Double Page Spread Final

Question 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GruBjrczxf0&feature=youtu.be

Question 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuTqB_pCuTY&feature=youtu.be

Question 7

  Masthead – As you can see, on both cover the masthead is large and stands out, the fonts are both quite simple but the Star one is much better and there is clear improvement. The use of colour stars and basic editing such as separating the t makes it a lot more visually appealing.

Cover Lines –The Star cover lines are a lot more attractive than the ones from the preliminary task, the use of boxes, fonts, colours and lines make it more appealing than others which are quite dull and luck lustre.

Cover Image – The cover image is probably the largest improvement between the two covers. The positioning of the subject, the way he is facing and the composition of the photo are all a lot better in the second cover.

Title – The title is extremely different and has improved greatly. In the original, it is dull and boring and lacks colour, but in the developed version on the right the title is bright and bold and appeals to the target audience well. 

The layout has dramatically improved with less white space, which is filled with text, colour and images. This makes the layout more appealing and increases the aesthetics of the page. I think the use of images is really effective as oppose to in the prelim task I had only text and small icons on the page. 

Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process I had to take multiple photo shoots, as the products required a lot of images so I felt I learnt quite a lot about photography within media, but mainly magazines. Through other subjects I feel my photography skills were already quite developed, although I still gained a lot of information about music magazine specific photography. When taking the first shoot for my front cover image I did not know much about the codes and conventions of a photo in the front of a magazine cover which reflected in the quality of the photographs, but after research I felt I had gained quite a knowledge of the exact type of image required and in the second and third shoot’s I had taken many more usable, professional looking images for my cover. Overall I did learn a lot about photography with a music magazine, such as the subject pose and positioning, lighting, where the subject is facing, and also the composition of the photo.

When it came to using software on the computer I think I learnt the most, especially in InDesign as I had never used the programme before, although during the process I selected to use Illustrator often as I already had a good knowledge of the software. This resulted in not using Photoshop as much, although when I had to edit my images I found Photoshop extremely helpful, and throughout the process I developed a lot of skills using the software. When using InDesign I found that I would learn something every five minutes and over a period of time I found myself using the software very comfortably which definitely helped hen making my double page spread.

During the process there were a lot of challenges that had to be overcome to produce all three media products. Firstly I found taking my cover photo quite challenging and I ended up doing 4 separate photo shoots to achieve the perfect cover photo.  Originally I used a photo from a shoot in the park as my cover image, although after poor feedback I changed it to suit my demographic more. I then took two more shoots, one of which was outside and the other inside, against a white backdrop but when uploaded to the Mac I encountered a number of problems in Photoshop, such as the quality of the photo and the inability to crop the image using Photoshop. So I found an existing cover with a similar demographic and used the image as inspiration for my own photo.

I encountered several problems when using software to create my products, but I found I overcame them relatively quickly. For example, I had multiple problems when trying to get my cover image into Illustrator, which was the software I was using for my cover as the layering options available in Photoshop were not in Illustrator so I had to create several parts in Photoshop and copy them over at the right time.  Another problem of a similar nature I encountered whilst creating my double page spread, as on InDesign the editing software isn’t as good as in Illustrator a had to create different parts on different programmes than afterwards, bring them all together.

During the process I have encountered many different technologies, including; Blogger, Slideshare and Prezi, I have learnt a lot about these and many others throughout creating my media products. Firstly I was shown how to use Blogger, it is an extremely useful technology for storing all my coursework in a form that is easy to go through and read. From using it I learnt a lot, mainly how to use it effectively, but also I learnt that blogging is an effective method of communicating information or work so that it is visible by other people.  Another technology I used in this process was Prezi, at first I found it confusing but after a while I found it relatively easy to use. Prezi is another effective method of communicating work or information online so that it is easily reachable by other parties. I found that Prezi can be used to create presentations, mind maps and much more, but it is more aesthetically pleasing than just a normal PowerPoint. 

Question 4

Question Four

Question 3

Question Three

What media institution might distribute my media product from slewis96

Question 1

Question 1

Almost done!

I've now finished my three media products, i just need to do my evaluation

Double Page Spread

Contents Page Final

Contents Page 4

I then added a screenshot of the front cover and rearranged the images and format to make it more appealing for my target market.

Contents Page 3

Next I added the text for the the other articles in the magazine, I included coloured rectangles to separate the text and make it more visually appealing to my target audience.

Contents page 2

Next I added the images from my various photo shoots to represent different articles in my magazine. I thought this was a really effective way of communicating information without just using text, as this will appeal to my demographic more.

Contents Page 1

This was the start of my contents page. I opted for a gradient background as it adds interest to the page as appose to have a basic solid colour background. 

I also designed the title so it wasn't really boring and dull so i filled in the gaps in some of the letters and put it on a colored rectangle, the colour was taken from the front page.

Magazine Cover Final

Magazine Cover - 6

At this point i felt i was close to finishing , although after receiving more feedback i decided to add more on the right hand side of the main image as there is too much white space there. So i added a star shape with a competition and also another cover line.

Magazine Cover - 5

I edited my cover line as I thought they were too bland and dull, and there was too much white space. 

As you can see, I've increased the font size and also the tracking so there is less white space around the typography. I added extra information underneath the the cover lines in a smaller, different font and also changed the colour to reduce white space and make it more colorful. Also after researching existing covers, I added small pink lines to separate the cover lines and it also adds colour to the page. 

Magazine Cover - 4

Next I added cover lines, my main cover line is about a fictional pop star called 'Joe Blue' so used his surname in creating the cover line 'Blue is the colour'. I used blue as the secondary colour in the cover as it works well with the pink and also fits with his name. 

        

I used a blue rectangle as it separates the main cover line from the additional text and it looks more interesting than basic blue text on a white background. The other cover lines are grey in colour as it looks quite clean and sharp and doesn't distract from the main colours and imagery. Although  I think they are too bland for my demographic and there is also too much 'white space'. 

MagazineCover - 3

After receiving feedback, I chose to change my masthead as the font was too thin and in a shop amongst many other magazines the masthead wouldn't stand out. 

I have opted for a a larger, thicker font so it will stand out more. At first it was quite dull and boring so after some time editing I ended up with a final masthead which I am pleased with, and also received posotive feedback from my demographic.

Magazine Cover - 2

Next i created the masthead, which i took from my previous front cover. I'm not sure if im going to use this masthead as it is quite thin and doesn't stand out much.

Magazine cover - 1

It took quite a while to crop the photo and layer it over the boxes of colour as i wanted to create the cover in 'Abobe illustrator' as appose to 'Photoshop' so i had to create it in Photoshop and copy it in to illustrator which left me at this point.

Restarting front cover

I've decided to create a completely new design for my front cover after receiving feedback from customers in my demographic. I am going to use an existing magazine cover that has similar target market as a templete for my design.