Draft - Evaluation Activity 1

Evaluation Activity 1 – draft

Cover –

The conventions that are typically used are

·         Masthead

·         Runners or banners

·         Pull Quotes

·         Cover Lines

·         Hot Spots

·         Bar code

·         Pictures

The colour scheme I used was appropriate and it kept with the genre I was going for as it is not unusual for Kerrang to have four colours instead of the generic three. The Title 'CTRL' comes from the ctrl key on a keyboard. Not only does it mean control it also relates to teenagers who often use the computer/laptop and are quite tech savvy, which fits with my target market as they would most likely have a geekier side to them as well as liking rock, alt rock and pop rock music. I attempted to follow the usual conventions for the genre as it would then appeal to the right audience.

Contents –

·        Title

·        Issue number and cover date

·        Subscription

·        A number of pictures

·        Prizes and competitions

·        Editor’s note

I kept the same colours running throughout the three pages I did. This not only made it look like the same magazine but helped tie them all together. The contents page needs to be easy to read it should lead readers to the pages they want to read most without hassle. I used banners for each segment to separate the stories within the magazine. There are 3 fonts in my contents, each has a different role. The first is the 'In Control' Runner which is the title of the page and is the official font for the magazine title. The second is the title of each section within the yellow banner and the last is Arial a font which is easy to read. The fonts differ because they fit the genre and look good on the page, the banners for each section need to stand out and be bold whilst what’s happening on each page needs to give just enough information for the consumer to read it. I laid it out in this way because I like how Kerrang does theirs, though I flipped it over so the sections are the first thing the consumer will see.

Double Page Spread –

·         Title

·         Large picture taking up one side

·         Kicker

·         Route of the eye

·         Principle of thirds

·         Pull quotes

·         Important questions

For my double page spread I tried testing the conventions instead of using one large picture I created character studies on each of the band members with little facts about themselves. As a band that has just become big their fans will want to know very minute fact about them so creating a small profile will appeal to the audience. I tried to make my article as personal and informal as I could as this would interest readers more than a really factual story on the band. I haven’t used Kickers in this article and I probably should have but as I used different colours for questions and answers I believe they weren’t essential to the piece.