Previous student work

Name of Product	What I thought were the strengths	What I thought were the weaknesses
VARISTY The grade that I would give the magazine is C	On the cover; I think that the strengths of the magazine was the contrast of the colours that were used (green and white) that is used on the front of the magazine, also the photo was central on the page so it pulls the reader in because the model on the front of the magazine looks like she is looking at the reader, also the front cover has all the necessary information that should be on a front cover (e.g. barcode, issue number, date, etc). The contents page is good because they carried on with the same colour scheme from the front cover and they give the subjects of stories that are mentioned in the magazine, and made it clear the number of the page. They also put relevant pictures to the stories that are told, also in the contents there are some advertising to subscribe to the magazine. On the double page they advertise the cd that is being talked about and put quotes and relevant photos to the article.	I thought that the weaknesses on the front cover were that they should have kept to the same font, to keep a recurring theme through-out the magazine, also the title of the magazine could have been more exciting to appeal to the audience. On the contents page the font had changed again, I personally think that it should have been kept the same as the font on the front of magazine. Also on the contents page I think that the images should have been made smaller and more information should have been wrote on, or more photos added instead of having large photos covering most of the page. On the double page spread I think that the weaknesses are that they have changed the font colour and the type of font used again, and also the title font has changed compared to the font used on the front cover for the title of the article, also the writing that follows under the title of the article goes right across the a4 sheet and then the next line starts and only goes half way across. Also I think that the title of the article should be at the top of the page and there should be a introduction paragraph of what is being talked about in the article.
FUNK The grade that I would give is a B	I think that the strengths on the front cover were the title, as it is different compared to the rest of writing on the front cover, and I like the image is the main part of the front cover, and stands right out to the audience. The colour theme is also very good, the use of black, red and white, this theme also carries on all the way through the magazine, which I personally think is better than changing half way through and makes it look more professional. The magazine also has all of the necessary information on the front, but it’s good because they don’t take up a big amount of space. The front cover tells you what you can find inside apart from just the main story. The contents page is good because it keeps to the same colour scheme and font, also it has the issue number inside and it tell you about subscribing to the magazine, and shows small images from some of the articles with page numbers on, but also holds a lot of information as well as just photos. On the double page spread its good because it still stays to the same colour and font theme also the title stands out and the image and it has a introduction to what is being talked about in the article.	I think that the weaknesses of the magazine front cover were that the picture was slightly blurred and more information could be held on the front cover, e.g. sub headers and information. I think that the contents page is very strong for a magazine but I think that the double page spread looks like it would attracted a young audience compared to the rest of the magazine (front cover and the contents) and also there isn’t much information in the article either, it’s quite a short article for being on a double page spread.
ETA	The strengths of the front cover are that it portrays the types of musicians that are shown in the magazine, this is good because it is a music magazine. I think that the strengths of the contents page is that the page numbers are more unique compared to other magazines that I have looked at before. It also shows the issue number. I think that the strengths of the double page spread is that it has a lot of information on the page.	I think that the weaknesses of the magazine are too much is going on, on the front cover of the magazine for it being a music magazine, I think that the weaknesses for the contents page is that it doesn’t tell the reader that it is a contents page and it doesn’t have the title of the magazine anywhere, also I personally think that the contents makes the magazine look very unprofessional because of the photos that have been used, most of them are blurred and the font doesn’t follow the same right the way through the magazine. Also there is a lot of left cover space.
UNHEARD I would give the magazine a grade D	I think that the strengths of unheard magazine front cover, is that they have a main image that is central on the page, it also has the main story across the middle of the magazine, which relates with the picture this is easy for the reader to see what the image is for on the front of the magazine. Also I like the colour theme that has been used on the front of the magazine, orange, black and white, this matches the colours that the model on the main image are wearing, also it has sub headers, saying about other things that can be read about in the magazine. And the magazine front cover has all of the relevant information that should be shown on the front of a magazine. The contents page is good because it has a logo of the magazine shown, and also tells the reader that it is a contents page, and the page numbers are clearly shown to the reader, and the same font is used, and near enough the same colour theme. Also relevant pictures with page numbers and information what is found on the page. On the double page spread is good because it also has the magazines logo on the pages, as well as page numbers and a main image which takes up the full background of articles. There is a clear title and header of the articles and also a kicker, which tells us what we will find in the article.	The weaknesses that I found on the front cover of the magazine is that there could have been more stories advertised on the front cover, but apart from that I thought that the front cover was generally good. On the contents page I think that there was too much going on for the reader and the contrast between the yellow colour where the page numbers and information about that articles were didn’t go to well with the orange and bage over the top of it. On the double page spread I think that the writing on the main part of the article should have been kept the same colour right the way through, instead of changing from white to black, also the image was quite blurry which could have been changed. Also the writing could have been moved up the page as it starts further down and it goes right to the bottom of the page, leaving hardly any room, and looks like it balancing on top of the page number and logo.
NEON TIGER I would give the magazine a grade U	I think that the strengths shown on the front cover of the magazine is that the they have all of the necessary information on the front (issue number, date, price and barcode). The strengths on the contents page is that it has all of the relevant page numbers. The double page spread has original images.	I think the weaknesses of the magazine is that on the front cover they don’t give the name of the people shown on the front cover, they use a lot of images and only one is their own image, and the rest are secondary images and there is no sub headers or information on the front of the magazine, it also doesn’t look like a music magazine it looks more like a gossip magazine by the colours that have been used (bright orange and neon yellow) Mainly all of the title is covered by the girls head and the own image is all pixelated. The weaknesses on the is that it doesn’t tell the reader that it is a contents page and they use loads of secondary images and use different types of fonts right the way through and on the information that tells the reader what is on each page is basically just artist and band names listed down the page, there is hardly information on the page, it is taken up by secondary images and on primary image. The weaknesses of the double page spread, is that the titles is on the opposite side of the page, so you read the article before you read the title and header, also the colours that are used are just bright  colours that wouldn’t attracted the reader. Overall the magazine isn’t good at all, and wouldn’t attracted the reader to read it.

I looked at other peoples work from previous years, that had done the same as what i am going to do, and then i evaluated it on this table by putting the weaknesses and strengths. By doing this it then enabled me to look into depth about things that I want to put onto my contents page, front cover and double page spread. It helped me to try and achieve a high grade for my magazines as I won't include what I have put in the weaknesses on my table and try and focus on the strengths of my work.