Why Are Headlines Important?

     Headlines are essential to an entire spread. They are the first copy that the readers see and are attention grabbers. A headline is made up of two parts: a teaser and a teller. The teaser visually and/or verbally attract readers while the tellers provide brief information on the topic. You can use different types of hooks in your teaser, including puns, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and homonyms. The forms of headlines are:

• Kicker (one line of secondary above primary)
• Wicket (two or more secondary lines above primary)
• Tripod Pattern (two or more secondary lines beside primary)
• Hammer Pattern (one or more secondary lines below primary)

     I tried making a headline of my own using a hammer pattern with a pun teaser. This is what I came up with:

How To Prepare For An Interview

     The rough draft for our articles was coming up and we needed to start getting our interviews. I learned how to utilize open-ended questions, ones that cannot be answered in one word (yes or no), what information to look out for, and how to spot potential quotes. One tip I was given was always asking the interviewee to spell their name to avoid any misspellings in the publication. We also learned how to make questions off the top of our heads. 

   We were later given an assignment of 15 open-ended questions we could use for our magazine. Here's mine:

Preparing For The CCR

      Throughout early February, we began to discuss our CCR (Creative Critical Reflection) for component 1. We analyzed the four questions that we would be asked and how to answer them. This questions are:

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups and issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware, and online - in this project?

As the class bounced ideas off of each other, we took notes on what we needed to know. Here are the notes I took:

Importance of Copy

     Winter break has ended and we're back at school! When we got back, we did a group activity on copy (text used in a publication). Each group was given a picture book and was told to analyze it twice, once with copy and once without. My group was given "The Bear Ate Your Sandwich." This activity taught me just how important copy was. Without the text, there were cases where our group didn't understand the meaning of the pictures. An example of this was when the bear was dancing but without the text, it looked like a family of bears having fun instead of just one.

    We were then given a discussion question on why copy was important. Here's what I said:

Designing The Table of Contents

    After completing my layout and cover, the final piece I needed was a table of contents. I had to choose between a weekly or a monthly magazine so I knew how much information needed to be on this page. I ended up choosing a weekly. In my table of contents, I needed to include the following:

• Title of Magazine
• Date of Issue
• Volume/Number of Issue
• Folio
• An "On the Cover"
• A "Today's Weekly"

     Designing this layout was my favorite part of this project so far and I am very happy with the results!

   

Designing A Cover

    Now that I had my layout complete, I needed to make my cover. I learned that a cover must include the following items:

• Dominant Photo
• Headline
• Title
• Secondary Photos
• Secondary Headlines
• Barcode
• Address Label
• Publishing Date
• Price

    I knew that I still needed to use the elements of the design that I learned in my cover. This was probably the easiest part of my magazine to create. 

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Designing The Layout

      Now that I knew how to work StudioWorks, it was time to begin creating my layout. For my magazine, I will be making a two-page spread (one entire topic that covers two pages across from each other). I began learning different elements of design including the use of dominant pictures, secondary coverage, margins, captions, and white space. I was also taught how to use micro, conventional, and macro spacing.

    Soon after, I studied different fonts and coverages. I completed assignments that allowed me to choose which coverages and fonts I would like to incorporate into my magazine. I used the visual/verbal connection tactics I learned in class. The example I came up with was the words "unsolved secrets" with a photograph of a crime scene and confused policemen.