Media A2 - Evaluation Question 4

1. By Shantelle Bowman

2. At the start of my second year, I looked back at the conventions that had to be included in my
constructions. I have since, learnt different skills in order to enable me to identify what needs to be
included in my work. In terms of my front cover, I have a masthead which shows the main focus of the
magazine and I use that as my logo throughout my work. The name I chose which was ‘Haway’ links in
with creating a regional magazine as it is a word dialect that is used in the North East (my hometown).
The design was inspired by national magazines but the name was influenced by my region.
Other small conventions I included was the issue number, barcode and price. These are essential for a
front cover, but I made them small so that they aren't the main focus. I think they blend in well with the
layout and make my magazine look professional. Some regional magazines don’t have a barcode
because they can be free depending on what contents it has. For example, a recipe magazine might be
on stands in the entrance of Asda which you can help yourself too.
My dominant image is a medium close up shot of my model who I used throughout. I feel like it makes
my model the main focus of the magazine and also links in with one of my main sell lines. This main
image allows my audience to identify the genre of my magazine and makes it easier to catch my
audiences eyes as they scan the shelf. From my deconstructions of regional magazine, most of them has
a landscape image as their main focus, however, I challenged this idea and used a model as I think it was
more relevant to the content I was including.
Sell lines are the largest advertiser of magazine contents and often used to tease or interest an audience
via enigma code as they will want to know more. I didn't want to use many sell lines as I feel my front
cover would be cluttered which doesn't fit with my genre (culture), front covers I have looked at tend to
have little text on the front but make the sell lines quite large in size.
Sub-headings expand the enigma on the main sell lines. I have included more sub-headings than I have
with main sell lines as it is the layout I have followed since looking at my inspirations. The same with
cover lines, I tried to have minimized text on my front cover. These allow you to advertise other topics in
the magazine which I have briefly done on the first third of the page and sort of listed them underneath
a sub-heading. My final convention is the colour scheme. The colours I used link with my region and its
culture. That is why I chose red, white, black and grey as my main colours so that I could allow my
viewers see the correlation between my genre and involving my region. The colours red and white are
the colour scheme for Sunderland Football club which is a huge part of my regions culture, hence why I
chose the colours. I also feel like the red stands out and makes my conventions stand out.

3. The masthead on my contents page named ‘contents’ which is the generic title used for this
page of a magazine. It gives the audience a guideline to read through the magazine and
know where contents is. In addition, I included a smaller ‘logo’ type masthead above the
issue month. I think this gives a professional look to my magazine. I made mine a simple
bold black headline in the center at the top. This makes it stand out and goes well with my
colour scheme. Throughout my constructions, I have followed the same colours scheme
which is red, white, black and grey. Again, this is because it represents the colours of my
regions Football team (a big part of Sunderland culture). Another essential convention of a
contents page and any other page is a page number. These tend to always be at the bottom
of the page so that it is out of the way. I decided to put mine in the bottom corner but I
used a bubble font effect so that it was still visible for people to see. I decided to use a
different range of images rather than just focusing on one. This is because my genre is so
broad that it wouldn't’t be suitable to just use one main image. I included a few so that it
allowed my audience to see the interesting contents inside. They could have been a bit
more colourful but I still think they fit well with my theme. I have also numbered each
image so that they correlate with the page numbers, making it easier for my audience to go
to that specific article. I feel like since my AS content page, I have took more time in
researching and planning this design so that I can improve my skills. The main difference I
see is in the sub-lines. I have been more creative in terms of fonts used and the layout of
where my text is. And the final convention is advertisements/voucher but I didn't’t really
include these as it didn't really fit in well with my genre. Looking at my regional and
national inspirations, they didn't’t include a voucher/coupon, so I followed that styled.
Compared to my AS contents page, I can see a big improvement and I am pleased with how
it has came out. I have challenged the use of fonts. As I chose a culture magazine, the fonts
tend to have a traditional look, however I have developed this into a modern looking text as
I wanted to modernize a traditional regional looking magazine. This helps out my target
audience as it would likely appeal to them more than a ‘fancy’ looking font.

4. My double page spread has more than one image
because I felt that I needed to fil some blank spaces in.
the images I have used are relevant to the article and
shows direct address which entices the reader to buy
the magazine. I also added quite a large quote on the
second page because it is a convention used my
popular national magazines and I think it engages the
reader. Again, I don’t have an introduction, instead, I
used a large headline under my masthead so that I
don’t go into too much detail. I feel like this gives is
more of an aesthetic look which will appeal to my
younger target audience. In terms of the fonts used, I
didn't’t really use many as I feel it made it hard to read
with the amount of text included. To stop this, I went
for a simple font in all areas. Some areas do have a
‘fancy’ font which got from 1001fonts.com just to
represent the style of my magazine, but I didn't’t want
it to look overcrowded. I did use different colours to
separate the question from the answer which does
make the page look more interesting and easy to
follow. By-lines were also used to that it gives credit to
the photographer and writer. It makes your magazine
look professional and helps with copyright problems. I
made them quite small so that they aren't the main
focus, but they are still visible for the reader.
In addition, I inserted my overall logo at the bottom of
the page as it makes it look professional looking and I
have seen this being used in different regionals
magazines as well as national.

5. There are a lot of codes and conventions that
need to be included in a website. There are so
many different areas to making a website so it
is crucial to follow them otherwise it wont look
like a website. One being a
banner/logo/masthead or band. This could be a
obvious masthead or it could be a logo (which I
used). I feel that it makes it easy for people to
identify your website and links with my other
constructions as they all have the same name. I
also used a predominant image on my
homepage which s the first thing the audience
see’s. Social media links are essential to add as
the majority of websites will have them. Mine
are situated right at the top of the page but are
colourful so easy to see. It helps promote my
work and gives interaction/communication
between the business and the audience. I
chose not to include sponsors because I feel
like it would be too much with a subscription
box (which I have used). I inserted my
subscription box at the bottom of the home
page so that it was easy to see. This allows my
readers to subscribe to my website and get
notifications on any updates. This is a useful
way to keep the young generations engaged
with content as technology had became more
advanced ad people tend to read more online.

6. As I didn't create a billboard as part of my AS constructions, I
was new to what codes and conventions has to be included.
This meant that I had to do quite a bit of research into
national billboards as well as regional billboards. The
conventions that I included were a masthead which I used
the name of my magazine ‘Haway’. I didn't use an anchorage
because I couldn't’t really match my image with what is
being advertised, but it does represent the magazine in
some way. The fonts I used go really well with my overall
design and makes it easy to read especially for a billboard.
All of the fonts used were from 1001fonts.com which has
really helped me. I wanted my billboard to be easy to read
but also look interesting, this is why I went for a ‘fancy’
effect. My fonts are large in size so that when you pass a
billboard, you can actually see what it says so needs to be
bold and clear. The image I have used came from images I
had taken for my magazine. I feel like it still fits in well with
my advertisement as it represents my target audience and
the genre I am going for. I also made the models hair slightly
more red in colour so that it can match my colour scheme
and I think it makes my billboard look more professional. In
addition, I added the date of my event (the purpose of my
billboard) to inform the readers.

7. I uncovered the slight differences between the conventions used in a regional magazine
compared to the ones used in a national magazine. To do this, I deconstructed different
‘cultural’ magazines that are well known worldwide and then done the same to magazines that
are only in my area. Regional magazines use a traditional style rather than being over-
glamorous. The language/text used is relevant to the regions dialect which makes it easier to
see what part of the country it has came from. The overall design of regional magazines show
individual characteristics depending on the genre of the magazine. If a magazine is regional,
they don’t have as much content to include compared to a national magazine. This is because
nationally, there is more topics and subjects to talk about where as in a regional magazine, you
only include content that is relevant to your region.
This is a magazine that I found in a local
supermarket and I used this as my main
inspiration for my contents page as it was
regional but had a modern twist to it.