is supposed to stand
out, which is why I made the on
the full product red(which is my
colour theme, inspired by Q) and
in a bold font. It is also
conventional to have it at the top
of the page.
Unlike in my preliminary task,
the cover lines have two
different colours of font in them.
I picked out the name of the
artists featured inside and made
the font of it red and larger to
make it stand out. Using just
black in my preliminary task
made the cover look very flat
and one dimensional. To the
name of the featuring artists I
also used a drop shadow to lift it
even more.
The photo that I used in the final
product takes up the entire
cover, whereas in my
preliminary task it didn’t, so I
had to have a strip of colour
running along the top and the
bottom of the page making it
look unprofessional and
unfinished as the cover looked
empty.
The strapline gives more information about what to expect inside. I didn’t include one in
my preliminary task, making it look even more bare and empty, leaving the reader
unknown as to what is inside.
I included a competition in
both of my covers, but in my
final one there were more
details to it which makes it
more interesting, otherwise the
reader have no idea what the
competition is about so it
wouldn’t draw them into the
magazine.
The sub headline is large and
in the centre of the cover,
giving it more of a cluttered
look which fits in with the
style of music. In the
preliminary task I didn’t
include a sub headline which
contributed to why the cover
looked really empty.
The pull quote I used links to
the featuring artist inside. I
didn’t include a pull quote in
my preliminary task , which
made it boring as it didn’t
have much content on there
which would draw many
people in. The pull quote
draws people in as it’s a brief
insight into the article, it also
gives a sense of the narrative
voice.

5. I included a title on both contents page. However, the one I made on my final product was bigger and more bold to make it
stand out. The title on the preliminary task was an ordinary font that wasn’t bold or big enough to stand out. Also, I left a big
space around the text in the preliminary task which was pointless as everything was already spaced out so it emphasized the
fact that there wasn’t a lot of information on there. By packing everything closely together in the final magazine, it looks full of
information and more realistic.
Making use of the space on the
page is important, which is why I
took the opportunity to use a
scaled down image of my cover in
my contents page. This reminds
the reader of the cover, as well as
filling up the space, making sure
it doesn’t look blank. I didn’t use
this idea when working on my
preliminary task, if I did, it
wouldn’t have looked so empty.
The page numbers I used in my
final magazine are much more
realistic than the one’s I used in
the preliminary task (where there
were only 13 pages according to
the contents). For the final
magazine I made the page
number red to make it more
interesting, rather than just
making it bold like in the
preliminary task. I also included
absolutely no detail below in the
preliminary task about the
features and what’s on the pages.
It is conventional for a magazine’s
contents page to have lots of
detail on because it is potentially
the page that will either sell the
magazine to someone.
A subscription box is important in
magazine’s as it gets the company
more customers on a regular
basis, making more money for
them. As seen in NME I made it
yellow (contrasting the colours I
had included on this page)
because it was important for it to
stand out. I didn’t include a
subscription box in the
preliminary task, and seeing as
it’s important for profits, this was
a big form to miss out.
The images I used in the final
magazine mostly took up one of
the columns I used, helping with
the busy look I was aiming for.
They were also ranging in size,
and not of the same people. The
images I used in the preliminary
task were of the same people and
were small and spread apart from
each other. I also included page
numbers on the music magazine
in the corner of the images which
corresponded to the features on
the other side of the page. The
pictures on the preliminary task
didn’t have this, which made it
look like they weren’t
corresponding to anything.