RESEARCH: Research into similar products - magazines.

Balamory magazine

Layout: 

The layout of this magazine is quite cluttered, but this helps attract the children as they love having lots of fun things to do. The route of the eye firstly travel through the tag line at the top, "bbc free giant poster, map and 2 gifts" this is very well done and will attract children. The word "free" is bold and bright yellow, drawing attention to the fact something is free, then its telling you whats with the magazine, and then says and 2 free gifts. The fact that the 2 is circled and stands out more suggests that getting they want to draw attention to the fact there are 2 free gifts. The route of the eye then travels through the masthead, which is bold and using different colours, which will attract the children. The route of the eye then travels into the Cbeebies logo, this will encourage children who like cbeebies to buy this magazine even if they have not seen Balamory, because they may like other Cbeebies programmes.The route of the eye then travels through the female character, she is shown to be smiling and waving, also wearing the clothes she would in the programme, this will help attract children because they will remember the character by her clothes, also because she is happy and children may aspire to be like her. The last thing seen by the route of the eye is, "story, colouring, puzzles, fun" these are all typical things children like to do so by mentioning them it will increase the chances of the children being attracted to the magazine. It's also giving an insight into what the magazine includes. The three characters are placed on the hotspots of the magazine, this is effective because it gives the impression that all the characters are of the same importance, rather than having one character in the middle which dominates them all. This incourages the attention to be drawn to all of them. The way they are all dressed in their normal programme clothes is effective because the children will recognise them and immediately associate them to the programme. In the primary optical area, there is a balloon which reads, "make butterfly wings" this will also help attract attention to the magazine, because children like insects, and could often thing they will become a real butterfly if they make the wings. The idea of it being in a balloon just empahasises the idea of fun for the children.

Colours:
 The colours used in this magazine cover, are mainly pinks and blues, showing that its for both the male and female target audience, as blue is sterotypically a boys colour and pink for girls. The masthead is in multicoloured, which children could assosicate with a rainbow, which they like and get excited by. The characters are dressed in different colours which make them stand out from the background, showing they are more important. The policeman would be sterotypically seen by the children as a hero, which is probably why they have used him on the cover of this magazine. The characters are represented as being fun, which will help respresent the programme as being fun. Josie Jump is represented as being happy and sporty, Pc Plum is represented as being happy yet authoritive and the third character is just represented as being happy. The speech ballons also stand out as they are different colours to the background.

Fonts:
The fonts used are simple as the target audience is children, and they need to be simple and easy for them to read. Some of the fonts used are the same used on other balamory things, eg the tv programme, this is effective because then the children can assocaite them as all being together.

Images:
 Two of the images used are mid shots, showing what the characters are doing/wearing, i think the reason for this is because the children may remember the character by its clothes or props, rather than their faces. Whereas the shot of the lady is close-up so you can see the impression on her face. The image of the butterfly is created by special effects, its bright and colourful and is lacking detal, although the children will probably see it as being real.

Conventions:
Conventions are followed through this magazine cover. This has been achieved through their bright use of colour, images of characters recongnised by the children from the tv programme. It is clearly shows evidence of the right target audience being children of both sexes.