M4, D1

Client brief:

You have been asked to produce a contribution to a sixth form media exhibition in the Summer term of this year on the themes of inclusion and community.

You are required to make one of the following media products to highlight or celebrate any issue or story that could be seen to meet any aspect of the two key themes of the exhibition.

Print based/graphics product

This could be, for example, one of the following:

A front cover and double page spread for a local magazine or newspaper

Strengths:

I have used a box out in the top right hand corner to show the cheap price of the magazine. this is because the price of the magazine is a unique selling point and it is something the audience need to know before purchasing it. by making the price cheap it may attract more people to give it a buy and read. I have used a box out elsewhere on the page saying '5-a-side edition' to further represent the genre of the magazine and to give the audience an idea of what will be inside the magazine. i made sure that the colours and the text contrast each other as well as an outline on the text box to make it stand out more. this is important because they are brief details of what is inside, so it is important to make them look bold and interesting. I also believe that AstroTurf background was a good idea as it looks a lot better and represents the magazines genre better rather than just a green background. The main tag says ‘the rise of 5-a-side’ which is also the name of the article inside of the magazine. This is a strength as it tells the audience what to expect if they decide to read the magazine.

Image editing:

I have had to edit all of the images that I have taken when inserting them into the magazine creation. For example, I had to brighten some of the images that I had taken, as I had taken one of them at night time and also one in the beaming sun light. For this I had to go into Photoshop as that has the tools required to allow me to edit the images to how I wanted them.

Layout:

I feel as though the layout of my magazine is very professional and tidy. The text boxes, titles and images all fit together and the pages don’t look cluttered. Also the colour scheme really represents the genre as the green AstroTurf background represents the 5-a-side football pitches.

Improvements:

 If I had more time I would make some improvements such as including some more photos to give even more of a visual representation. Images of 5-a-side players would be better as it shows the game in action to give the reader more of an insight of how the games are. Magazine readers also tend to not read text-heavy pages so more images will break up the text more effectively, making it an easier read for the reader.

Does my product meet the brief?

I believe my magazine does meet the brief that was set as 5-a-side football is a local and communitive hobby and the brief wanted me to make a magazine about the community and inclusion. I conducted a survey with some people who live local to the 5-a-side centre and I found that most people are interested in it, therefore I knew this would be a good idea for a magazine. The magazine represents inclusion as it encourages the reader to go and play at their local 5-a-side centre as it is good for their health and social life. I was also told that all content had to be produced by me, including the images, text and research. I did this by taking my own images, having my own ideas (thinking of my own title) and designing my own layout.

M3

The magazine I produced follows the codes and conventions of the football genre for several reasons. The front cover and article page on the double page spread both share the same conventions of bold and bright colours to make it stand out the reader. The bold text and large masthead are also common throughout my magazine and many of the same genre as I have researched this by looking at many other football magazines. e.g. FourFourTwo, MOTD Magazine.      I have included the masthead in a circle in the corner of the page with a background of AstroTurf on the home page and one of the article pages. I decided to make the background to be shown as AstroTurf rather than just a colour as this represents football, specifically because the magazine is about 5-a-side football and that is what surface it is predominantly played on. I saved and exported magazine pages as a jpeg file to make it into an image to make it easily to upload it to my online blog. The main image of the football on the front page is a strength as it is of a high quality due to the very good quality of camera on my smartphone.

On my double page spread I have included a page with just a main image of a football trophy. This is a main background image which fills the entirety of the page. I thought this would be effective as it clearly defines the genre whilst also being aesthetically pleasing. The images of both the football pitch and the trophy are both taken at night time as the night represents when 5-a-side football is predominantly played at.

The way I have presented my article. I have placed the article right below the image of the 5-a-side Goals pitch. This is effective as it shows the audience a visual representation of the 5-a-side centre. This is an extremely common convention in magazines so I decided to use it to make my magazine look more professional. I believe the articles length is appropriate as it isn’t too much text on one page as this may make the readers bored. I made sure not to make it too formal as this could also bore the reader. Microsoft Word has a tool to analyse the reading age of the text so I decided to test this as my magazine will be published to be read by any ages of those interested. It turned iut that my article could be understood by readers over the age of 7 which is highly beneficial to me to reach a wider audience. Another tool I used on Microsoft word was spell check to ensure no spelling errors occur to ensure it all looks professional and makes sense.

I included a splash to show an insight of the main article and what the magazine is about. I didn’t include too much information on the home page to intrigue the audience to read further.

I also included a tag to show the audience that the magazine isn’t just a standard football magazine, it is specifically for 5-a-side. This makes the magazine a bit different as the majority of football magazines focus on the mainstream football leagues such as the Premier League.

Below is a screenshot of the InDesign document including the dimensions for the page size and margins for the contents page.

Below shows how I opened up a new Photoshop document for my front cover with the correct magazine page sizes:

This is my article before it was inserted into the double page spread on InDesign:

No doubt 5 a side is growing every year but our job is to keep the growth going and 
encourage even more football enthusiasts to try it out. It is a great way of getting the 
locals involved with sports and it is also a very good socialising hobby. No matter your size, age, or even fitness, 5 a side can be for everyone! If competitive, small sided and skilful football is your thing then you might really want to consider 5 a side football. It can be a great way of getting an intense and enjoyable workout with a bunch of
 friends. Despite the official name ‘5 a side’ it’s often played by even four or seven 
players on each side, so however many of your friends there are you can still get
involved.

Goals are one of the UK’s most popular providers of 5 a side football as they have 46 centres nationwide and they continue to expand further. Their state of the art centres allows players to have a brilliant game of football on all weather, top quality 
AstroTurf surrounded by netting so your ball never goes out of play!  They offer
 multiple games of football including 5 and 7 a side tournaments and leagues 7 days a week. 
I got the chance to visit my local goals centre not too long ago and managed to 
interview a current 5 a side player. He said ‘It is a great opportunity to exercise with 
your friends, it has everything - fun, competitive, passion and motivation. I’d really 
like to see more teams join the leagues here’.


The double page spread of my magazine appears to fit the codes and conventions of the style of football/sports magazines. The spread features a masthead which is the same as the front cover as it links with the purpose of the article. I also have a defined sub heading which allows for the article to be easily interpreted as it is very self-explanatory. The DPS also features a considerable amount of imagery to support the article which is beneficial to fit the genre and conventions of magazines in general. The images themselves also share similarities with the football and sports genre as they feature 2 of the most important features of Football and 5-a-side; A football and a trophy. The article is set out into 2 columns which is another convention of magazines. This is an effective way of making the page not look too text-heavy as it splits the article up into 2.

The article for my double page spread links to the client brief as it revolves around involving the community in local sports. for example, it persuades local football enthusiasts to participate in their local 5-a-side leagues. This can bring together the community as hundreds of members can play together each day.