Preliminary Exercise Evaluation.

For a magazine to be successful and sell, also to appeal to the target audience, they need to follow a list of codes and conventions, which are like the rules of magazines. To make my magazine appeal to the target audience i had to follow these codes and conventions. On my front cover i followed most of the codes and conventions. For example: i had a positioning statement,my masthead(title) was across the whole top of the page, my bar code was in the bottom right hand corner. I also had my title in a unique font and the cover lines in a different font to the masthead. I used a simple yet effective colour scheme of royal blue and white. I used one main image which was taken at a mid shot and had the subject giving the audience direct address which is a code and convention of magazine front covers. One of the codes and conventions i didn't follow was having subsidiary images on my front cover, I didn't use any of these because i wanted to keep the layout simple and easy on the eyes.
On my contents pages i followed the codes and conventions as best i could, by this i mean the only codes and conventions i didn't follow was not having subscription details for the magazine, i didn't use this because i felt it was unnessary. I also didn't put on a website or write an editors letter. I didn't do this because i felt this didnt fit in with the school magazine genre. I did however, use subsidiary images to anchor the stories to the pictures, i also used the same font on the word "contents" as the title was in on the front cover and carried on the simple colour scheme, this was done so to maintain the brand and make the contents page as easily identifiable as the front cover. I also split the contents page into regulars and features as this is an important code and convention as it makes it easier for the read to distinguish between the different sections,I also used different size font for the coverlines and for the sublines: 12/13 point for the coverline and 11 point for the subline. I feel overall i did well with producing a magazine front cover and contents page that stuck to the basic codes and conventions of magazines and only deviated away from them on a few things.

For the production of the magazine we used two different programmes, one of these we had used before and one we hadn't. To do the front cover we used Adobe Photoshop which we had used for the production of our music magazines in year 10. For our contents page we used a programme called Quark XPress which we had never used before. to make the magazine front cover we had to cut out the background from our pictures we took, we had to add a background or gradient and we had to add text boxes for our coverrlines and use a different text for the masthead we had to arrange the text boxes so nothing majorly interfered with the main image because our magazine isnt a well established one we couldnt have the main image overlapping the masthead.We also had to add a barcode, issue date, number and a price.After we had done all this our front cover for our magazine was complete. For our contents page we had to use Quark XPress which was a new technology package for us all, before we started our contents pages we were given a run down of what to do and shown the basic functions of Quark, after that we were left on our own to get onwith it. To start with we had to get the right amount of columns, then we had to add the text we wanted for our feature articles and regular articles, and we had to add a masthead and title. The colour scheme was consistent with the front cover,i did this to maintain the branding of my magazine. After addign the text i added the subisuary images and a copy of the front cover on the contents page by the masthead.

I think the strengths of my magazine front cover was that it followed the codes and conventions of magazine front covers, I also think it looked how i wanted it to on the plan and that i used Phtotshop well, with the limited time we had to do the task. I think my colour scheme was a bold one that would easily attract the reader and from far away it looked attractive and the text stood out and the coverlines were easy to read. On the front cover i also used a buzzword "plus" I used this to attract the reader and so they think they are getting more for their money than they are. I was happy with my magazine front cover.Another strength of my magazine front cover was that it looked how i wanted it to look when i made the rough layout, also the fact that i was familiar of how to use photoshop was a srength as it made my work faster and i knew how to use some of the tools to do my work.
 The weaknesses of my magazine front cover was with more time i would have made the layout betetr and more quirky and added images to anchor the story which would have made it more attractive to the reader, and came up with more extras and been adventourous with the tools on photoshop so the layout was better.
I think that the strengths of my magazine contents page was that the colour scheme and the fact i had a miniture of the front cover on my contents page was helping to maintain my magazines branding and so the readers could know what the magzine was without having to read the masthead. I also think another strength was that my contents page had subsidiary images and columns which is part of the codes and conventions of contents pages. Another strength of my magazine contents pages was that I had my titles for the features and the regulars in a larger different font and my coverlines and my sublines were in different fonts so that the coverline stands out more than the subline. One more strength of my contents page was that it hd a clear layout and the page numbers came before the story.
Weaknesses of my contents page was that i struggled to use the programme and i didnt anchor my pictures to  a story. Another weakness was that i didnt include an editors letter and i could have. i also didnt use 5 or more subsidiary images which is part of the codes and conventions, although  did use some. Another weakness was my layout wasnt the way i wanted it to look when i did my rough layout. This was because the programme wouldnt allow this so i had to change it to see if it looked better rearranged.