Evaluation of prelim

While I think some parts of my preliminary were done well, I think that some aspects could have been improved, for example:

FRONT COVER

Conventions

On my front cover I used many conventions that are used in magazine production. I applied a 3-colour scheme, which uses the schools colours of red, white and black. I did break some conventions however, as I did not put a barcode on the piece, seeing as it was pointless for a magazine that would not be on sale. I also had the title running down the side of the page, breaking the convention of the title being at the top of the page.

Title

I placed the title of the magazine down the left hand side of the page for my front cover, where it is written in a bold, sans-serif font. While I like the look of the title being down the side of the page, I will not repeat this style on my music magazine, as I feel it takes up a lot more space in comparison to the title being at the top of the page.

Image

I tried to stick to the idea of having a single picture on the front page, using the image as a border for different aspects of the page. I think that the use of writing on the image for the corresponding story makes it stand out from the other stories by being larger and more central to the page rather than around the sides. I also used a small image of the school logo at the top of the page to confirm the magazines affiliation to the school

Text

While I like the use of white text on red background, and the reverse, I feel that the black text on a red background is more difficult to read and stands out less than the white text. I will try to avoid this problem in my music magazine by deciding exactly what colours I want and using colours that will be readable on that colour.

Blocks of Colour

I feel that the blocks of red along the right hand side and bottom of the page, while showing an obvious place to advertise stories inside, can draw attention away from the rest of the cover as it takes up a lot of space and draws the reader’s eye to it. I also feel it doesn’t match with the rest of the background, because on the left hand side and at the top of the page there is a white background. I feel that I will not be repeating this idea in my music magazine for the above reasons.

CONTENTS

Text

I think that having the page numbers down one side of the page opposite the information of what is on that page is a good effect, as the entire contents looks more organized. I would be very likely to continue to have this style on my music magazine, as I think it works well and gives the magazine a more professional look as everything is in the same column.

Text Colour

The use of text colour on the contents page is good I think, as having the text red stands out from the rest of the page and helps to draw the reader’s attention to the information in question.

Images

While I think that the use of images as a border for the contents is a good tool, I feel that I could have placed the images better, as they overlap in some places, or there is a small line where they don’t quite meet. I would use smaller images if I used this on my music magazine, and have them placed so that they don’t overlap, but fit well together.