NAME Jack Vincent DATE GIVEN TO STUDENTS MON 27 FEB 2012 BTEC EXTENDED DIPLOMA IN CREATIVEMEDIA PRODUCTION UNIT

51 PAGE LAYOUT AND 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 WITH MIXMAG MAGAZINE. COMPLETE THE ATTACHED GRID AND ASSESS HOW CLOSE YOU HAVE COME TO IMITATING MIXMAGS STYLE AND CONVENTIONS (Description only will achieve Pass, Assessment needed for Merit and Assessment plus plenty of examples for Distinction) You will cover the following criteria:
P4 - design and produce a page layout to meet a brief within appropriate conventions and with some assistance M4 - design and produce a page layout to meet a brief to a good technical standard showing some imagination and with only occasional assistance D4 - design and produce a page layout to meet a brief to a technical quality that reflects near-professional standards, showing creativity and flair and working independently to near professional expectations

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.

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 that it 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 usually in 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

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 in which 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.

The main differences between my coverlines and the sub-focus coverlines are the 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.

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 middle of 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 The font on my double page spread is varied. The main articles font is a small FONT SIZE AND font because this will allow it to fit onto the page. The headline is a bigger font UPPER/ LOWER because this makes the headline stand out. The colour is white because it shows CASE/ DROP up very well on the black background. CAPITALS BOLD AND I didnt use any italic writing because I didnt, at the time, see a use for it. I ITALIC 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 the questions and the answers are.

JUSTIFIED TEXT/ CENTRED TEXT USE OF COLOUR

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 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 AUDIENCE

The target audience was changed from being tightly focused on the young clubber 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

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 bit tacky. 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..