Unit_51_LO4_Assignment2_CONVENTIONS.doc

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BTEC EXTENDED DIPLOMA IN CREATIVEMEDIA PRODUCTION UNIT 51 PAGE LAYOUTAND DESIGN

51.4 DESIGN AND PRODUCE PAGE LAYOUT TO A GIVEN BRIEF

ASSIGNMENT TWO: VISUAL LANGUAGE AND AUDIENCES

LOOK AT YOUR FINISHED COVER AND DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD AND COMPARE IT WITHMIXMAG MAGAZINE. COMPLETE THE ATTACHED GRID AND ASSESS HOW CLOSE YOUHAVE COME TO IMITATING MIXMAGS STYLE AND CONVENTIONS(Description only will achieve Pass, Assessment needed for Merit and Assessment plus plenty ofexamples for Distinction)

You will cover the following criteria:

P4 - design and produce apage layout to meet a briefwithin appropriate conventionsand with some assistance

M4 - design and produce a page layoutto meet a brief to a good technicalstandard showing some imagination andwith only occasional assistance

D4 - design and produce a page layout tomeet a brief to a technical quality thatreflects near-professional standards,showing creativity and flair and workingindependently to near professionalexpectations

WRITE AN ASSESSMENT OF HOW CLOSE YOU HAVE COME TO MATCHING MIXMAG

CONVENTIONS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

COLUMNS AND

MARGINS On my Mixmag, I used columns to better organize my work, to make it look

tidier and more professionally. On my double page spread especially, I used

four columns in which to put the text in. The benefits of this were that it made

the work look more organized and neat. The downside is that there wasnt

enough space to fit my whole article on so I had to edit certain bits out.

NAME Jack Vincent

DATE GIVEN TO STUDENTS MON 27 FEB 2012


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This is how I layed the text out. As

you can see, the article looks neat and

obviously organized. Many Mixmag

magazines used a similar VIP article

layout. As you can see from the above

comparison the layout of the columns

are very similar.

MASTHEAD When I came to making my Masthead, I had to think about where the position

of it will be and how much of the page it will take up. The Masthead is always

at the top of the page so I put it there. I also had to consider how big it would

be. It ended up taking almost the whole width of the cover. I also had to decide

on the colour of the masthead which I chose as white because it showed up well

against the black background.

Here you can see my Masthead in relation to an actual Mixmag cover. They are

similar in that they are both white and are both positioned the same way. As

you can see I had to make space for the selling line so the Masthead cant be

right at the top of the page. Also you have to colour the masthead in a way thatit shows up on the background. We have both done this.

PRICE AND

BAR CODE

The price and bar code always go in the bottom right corner of the Mixmag

cover. The reason for this is that it is the only place that isnt occupied by

something else. It makes sense for the barcode and the price to be in the same

place because they are both related things.

As you can see, you can get other styles of barcode. Mine is quite small

compared to an official Mixmag barcode which is quite wide. The prices are

both white although the official cover includes an overseas price. The font is

also slightly different on my cover.

HEADLINES/

CROSSHEADS

AND

DATELINES

The headline is the biggest, most striking piece of text on the cover. It is usuallyin the middle of the cover and is always relating to the image on the cover. This

headline often shares its aesthetic with the overall theme of the cover. Being the

same colour as other text on the cover. They sometimes have a border around


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the Headline to make it stand out even more.

Here you can see my covers

headline and sub-focus covers headline. As you can see they share the same

aesthetic and have a similar font. They are both placed in the middle of the

cover and are round about the same size. The sub-focus headline isnt as close

to the edge as mine and is also further out. It also has more space inside the

background than mine does.

The Dateline is in the bottom right next to barcode, basically all it does is say

the date the magazine was released. It has the same font and colour as the price

and examples of it can be found above.

In the double page spread the headline is a lot longer and basically describes

what the article is about.

It is bigger than the rest of text so its stands out a lot more. The other articles in

Mixmag use a similar colour scheme and have the same font as this.

PAGE

NUMBERING

The page number is found in the bottom left of the double page spread and is

used to indicate what page you are currently reading.

I didnt do the page number on my article because it was something I plain

forgot to do but if I had of done it I would use the same colour and font inwhich I wrote the website at the bottom in. The colour would be white so it

could fit in to the rest of the article.

STRAPLINES/

COVER LINES

Coverlines are the main stories that are in your magazine. They are often

scattered around the cover and have a title for the main story. There is a

description underneath the title which describes the story. These can be about

anything from artist interviews to reviews contained within the article.


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The main differences between my coverlines and the sub-focus coverlines arethe colours and the borders around the coverlines. The colours of my coverlines

are orange and white which I thought stood out well against the black

background. The sub-focus cover has relatively light colours which would

blend in to the background. To compensate for this, they had to put the

coverlines on borders. The content of the coverlines is the same.

RULES AND

BORDERS

The borders are used for the text. They are basically there to keep the article

looking tidy and organised. If you go out of the borders than the article wont

look very good as it will look quite messy.

As you can see, I used borders for everything on my double page spread

including the pictures. It is perfectly organised as nothing crosses over each

other apart from the text on the picture which is supposed to be on the double

page spread image.


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WHITE SPACE

White space is when there is nothing the space, like no coverlines. Its good to

have some white space because otherwise the cover will look very cluttered.

Too much white space can result in the cover looking really empty so its good

to have a good balance of white space and filled space.

My cover and the sub-focus cover both have white space in the bottom middleof the page. This means that the white space isnt where anything important is

and is ok as it doesnt distract from the main images.

FONTS AND

FONT SIZE AND

UPPER/ LOWER

CASE/ DROP

CAPITALS

The font on my double page spread is varied. The main articles font is a small

font because this will allow it to fit onto the page. The headline is a bigger font

because this makes the headline stand out. The colour is white because it shows

up very well on the black background.

BOLD AND

ITALIC

I didnt use any italic writing because I didnt, at the time, see a use for it. I

could of used it for certain quotes as this helps distinguish the quote from the

actual article. I used bold to help tell the questions from the answers because

this is the same as the official Mixmag articles. It makes it clear what thequestions and the answers are.

JUSTIFIED

TEXT/

CENTRED TEXT

I had to centralized the headline, justified the text to the left and did the same

for the quote. The reason I centralized the headline was because it had to look

like it was in the middle for it to look good. I centralized the text and quote to

the left because if it was to the right it wouldnt of looked right

USE OF

COLOUR On my cover, I mostly used orange and white, while on my double page spread

I used red and white. I did this for aesthetic reasons; I thought that the colours

would show up well against a black background, especially the white. I thought

that the oranges and reds looked good on the background as well and this also

allowed me to further imitate the Mixmag cover.

APPROPRIATE

AUDIENCEThe target audience was changed from being tightly focused on the youngclubber to having a wider ranging audience. This resulted in the magazine

having a bigger audience. The magazine is now a more sophisticated and

expensive magazine and the audience reflects this. The production values were

improved and the magazine was changed to focus on the entire world of dance

music. This has made the audience a lot wider. The audience now is a lot more

sophisticated and rich. As Mixmag has become more expensive, the people who

buy it have enough money to buy it every month. The target audience is also

aspirational which are the kinds of people who own businesses and want to be a

success. They would probably be single with no ties and they would have a

disposable income. The writers are stylish and write very formally.

My Mixmag caters to this by being pretty serious and sharing a similar style to

an actual mixmag magazine


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OVERALL

ASSESSMENT

OF COVER

I think that my cover shares many similar traits to an actual Mixmag magazine.

The use of colour and the majority of the content for the cover heavily resemble

a mixmag magazine. I think that the layout for the cover is correct as they have

the same look as an actual Mixmag cover. I used a specific cover as a guide and

put coverlines and banners in the same locations therefore giving my cover the

look of an actual Mixmag

I think that the main image I used for my cover is out of place. I think that I

didnt do a good enough job while editing it and therefore the picture looks a bittacky. I think that the image is good but the editing was bad basically.

The colours I used on my cover work well with the background and the image,

as they are clear and readable.

OVERALL

ASSESSMENT

OF

DOUBLEPAGE

SPREAD

I think that my double page spread went very well. The use of colour in the

double page spread looks good as you can clearly read the text and the black

background fits very well with the image. Also the image is appropriate to the

content as it is dark and mysterious which was how I was trying to portray

Adam Who?.

I think that it differs from an actual Mixmag in that VIP articles are usually

white apart from any other colour. The reason I did black was because it fit

better with the picture. I could of made a picture that was better suited to a

white background but I didnt think about that at the time.

Deadline FINAL: FRIDAY MARCH 2 2012

I V VERIFICATION..

Unit_51_LO4_Assignment2_CONVENTIONS.doc

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