Codes & Conventions: Fusion Magazine

Codes & Conventions

Fusion magazine

Front cover and Contents

Front Cover

1. Colour scheme (white, red, black)

2. A sub title under magazine name.

3. Title takes up top third.

4. Picture of person takes up two thirds of the front cover.

5. White writing stands out.

6. ‘Words of Wisdom’ appears several times on image.

7. Basic plain image to attract you to magazine.

8. Shows what issue it is. (issue 1)

The colour scheme is used to make the text stand out and not make the magazine look too complicated. Allows the reader to focus on the main points raised in magazine as text all falls on the left third of the front cover. The 3 main colours may also be based on the school colours.  Red adds a sense of danger and rebellion making it stand out.

The sub title under the magazine name is always used as it allows your eyes to be drawn to the title. The main title takes up the top third of the magazine so the reader’s eyes are drawn to the name of the magazine first. The writing is also white so it is a major contrast to the red background. The word fusion sounds high tech and really gripping to the reader; it sounds like the magazine is being fused together.

The picture of the person takes up the whole bottom two thirds of the magazine showing a maybe rebellious teenager; picture is also simple so it is basic bold colours like the other colours.

The use of white writing makes the readers eyes focus on the points raised as white is a stand out colour from red and black.

The slogan ‘Words of Wisdom’ appears several times as a frontal layer on the cover, it tries to show that the boy is saying these words.

The basic plain black image attracts the reader to the magazine as it is bold and easy to see. The use of the colour black allows the reader to see the image but also the text at the same time.

The magazines front cover also has a issue number showing what issue it will be, this is to keep each issue of the magazine separate and allows it to have its own edition in case it has collectors.

                             

Contents

1. Creative rainbow colours.

2. Big bold title (contents)

3. Laid out in 3 columns.

4. Rainbow line at bottom to separate out contents from next page.

5. Recycle logo

6. Caset tape with rainbow shaped image.

7. Headings to describe what will be on each page of the magazine.

The rainbow colours are used to add a sense of creativity and to make it look more modern and eye catching. Furthermore the big bold title (contents) stands out from the light background colours to show the reader what page they are reading, as it is the biggest font on this page.

Under the heading contents the description of what is on each page in arranged in a 3 column contexts, this is to make it easier t read and isn’t complicated to read.

At the bottom of the contents page there is a rainbow line to separate it out from the other pages so the reader knows that is the only contents page.

By adding the recycling logo in the bottom right hand corner it shows that this magazine is printed with 100% recycled paper; promoting recycling in the school. The addition of the caset tape adds a retro side to the magazine and makes the school seem creative. The caset also has pink shades of colour beaming out from it; this maybe making a statement and showing that the school is very creative in music.

The headings under each page title allows the reader to have a little description of what will be on each page; like a brief summary.

Draft Of My School Magazine

My School Magazine Evaluation

Front Cover
1. Colour Scheme. 2. Smaller font under title of magazine.
3. Picture of person takes up bottom two thirds.
4. Magazine title takes up top third.
5. Black and blue font stand out from low opacity back ground. (school colours)
6. School logo in bottom corner.
7. Bold blue top on girl.

For my magazine front cover I decided to use a blue colour scheme to connect with the school colours and keep it neutral to make the image of the girl stand out. I used the smaller font under the title of the magazine to make the word students stand out and make it appealing to the student forum. By using blue for the smaller font it connects with the school colours and makes it more attractive to all at the school. The picture of the girl takes up the whole bottom two thirds of the front cover which makes the student the center of attention; which is what I was aiming for. Furthermore the magazine title takes up the top third, by doing so it attracts the reader to the main focus of the magazine. I chose a low opacity background to make the black and blue font stand out from the school building and this made my front cover look a little more professional and better thought out. I chose to put the school logo in the bottom corner to show that Whitley Bay high school was the school magazine i was making. On the other hand by making the girl wear a blue hoody it links well with the school colours and makes the girl connect with the scheme of the front cover.
By using the inspiring ideas from school magazines like fusion it allowed me to understand that there is normally a plain 3 colour scheme; so the reader can read and understand each section of the front cover with ease. Also researching into the school magazines names and font size I realised that most of them have titles that take up the whole top third, as a way of making the readers eyes focus on that before anything else.

Contents Page
1. Black and white computer in background.
2. Used only 3 colours (blue, red and black)
3. Diagonal photos in bottom third.(in colour)
4. The contents title takes up top third.
5. Plain white background.
6. Italic red font as sub heading under Stress Advice.

Studying my contents page I made the decision to make the computer take up the right 2 thirds of the contents page and also made it black and white. Doing so allowed the other colour images to stand out and give a variety of media techniques in my contents page. I also decided to make the computer have a low opacity allowing the readers eyes to be mainly focused on the page headings and the colour images at the bottom third of the page.
By only using three colours it adds a sense of professional touch to the contents and doesn't detract the readers eyes away from the main contents headings on this page.
I added diagonal colour images in the bottom third to give it a additional bit of creativity, the images also show pieces of artwork younger students have produced and them in the middle of creating new pieces of artwork; this gives the reader a image of how the school is as a whole.
The title 'contents' takes up the top third of the contents page making the readers eyes attracted to the title before looking at the images.
Furthermore the plain white background makes the blue font, black and white computer and the colour images at the bottom of the page stand out instead of it being discussed in the background. While looking at examples of school magazines I noticed they added sub-headings under the contents number titles. I decided to add this into my contents and used a red font to make it stand out from the blue and the black tones from the other writing on the same page. This worked out to be very effective and could be used in my future projects.

While researching some alternative school magazines contents pages I realised that they mainly have quite plain coloured backgrounds; this technique was used so the text could be read easily and was more eye catching. While looking at some other basic school magazines I saw that most of them had images representing different sections in the magazine, almost like a little peak into what was going to feature in the school magazine.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

While using the camera I had quite a tough job getting the aperture and shutter speed at the correct setting, this sometimes made my photos quite blurry and not as sharp as I wanted. Furthermore taking the medium close up shot wasn't a great deal of work. The natural light coming through the window to the left of my model was a prefect contrasting brightness, showing the harsh shadows and giving my model a nice glow. After taking the photo I went into Photoshop and adjusted the hue and brightness/contrast just to add a little more colour to my models hands and face.
While constructing my front cover and contents page on Photoshop I took into account the rule of thirds and tried to lay my images and text in the same way to give it that professional edge. I used the magnetic lasso to give me a nice smooth edge around my models body so it looked like she was sitting inside the magazine. I also used tools such as the text tool for my font sizes/font and for writing out text. This tool was very good for creating a correlating colour scheme of blue, black and white; to match the school colours.
On the other hand my main tool for constructing my school magazine was the layering. By using this it allowed me to move around certain parts of the front cover/contents if I wasn't happy with were they were. If I didn't layer my magazine I wouldn't be able to move around any of my images as easily because they would all  be compressed into one. Layering was a great way of structuring ideas but then being able to move them around if I wasn't happy with certain aspects of my school magazine.

My School Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page

Dairy Entry Week 1: School Magazine

On the first day (31^st January) I was researching different types of school magazines to try and get a brief idea on how to lay out my magazine, and what the correlations were between each magazine.

1^st February – I then made a log in to use a program called blogger to keep all my work on for it to be easily accessible. Also on this day I started taking photos of students studying and also landscape shots of the school grounds; these shots were similar to ones in the researched magazines. These photos turned out well, but I was still learning how to use the aperture and change the shutter speed; this made some of my photos slightly blurry.

2^nd February – I started using Photoshop and was slowly creating my magazine around the codes & conventions of example school magazines. I used the opacity tool to create a slightly see through layer  of the school in the background; this made my font stand out and also made the title of the magazine (Students Monthly) stand out. I used the magnetic lasso tool a lot to cut out my front page picture and transfer it to being the top layer on the school. This image was a picture of a student studying at a desk.

3^rd February – I then moved on to choosing my font and colour, this made me use the text tool a lot more and allowed me to create a simple stand out title.

4^th February – I decided to start on my contents page and was thinking up a few ideas while looking at my draft.

I firstly decided to place an image of a school computer on the right hand third of the page, to do this I used the magnetic lasso and the rubber to cut out the image from its background. By placing the computer in the right hand third this gave me more space to complete the contents page with text to the left hand side. I also made a quick last minute decision to change the computer to black and white to make some other images stand out; to do this I used the saturation tool which gave the computer a greyish black effect.  

5^th February – On this day it was basically all based around putting in text and using the text tool for this. On the front cover I used a blue font to match with the schools colours and to make it stand out from the faded image of the school in the background.

I added in small sentences like e.g. Top Revision Tips For 2011.

To give the reader an insight to what will appear in the magazine, by doing research this appeared to be a very popular technique to entice the readers of other school magazines.

I also used the same colour and font for the contents pages text also, while not making it look too busy. I used the underline tool to make each page number and additional information for that page look together and simplistic so it didn’t merge with any of the other sentences. Finally after doing so I added some smaller images to the bottom third of the contents page to show what goes on in my school and what there is to get involved with. To do so I used the move tool and rotator on the corners of the pictures to make them stand out and give the contents page a bit more diversity.

Initial Ideas: Mind Map

Initial Ideas