LO4: Evaluation

When creating my magazine I feel I have incorporated the ideas I set out in my proposal well. I intended to create a magazine centred on the sport of football, particularly the youth side of the game and I feel like Top Corner Magazine has done this well; it includes detailed information about youth football and features interviews with future stars. Its intended purpose was primarily be to entertain the reader but also to inform them of young talent, aspiring footballers and possible stars of the future. I feel like the information I have included in my magazine helps it achieve this purpose well. I intended my front cover to feature the name of my magazine (Top Corner) at the top of the page in large, bold, san-serif font (as this is easier for the audience to read). I wanted my masthead to feature the top left section of a football goal frame as this has connotations of “top corner”, which is the name of my magazine. I also wanted the first “O” in the title to be replaced with a football to make it look like a goal is being scored in the masthead. I did use a large, bold, sans-serif font for my masthead; however adding the goal frame and the football made it look too cluttered and unprofessional. Instead I attempted to make my masthead as simple as possible to make it look more like something that would appear on a real magazine. Initially I intended my main cover image to be a long shot of the star of my main article (Joe Blair) about to strike a football towards the goal before the defender tackles him. After further researching real sports magazines I decided that a profile shot would be more effective on my front cover. On the front cover of my magazine I also wanted to add the title of the main article (Livin’ On A Blair) with a pull quote from the article underneath it. I achieved this aspect of my proposal well. 

I intended my contents page to display the page numbers of each article in the magazine down the left hand side of the page with the listings for the main articles highlighted in one of the house style colours to make it clear to the reader where the most important parts of the magazine are located. I achieved this aspect of my proposal well as I split my contents page in to sections using subheadings with 'housestyle coloured' boxes behind them. I added a 'housestyle coloured' shape behind the page numbers of key articles to make it clear to the reader where the most important articles located and I highlighted the entire title of my main article on my contents page. I also intended to add two images from the main two articles (a profile shot of Joe Blair and an image of Harry Greenwood making a tackle) at the bottom and the right hand side of the page to catch the readers attention and hopefully make them want to read the article as they want to find out more about the footballers pictured and see more images of them in action. I achieved this aspect of my proposal well as I created graphics on Photoshop to advertise my two main articles.

On the left page of my double page spread I wanted to include a short fact file including information about the player (Name, Age, date/place of birth, favourite professional player etc.) and an interview. I wanted to place a profile shot of Joe in the top left corner of the page next to the fact file to complement the introduction to the article. I also intended to include 2-3 other images of Joe actually playing football throughout the article. I intended the right page to feature one large image of Joe about to strike a ball with a text box in the top right corner that includes a summary/facts about the player’s current career. I did achieve all these points I set out in my proposal, however I did change my plans slightly. I did implement a fact file on the left page of my DPS. I also added the large image of Joe about to strike a ball on this page instead of the right page of my DPS. I also added the introduction to my article on this page and then added my main article and interview along with two secondary images onto the right page of my DPS

I intended the target audience for my magazine to be between the ages of 18 and 40 (as people between these ages are more likely to be interested in youth football as they may have friends are even children who play for the teams included in the magazine) who have a keen interest in all aspects of the footballing world, including the youth side of the game. I though the majority of my magazines readers would be male, most of who would be working full time (as watching football is not the cheapest of hobbies they will need a good job to be able to fund it) and would fit into the C2DE categories of the NRS social scale (as football is still considered to be a sport for the working class). I feel my magazine would appeal to my target audience well as it is written from a male perspective. It is written in a professional tone whilst using some colloquial language to engage the reader and some specialist terms relating to football to show the target audience that reading the magazine may be beneficial to them as it may extend their footballing knowledge. 

To create this pull quote graphic for my front cover, one of the tools I used was the drop shadow tool. This connotes meaning for my target audience as the drop shadow makes the pull quote stand out which will hopefully catch their attention. Also, the pose my model is doing in this graphic has connotations of action which will again hopefully catch the attention of my target audience.










In this image I used the magnetic lasso tool to select my model and remove the background. This ensures that the readers main focus is on my model and nothing else. This has connotations of a real sports magazine, such as FourFourTwo