Billboard construction

The first thing I did was to put my chosen image into Photoshop. I chose this long, action shot. I felt this connoted my target audience perfectly. Once I put the image into Photoshop. I used the transform controls to fit the image to the right size of the document.

The next thing that I did was to add my masthead. I added this and then again used the transform controls to make the masthead bigger so that it was 1/8^th of the page and fits with connotations you would expect to see on a billboard.

I then added a banner using the rectangle marquee tool, to give it a less square shape, I used the polygonal lasso tool in order to cut the end off. I then used the gradient fill tool with the colours yellow and white fading from left to right.  I then used the text tool to add the release date and a line about my product.

The next thing that I did was to add an image of my print product, as when I did my audience research the feedback I got back wanted to see this. I first created a box using the rectangle marquee tool to back the image. I used the fill tool to fill the colour yellow to fit with my colour scheme. I then added the image over the top, leaving a border for the image, which helps it to stand out. I used the transform controls in order to shrink the image down to a suitable size.

The final things that I added were logos of Facebook and twitter as well as my website address. I added these because they were common conventions and I thought in order to complete my product, they should be included. In also shows media conversion and that my product can be available on different media platforms. I used the text tool to add my address and use the colour tool to make the text white, which continued to follow my colour scheme.

Double page spread construction

The first thing I did was open a Photoshop document in A3 size. The first thing that I did was adding yellow bars to the left hand side of my page using the rectangle marquee tool. I positioned one down the left side and one that comes into the page that the title would be positioned on. The next thing that I did was to put the image that I was going to use into Photoshop. Once I had done this, I cropped the image and then used the transform controls in order to stretch the image and used the move tool to position the image on the right hand side of the page.

The second thing that I did was to add the masthead. The masthead was ‘A dream come true’. This was added using the text tool in myriad pro font. I used this as my masthead as it can be easily recognised from my cover and contents as they advertise the story talking about living the dream.  I made the masthead 1/8 of the page in order to stick to conventions. Beneath this, I used the text tool again to write some teasers, which were also the questions asked. I used the same font, but the text was smaller than the masthead. I made the teasers alternating in boldness in order to draw attention to them. The next step was to add the name of the boy that the article was about. I put this in a larger font than the teasers and masthead. This was because it would be recognisable from the cover and contents pages. For the main body of I wrote in text boxes using the text tool in myriad pro, again. I used the grid tool to make sure that all of my text was in line.

The final thing that I added was a fact file on the right hand side of the page to add more to the page than just text and an image. I made this using the rectangle marquee tool, to create a black box shape. I then put text over top of it using the text tool. I used the colour pallet to make the text yellow so that it would stand out and continue my colour scheme throughout my whole magazine. I also followed another common convention of double page spreads by adding a page number. I created a yellow circle using the ellipse tool. I made this shape yellow, once again. I then added a number to it using the text tool.

Contents construction

The first thing that I need when I began my contents page construction was open an A4 paper size Photoshop document. I then added the two images I was going to use, one that went across the width of the bottom of the page. The second image went up the left hand side of the page. Whilst in Photoshop, I added a brightness filter in order to make the bottom image brighter to draw attention to it.  Now I had positioned the image I was ready to put the stories and masthead on the page.

The next step was to add the mast head. I added the masthead into the top left hand corner. The masthead didn’t need to be as prominent as on the cover page as the consumer will know what the product is, however adding it to the contents page helps to add continuity and is a popular convention. The next thing I added was the word ‘contents’ and the issue number. I added these in the top left hand corner as they are designed to be the first thing that is looked at when looking at the page. These are both conventions that you would expect to see on a contents page. 

The next thing I did was used the box tool to create 4 rectangle boxes, that would back the heading for the different sections of magazine. I then added titles to these, all of the words added have a semantic field of football, “Extra time”, “second half”, “first half” and “features”. I added these suing the text tool. I used a simple font that would connote the target audience. I maintained the yellow and black colour scheme from the cover to give continuity throughout my products. I then added the page numbers in the same gold colour as the mast head, and contents page. Numbers are a key convention as they tell the reader how to navigate the magazine and where what story is. I then added the stories using the text tool; I continued the same theme from the cover of having the title of the stories slightly bigger than the description so that they would stand out. 

The final thing that I added was page numbers and teaser quotes for the stories than accompany the images. The top right image is from the main cover story and it gives another teaser of the interview and there is a quote from the interview on the image, alongside the page number. These teasers are another common convention of contents page as they trying and get readers to read the story.

I was happy with my final product, but if I was to do it again, I would spend more time collecting more quality images and make the contents page busier, so that I could attract my target audience better



Upon reflection of my final product, I decided that it wasn’t as professional and as good as I could make it. As a result of this, I made some changes in order to increase professionalism and make my product look better.   

The first thing that I did was using the move tool was move the masthead to above the word ‘contents’ I reduced the size, which breaks conventions, but I felt it was better for my product and the look. Another reason that I moved the masthead was to allow more space on the main image for page numbers and teasers to take up more room and look more attractive. The second thing I did was to underlay and image of a football in the top left hand corner. This gave a better look to my magazine because it broke up the text and enhanced the genre representation. For my banners behind my feature titles, I created a new layer. I used the rectangle marquee tool to make the rectangle shape, selected the colours yellow, from my masthead, and white and using the gradient fill tool filled them from left to right, to give them a faded texture look. I then copied the layer 4 times and moved the boxes to the place I wanted them and positioning them behind the text.  Another thing I did was to add a subscription box using the rectangle marquee tool with reduced opacity and then added text, using the text tool and a screenshot of my print cover. This was added because it is a common convention and was something that I thought was a necessity after I had revaluated my product. This would enhance the professionalism of my product.  The final thing I did was to add black rectangles and then reduced that opacity so that it would enhance the names in my stories to make the memorable and recognisable.