Evaluation of premiminary exersize

My media project uses conventions of a normal magazine, with the use of a medium close up I could use the image I had taken as the background of my cover. I know this is a convention because I looked at 10 school magazines; most of these used a medium close up. (see below) 

 I also created a masthead to show the ethos and style of the school what the magazine was representing. I chose to create a masthead I also created in a house style of blue, grey and brown to match the image that I had taken. I have challenged the usual conventions of a normal school magazine by using text boxes on my contents page to make the contents of the magazine stand out. One way my product challenges a school magazines convention is I made the colours on my contents page look minimalistic and organised, this is unusual for a contents page as they are normal full of images and articles to draw you into reading them.  I have used the convention of a banner but I have developed this idea by having it half transparent, I did this so it doesn’t hide any of the image.

My front page uses a house style that matches the pupil’s uniform to fit the schools looks and ethos.  The schools ethos is to be enthusiastic but calm and collected, smart, respect, dignity and pride. I have used colour symbolism to show the calm ethos as blue is a clean and calm colour. I have also used a less formal text without serifs as the school is trying to show a friendly ethos. The school is representing is “aim for the highest” this is represented in the image I have used because the camera angle is below the student, making him look “higher”.

I have learned from my audience feedback that I have to fill up my home page so that it is more attractive and eye catching to read. I have used colours well to make the text look professional and sophisticated. I have also represented the schools ethos well.  I have also found that my contents page needs more text and more images to make the reader want to read the articles inside my magazine.

I used Fireworks to construct both the cover and the contents pages of my magazine. I have learned how layer images and text in order so the most important is on the top layer covering the less important things. I also learned how to use custom texts to make my Masthead. In the planning stages and research stages I used the Internet to find similar products for inspiration. I also imported a font into fireworks, I have never done this before but I soon learned how to install and use new more interesting fonts from the internet. I could have used the program Photoshop but I would rather use fireworks as it has a new update that I did not know how to use.