In this evaluation I
will be evaluating the preliminary task. The preliminary assignment was for me
to create a college/student magazine front cover and with it a contents page
for the magazine. For the evaluation I will be critically analysing the student
magazine, mainly focusing on the things that I did well and the other aspects
which I can improve on. In addition I will be reviewing the feedback I got from
the audience. The feedback from the audience will allow me rethink aspects of
my magazine and improve upon it; in turn this will help me will the main task
of creating my own music magazine from scratch.
Overall I do think that
my student magazine front cover and contents page was successful especially
since it was my first attempt on doing one. I the front cover was created on
Photoshop while the contents page was done on Indesign.
Using Photoshop to the
created the front cover for me was not especially difficult. This is mainly
because I do have previous experience with the software, although it was a
while since I have been using it. Because of this time lapse, I had to relearn
everything so it did probably take me longer to create the front cover than was
needed. I did feel as though I had a good enough handle on the basics of the
software, this could be shown by the different tools I used in making the front
cover. I used rulers in order for all the pictures and words to align, giving
the front cover a professional look. I used layers for each image and shortcuts
like CTRL-T in order to change the sizes of text Orin addition to this i also
used Photoshop to edit the background picture. I used basic text for my front
cover and my contents page. The reason i did was because i wanted the magazine
to have a professional clean-cut appearance rather than having a masthead that
looked like graffiti that would be illegible for people to read.
The
camera I used was compact cannon 12mp. The camera was used to capture images
that I would later then use for my front cover and contents page. I took many
different pictures, each one varying from scenery to camera angles like
mid-close up and long shot. Taking a variety of different shots allowed me to
have freedom in choosing what I would feel like doing. Eventually I did settle
on using an image of the college building. Although I had pictures with people
modeling in it, I didn’t feel as if it looked professional enough especially
seeing as I was treating this magazine as if it was a first issue. So I thought
by putting a picture of the college to rather than a random model, it would act
more like a symbol for the introduction to the premises of the magazine.
However I do feel as I could have given a lot more thought into what I wanted
the magazine to look like seeing as the taking of the pictures were sort of
spur of the moment thing, meaning that when it came to designing the front
cover and contents page I had to make do and improvise. In total I took roughly
10-14 images I then deleted the images that I didn’t think came out right, I
then took the pictures that I thought would configure a theme throughout the
front and contents page. For the contents page I used 2 images with the central
image being a mid shot of 2 students. I thought this would be appropriate as it
is a student magazine and also to create a student oriented theme with the page
I created.
The
magazines mast head is placed in the top center of the front cover. I stuck with
the traditional positioning of the mast head mainly because I wanted that to be
the thing that over headed the other things that featured on the front page.
The cover lines were was also pretty basic with all of them being on the left
hand third. I think I could have been a bit more inventive with the whole
magazine in general could have been better as everything was a bit recycled from
many magazines. The colour scheme was red and green, which is quite simple.
This colour scheme was used as a theme that connected the front cover and the
contents page together. My magazine’s front cover also has a big red price mark
of 49p on the right hand side.
Despite
the fact that I think my magazine was good, I do think there are areas in which
I can improve on, such as: the actual presentation of the magazine. This has
mostly to do with the fact that it the photography part of the assignment was
rushed and therefore left me unprepared with what I wanted to when it came to
create the student magazine. Another part of the magazine that could have been
vastly improved was the cover lines. This, I think was the biggest flaw of the
front cover. It looked too boring and the text on it looked dull, despite me
making it red and green in attempt to make it eye-catching. The contents page
looked to unprofessional, I think this was because the coloured rectangular
blocks perhaps made it look a little cheesy and amateurish. Although it was not
really an important aspect of the assignment I think the content listed on the
contents page could have more detail or to the very least have a list of a
variety of articles.
Write
three key points for development when producing the main task (music magazine)
·
One
of the main things I learnt from making this was the importance of time management
seeing as most of the issues I had with the student magazine was because a lot
of it was rushed. For the music magazine task I will be making sure that I
actually stay on schedule
·
My
skills and understanding of Photoshop and in particular Indesign, needs to be
improved in order for my music magazine to look as professional as possible
·
Lastly
I’d like to dedicate more time to exploring different ideas/magazine structures
and perhaps research more into my chosen genre (indie, acoustic rock) by looking
into magazines that are of similar genre
