With my magazine I have included a cover mount (free gift). This is because when you give away free gifts with your magazine, it draws in the target audience. The more people that look at your magazine, the more chance of people buying it. My cover mount is a sachet of lip gloss. I chose this product for my cover mount because it refers to the title, Lip Gloss. On the front page of my magazine I have used a buzzword. This is a really useful effect to make the target audience want to buy my magazine because the words are persuasive. The buzzword I have used is “bargain”. This is so that readers know they are getting a bargain when they buy this magazine.
The barcode on my magazine has been placed bottom right. The reason I have placed it there is so it makes it easier to scan through the till when you are buying the magazine. The barcode is important because it is a convention of a magazine to have it somewhere on the front page. Also, you need a barcode to buy the product. I inserted a web address at the bottom left of the front page. This is important because it is also a convention of a magazine. Having a web address is really useful because readers can log on to the web site to find out more about the magazine.
The price and date are a convention of a magazine which is why I made sure it was clear to readers to see. The price of my magazine stands out a lot because I have placed it in a star and the word “bargain” surrounds it. The date of my magazine is issued in April, the reason for this is because this is when the weather begins to change and get warmer. My magazine sort of relates to the time of year because of the colours. For example I can’t use bright pink. The layout of my front cover had the price, date and issue near the title because this is where the consumer would expect to find it.
Contents Page: On my contents page, I have placed the title of the magazine at the top of the page and also aligned it centre. This is so that it clearly stands out. To also make it stand out I made the copy extra large and changed the colour of the title to bright pink. I used a subtitle on the contents page telling the reader “On the cover” this was done so that the readers knew where to find the stories in the magazine, which were featured on the front cover. This is important because it was these stories that drew their interest to the magazine in the first place, which means they will want to know where to find these stories and what pages they are on.
I made the decision to print screen my front page and I edited it in paint. This was so I could insert it into my contents page, and have arrows coming out from the page to tell the reader what page the cover lines, featured on the front page, were on. This related to the subtitle. This means it is more visually appealing to the reader because they can see exactly which story is on which page. The layout of my contents page is in columns. This is because it’s a convention of a magazine to have all of the copy in columns.
The copy underneath or next to the arrows is boxed. This gives the contents page more effect because some parts of the copy stand out. I have also inserted the page number at the bottom right of the page; this will help the reader know which page they are on. At the bottom of the contents page is additional information about what is also featured inside the magazine. This tells the reader exactly what is in the magazine. The colours used in the contents page is only pink, pale and bright, which will again appeal to the target audience. I kept the background colour white to make the copy stand out more. I chose not to include an editors section or a signature because I thought it was unnecessary.
I have inserted a web address just above the title. By inserting the web address on most of the pages will make the consumer notice it and log on to it on the internet. This will give them details on how to order the subscription, look at next weeks issue’s cover lines and know what free gift they will receive and much more. Double Page Spread: The first page of my double page spread has only limited amount of copy on it. The reason I chose to do this was because in my questionnaire I had found out that images attract the reader’s attention more because they like to look at pictures as well as read the stories. In my research I had also found out that by having one page of your double page spread as an image stretched out to the edges was a convention of a magazine.
The only copy there was on my first page of the double page spread was “DAMAGED!” I thought this would draw the readers eye to the story, and then they would start to have questions buzzing around their head such as “Who’s damaged?”, “why is she damaged?”, “what happened to her?” etc. Also there is a caption overlapping on the image on the first page and the page number at the bottom right.
The story that I chose for my double page spread is about a teenage girl who has been sexually abused since the age of 5 by the one man she should trust and feel safe around…Her father! The story has been told by Rebecca Byles which was Jodie’s carer four years ago. I noticed during my research that this is the type of story that is featured in this genre of magazine. Real life, gritty stories that the target audience like to read because a lot of people can relate to them in someway or another.
The title is in really big letters so that it stands out really clearly. The use of colours also helps it to stand out because pale pink on top on bright pink stands out really well. The title “DAMAGED!” is a really good single word to use for the title because it would draw the consumer in to read the story. Also they would start to question themselves and the only way their going to get answers is by reading the story.
Underneath my title I have included a small introduction about the story, so that readers will know what they are going to read about. This is the slightly larger font above the rest of the copy. The colour of this font is also pale pink overlapping bright pink, to make it stand out. The reason I have chosen to use the colours pale pink and bright pink on my double page spread is because it’s a feminine colour so it appeals to my target audience.
I have grouped my copy into 3 separate columns in my double page spread. The reason for this is because it is a convention of a magazine to be in columns. Also by putting them into columns it helps to make the story easier to read for the consumers. The small image at the bottom of the second page on my double page spread is my own photography whereas the main image on the first page of the double page spread is not my own photography. In my story I have said that both of the girls are the same person but just at different ages, one 5 and the other 14. The reason I chose these images was because they are both a soft brown colour.
Because it’s a convention of a magazine I inserted the web address once again. This is so it gets noticed more and also gives the readers the comfort of knowing that this magazine is for real and plans to stay around for a long period of time. Advert: For my advert, I chose a wedding photography company. The reason for this is it would appeal to the target audience for my magazine, which are females aged 20+, and woman tend to get married in their middle ages rather than in the teens or elderly years. This is an element of romance and females would always dream of a white wedding, it gives me the sense of a nice atmosphere as females that have an everyday routine could escape to and think about a white wedding that they could experience in the near future. The target audience would read my magazine for a break, to sit down and relax, and escape from the everyday normal routine.
The images I have used for my advert was an image of a happy couple who have just got married and the other image is of and engagement ring. The images used are black and white in colour, the reason for choosing these colour was because it gives them more of a soft focus and romantic look. The image of the happy couple was important to insert on to the advert because it shows the target audience just how good the wedding photography is. Also another thing that was important in the image was of the couple sharing a kiss. This also gives an element of romance.
Conclusion:
Overall, I think my magazine was a success and I think I done quite well in the making of it. I now know how much work and effort is put into making a magazine, and I will never take one for granted again knowing that it took someone a long time to lay it out, and receive stories through the post or online to write up and include in the magazine. I think my production is realistic as it features real life stories and my own photography. Whilst making this magazine found out how much you have to do for example: think of a name, the whole layout, colours, story, cover lines, think of a web address etc. I enjoyed making this product because it was fun and gave me an idea of what my job will be similar to as I want to become a journalist when I am older and have been to college and university.
