Magazine flat plans

Cover Flat Plans

This is the flat plan of my final cover. I decided to use this as the flat plan for my final cover page, I chose to use this because I liked the layout of the text and I felt that the image would represent the target audience effectively. The main story being highlighted by the ‘exclusive’ box is also a feature that I liked because it draws attention to the main story. Having a secondary image is also a feature I liked about this flat plan because it breaks up the text and this is something that will appeal to my target audience.

Although I liked the text, although I would have liked there have been more included. I felt the main reason that I didn’t go with this idea was due to the image. A non action medium close up, doesn’t represent my target audience as effectively as it possibly could, so I decided not to use this plan.

Although this cover flat plan has more text/stories on it and that is something that I wanted, the image still isn’t as good as I would like it to me. As well as this the issue number would ideally be positioned at the top of the page, along with the date. I also wanted the magazine web address along side the bar code. These are all reasons why I did not chose to use this idea.

 Contents Flat Plans

This is the flat plan of the contents page that I decided to use. I particularly liked this design because the image to text ratio is approximately 50:50. The images that I had planned to use were long action shots, these types of shot represent my target audience well. The lexis used has a semantic field of football e.g. “first half” and “extra time” these as headings of the stories works well because they are lexis that will represent and attract the target audience well because they will recognise these types of words of products that they like. I also like the fact that the two main stories, including the main one from the cover are advertise individually. 

I chose not to use this flat plan because the images I had planned to use were poor and wouldn’t represent the target audience as well as they could. I also didn’t like that the subscription box was at the top of the page because I feel that should be the first thing looked at. The other things I didn’t like were that there was too much text; these factors are why I didn’t use this plan for my contents.

The final idea that I came up with was very similar to the plan that I used. However, I preferred the positioning of the images on the flat plan that I decided to use, the text being beneath the first image is something that I didn’t like because I feel that the text should be one of the first things that you should see when you look at the page so needs to be higher up the page, that is why I didn’t use this plan.

Feature article flat plans  

This is the flat plan that I used for the basis of my final feature article. I used this because I like the layout, having the right hand page a whole image and the accompanying story on the left hand side. I chose this one because of the way it represents the target audience. Having the same name and similar title from the advertisement from the cover and contents page shows continuity, which will help the target audience recognise the story. The image is also something I like because it is an image that will represent that target audience well as it’s an action long shot that will represent the target audience as this type of image is something that is widely used on football magazines, which follows Bentley’s 1997 theory, “successful media products are from rearranging the old to create the new.” 

I didn’t use this flat plan because I didn’t like the positioning of the text. I prefer the masthead to be above the player name and then have some teasers beneath the masthead of the story and above the name of the player because the players name can be used to follow into the story/questioning. Also the image is something that I didn’t like because it isn’t an action shot, so the target audience aren’t represented as best they could be.

This was the feature article flat plan that I disliked the most. This was because I prefer the layout to have the text on the right hand page and image on the left. Similarly to the previous flat plan the layout of the text is something that also lead me to not choosing to use this plan to base my product upon.