Question 1.

Looking at my work and comparing it to a real magazine I can see that there’s a lot in common because all magazines do the same settings for example, the title is big, bold and is always placed at the top of the page so that it is visible and it will stand out. There is always a main image as you can see on my front cover and also the other one I am comparing it to have a big ‘main’ image on the front, this is also because it makes the magazine stand out. If the image is on the front is much different to others than the image is more likely to stand out the same with the colours of the image, if they are brighter and vibrant, then the more likely that people will be attracted to that image first. It is usually standard in the magazine industry to use a full main image but I have challenged this by using just half an image, my reason for this is because I wanted my front cover to stand out, but also make it different to other front covers. This would help me in the magazine world because you need new inventions to go on your front cover and different techniques and this is what this front cover Is showing. Having half a face as my front cover is also helpful because the person in the picture ‘Rihanna’ is so recognisable for the main stream fans that you don’t need her full face to be recognised, and for Rihanna to be different to everyone else is expected. Because that’s what she is known best for. The other conventions in my magazine are the colours and how they fit together, I keep the colours the same, green, yellow and brown so that it’s co-ordinated and it doesn’t look messy. I helped the colours on my magazine by having the make up the same colour on her face so that you’re not only attracted to the bright bold text; you also look at the picture just as much. For my front cover, I made the main cover line big at the bottom so that it attracts the eye and also because I have room for mainly the little writing in the middle and at the bottom I can write a little bit about it.

For my Contents page I have I have reproduced the house style and taken the methods and used from my front cover, further continuing to use the same methods with my text, I have used big bold text for the title, same font and also same colours to make them match. I changed the contents to pink so that it shows it’s more aiming at the gender for girls/women between the ages of 15-26. I have used this age group as the magazine is revolved around the younger main stream stars. The colour pink shows this as it’s mainly a younger girl’s colour so this represents the age for this type of magazine. Another reason for the gender I chose is because of how I have used my ideas and also the layout. I have used stories and images of ‘Rihanna’ and her boyfriend, and made her the main image and also the main story of the contents page so that people know where to look for the best gossip on Rihanna as she is the best singer that the main stream fans love. This helps with the big titles of ‘Rihanna’. Not only does it show that she’s an amazing singer and shows all of her music and what she’s hoping to bring out in 2011, I also put a bit in about her kind of fashion so not only does it show one side of her music but it also shows what she likes to wear and what kind of fashion she is into so two topics are covered about her. This is good because this means that there is more to write about Rihanna so the more information the more people will be attracted to the magazine. To complete this, I have a small image of Rihanna and her boyfriend so that I am able to write more about her in the headlines of the magazine. I have also used the swirly typed writing on Rihanna so people are attracted to the main parts of my contents page, I also used this font so you get the feel of girlie type magazine and this is an attempt to appeal to the right target audience. This also helps with trying to relate the magazine to the main stream fans and also the gender so the type of people that would read this magazine feels as if they have the right magazine to relate to there needs in