Evaluation - Results Of My Magazine Contents

In order to fully complete my Preliminary Task I had to create a contents page to go alongside my magazine front cover. This was to be completed through the use of photoshop. Having previously written and posted about my draft copy for my contents page, I was happy to continue through and begin the process of producing my contents page.

STAGE ONE

Stage one began with me simply following the draft design I had previously made, again, I used the online website DaFont to create the title 'Your First Look'. I particularly liked the way the lettering panned out on this title design, it has been kept to minimal simplicity, aiming for a sophisticated look. I chose this to be the title of my contents page on the basis that it differs from other, showing a more creative idea, and also it allows the reader to feel engaged with what they are reading. It is the readers 'First Look' on the summary of the whole magazine. The puff underneath the title is a strap or tag line which follows on from the title of the contents page. It reads 'On The October Issue', therefore relating to the selling date of the magazine. I believe putting the words into the coloured puff allows for a different effect on the magazine. It makes it stand out to the readers eye and the colour contrasts well with the front cover of the magazine, as well as breaking up the page. Lastly, at the bottom of the page I added in a black and white swirled design, I believe this gives the page a different and sophisticated look. Following the design of my draft, I felt that having the page with just writing on would not appeal to my audience, but the swirled design adds an unexpected sense to the page.

STAGE TWO

In the second stage of the process of completing my contents page I have edited in the information on the contents page, as well as adding in an image and a puff around the title and labelling my page. For adding in the page number I simply used the text tool on photoshop, writing in block capitals for the words to stand out, yet positioning it in the corner because it is not vital information. The next stage was producing the picture behind the title, again still following through with the sophisticated theme, yet adding a slightly different twist. Because of this I ended up having to alter the title and place a lightly coloured puff behind in order for the text to be visable and to stand out. I think the colours go well together and compliment the background image therefore I was pleased to produce this as my title. The final stage before completing my contents page was to produce the actual content in clear information form. For the content of my magazine I wanted something that would be lighthearted but also contain nessecary information such as important upcoming dates for university open days. In total there are twelve pages to my magazine and this is clearly portrayed through the contents page. There are fashion and music sections, to key events and transportation as well as exclusive interviews from students themselves. Overall I was pleased with the completed outcome of my contents page and believe it compliments the cover page or front page well. This is my completed Premilinary Task.

Draft Ideas For Magazine Contents Page

With the first half of the preliminary task happily completed, I began to gather up my ideas for the second half of the task which involved creating and designing a contents page to go alongside my magazine front cover. Having the knowledge and research of other magazines contents, knowing they range from cluttered and full of information to simple and sophistacted I knew that I wanted my contents page to follow the same design as my front cover. Therefore, I wanted to release the feel of a sophistaced look so kept it simple. When planning out my design I kept it rough so that there would be room for error and improvement. Having the basis of my guidelines and the skills to create the contents page I was confident I could move on and begin a first draft. The image below is a screenshot of my first draft, showing the very basics of how I want my magazine contents page to pan out.

Evaluation - Finished Preliminary Task



FINAL FRONT COVER OF MY MAGAZINE 



The central Image above is a screenshot of photoshop which presents my final front cover of my magazine. As evaluated before it holds all the same information alongside the same stages of processing my magazine. After recieving positive feedback and end results from my media teachers I felt it could add a final touch, and that would be adding a bit of colour. Although previously stating that the grayscale colour allowed for an 'old school' style I felt that the contrast between the blacks greys and whites did not recieve the overall effect I was hoping for. Therefore I used the 'duotone' tool from photoshop to add in a touch of maroon like reds and lightly coloured mustard yellows. The overall effect this leaves, I believe, is greater than before, it breaks up the magazine, allowing for the puffs to have a sense of colour and to stand out more. Overall the use and knowledge of photoshop has allowed me to create this effect which is complimentary to my original starting draft ideas. This is my final desgin of my magazine front cover.

In future, for example when producing my media coursework - a music magazine, I will take the ideas and skills I have learnt front producing this preliminary task and take things further by ensuring I can make a better and more positive result. If I was to do this particular task again my first to ensure would be that the central image is taken with a good digital SLR Camera in order for the image to be clear and not pixilated when zoomed in or focused. For this task I used an ordinary camera which inevitably decreased the overall professional effect of the magazine. I would also look into focusing more on using the ideas provided by other magazine companies, although I used the idea of a fashion section taken from other magazines and produced onto my own, I feel I could expand on this to create a sense of professionalism. Again I would perhaps look into focusing using the magazine as a colour tool, instead of leaving the magazine set to a grayscale colour, or, like I did, using a duotone tool, I would leave the image as it once stood and add varitey of exciting colours to allow the reader to be more focused, however for this I was sticking to a sophistaced and formal aim and I think I have achieved this well.

As a final conclusion I am extremely pleased with the end result of my preliminary task - producing a school magazine cover. The audience, inevitably, was aimed at young female sixth form students. I think the use of reds and pinks as tones adds to the feminimity of the piece and particularly adding in the fashion style section allows for the audience to be narrowed down and to reach the female section of sixth form students. Having a specific age group, between sixteen and eighteen, allowed for the magazine to be slightly more sophisticated than if it were for younger school students, I think the exclusive cover story reaches the need for this. Also, as it was a school magazine I felt it needed to have some light hearted sections within it, therefore I presented the magazine with a section specifically dedicated to the latest music around. Lastly I felt the magazine needed to have a unique selling point, therefore, steming from my original ideas, I kept it 'old school', which I felt was achieved by the colour tone and the use of font types. However I believe its main difference from other students magazines is that it is written from the mind of a student itself, hence the strapline 'From An Insiders View'. I felt the audience would be able to relate to the magazine if it was written from a student. Therefore I feel I have met all the needs I originally set out and am pleased with the overall design of the magazine front cover, enjoying completing the task as well as expanding my skills on photoshop and opening up my mind to the world of media.

Evaluation - Results Of My School Magazine Cover

Witht the skills learnt from photoshop and the ideas to emulate magazine front covers I was able to produce my very own front cover of a magazine using photoshop and including all the key details such as a mathshead, a barcode, the date, puffs of information and a central image. The evaluation and key stages of this process are shown below;

STARTING IMAGE

On the left hand side here is the preview of the original image I used for my front cover. I especially picked out this image to be the central attraction of my front cover on the basis that it was simple and went well the title of my magazine cover which is explained below. When thinking about doing another magazine cover I will be sure to use a Digital SLR Camera in future because the image became slightly pixilated when zoomed in on photoshop. Overall this image worked successfully with my front cover.

STAGE ONE

Here on the right hand side shows the first stage of making my magazine front cover on photoshop. I originally had the idea of siding with a black and white theme because I wanted my magazine to be different and follow an 'old school' style. I thought this complimented the central image picture and allowed the magazine to look slighty more sophisticated. When comparing this image to the one shown above, not only has the colour contrast changed dramatically but I have used my photoshop skills to crop and erase the background so that the image of the girl is more prominant and the plain background can be filled with key details on information about the contents of the magazine. Overall I think the grayscale theme works well with the image and helps promote the style and theme I was heading for.

STAGE TWO

This image here is the representation of my second stage in the process of producing my magazine front cover. As clearly shown, it has come a long way from the image shown above. The first step was thinking and creating my magazine title, otherwise known as the mathshead. My main title for the magazine was chosen to be 'That Girl Daily' with a strapline promoting 'An Insiders View'. I have chosen these titles because I wanted the magazine to come from the view of a sixth form school student, therefore 'An Insiders View' is complimentary to both the title and the central image. I used a well known website called DaFont to create these titles, by copying, pasting and then applying to the image and multiplying so that it blends well with the background. The text fonts I used were 'Today' and 'Travelling Typewriter'. I used the website of DaFront rather than the text tool in photoshop because it allows a more varied option of text fonts to add variety to the magazine, using the 'text flip tool' I was allowed to add variety and have the writing going vertically down the page for a different effect. I think using two different types of text for the mathshead really makes the magazine original, and also sticks to the 'old school' theme. In stage two I have also added a barcode, date and price to the magazine as these are the key essentials to making a magazine more realistic. I have put the price in a darker grayscale puff in order for the cheap price of the magazine to stand out and have thoughtfully placed it by the title so it is noticable for the buyers to see. The last stage in this process was creating the background puff behind the text in the top right hand corner. I believe allowing the puff to go behind the text allows for a more varied look and although it is being covered, makes it stand out more. Inside the puff reads 'Bringing You Your Weekly Edition'. I have chosen to put this in my magazine because I believe it makes it more personal, the use of personal pronouns allows for the reader to feel more engaged and essentially wanting them to buy the magazine. The 'Weekly Edition' allows the reader to know that the magazine is produced on a weekly basis. I chose the choice of having a star shaped puff to add a greater effect on the magazine which works well. Overall I was really pleased with how the first few stages of my magazine were coming along and how my knowledge of photoshop and websites such as DaFont has allowed me to create a sophisticated effect to the overall magazine.

STAGE THREE

Stage three in the process of making my magazine mainly involved adding the information of the contents of my magazine. Firstly, at the bottom of the magazine I used the 'Text Tool' in photoshop to create a simple but clear website link address. It reads 'Feature Stories Now Avaliable Online At www.ThatGirl.Blogspot'. The main reason for adding this feature was not because it was an important piece of information to get across, it was because the magazines audience is aimed at young sixth form students and the youth of this century are extremely familiar with the avaliabilty to internet access that it was more of a promoting point for the magazine to help attract the younger readers. Therefore it is has been positioned at the bottom of the page on the left hand side so it clearly notable yet not a feature point. I especially like the way the text covers part of the central image aiming for more effect, again sticking to the grayscale theme. After following through with lots of research on the emulation of magazine front covers, I mainly picked out the point about how I liked the fashion ideas to stand out on the front covers. Good examples of these are 'Look' magazine, 'Heat' magazine and 'Teen Vogue'. Therefore my inspiration came from these magazines and so I added a fashion style part to the front cover. 'The New Mix For Autumn Trends' was the catchline I used to promote my fashion style part. I designed this magazine around the time of autumn and so the theme connected to this. For this I created a Text box in microsoft word and used a light 'Broadway' font in 'Italics' to create a different typewriting effect. I then used the copy and paste technique, cropping and then selecting and multiplying to get it to the professional standard it is now. By this point my magazine was really starting to come together and look professional, I believe it was beginning to hit and aim for reaching the needs of its target audience which was young female sixth form students aged between sixteen and eighteen.

STAGE FOUR

Stage four was the final stage before my magazine was initially checked by my media teachers. By this point I was almost finished, I had included the esstential details a magazine needs such as the date and the barcode and the price, I had used key skills and knowledge of photoshop to create different fonts of text which stand out to the reader, and including ideas from magazines I had previously carried research out on. So for my concluding part I decided to add an 'Exclusive' story and an image on which I imported along with some more inserted text. Through research on other magazines and through my own knowledge and understanding of media texts it was an obvious point that each and every magazine had at least one cover or feature story. Therefore I included one in my own. I had the word 'Exclusive' written underneath the date on my magazine which is almost directly under the headline, the reason for this positioning was because it needed to be recognised. Therefore I used a clear font, and placed the words in 'bold' to make it stand out, I also used the text tilt tool on photoshop to make the positioning of the word titled so it can again, stand out. I then inserted another grayscale puff onto the magazine which is the exclusive cover story, in order for it to stand out I wrote the words in block capitals and used the words to make the reader feel more engaged, 'Why Pride And Prejudice Worked For Me'. Lastly to fill the last gap on my magazine front cover I used an image of a music note, it was small enough to not block out the central image but not so small that it wasn't notable to the readers eye. I think the image of the music note promotes the less formal part of the magazine, 'Including The Latest Must Have Tunes To Get You Motivated'. As the magazines audience is young students, and I am trying to make the point that the magazine is written and produced by a student, it comes as no surprise that people will be interested in the music inductry and what they produce. Therefore I added in this section to help get the readers wanting to buy the magazine, again using personal pronouns to make them feel a part of it. Handing in this as an initial front cover, I was pleased with the overall result. I had stuck to my 'old school' theme and used different tools and targets to create different effects. 

Draft Ideas For School Magazine

After having completed a few careful analysis' of magazine front covers and ideas for emulating them, I have created a draft as a rough template for what I would like my final front cover to be. It is the first stage of my rough draft as I need to prepare time to find and picture my central image. As shown below there is a very vague template in which I will put towards to my final assignment. I will use this as a clear guideline to how I want my magazine to be presented.   

Familiarising With Photoshop

As the weeks draw closer to having to think seriously about our preliminary assignment task, I have in spare time made adaptions to a photo of my choice on photoshop. Although this will not be the image I will be using on my front cover, I found myself needing to understand properly how photoshop works and the skills and tools you need to edit pictures. The image shown below is a screeen shot of my work, after successful use with the tool bar given in photoshop. In the future I will carry through these skills with me to ensure that my magazine cover is presented as professionally as can be.

Along with this I have also had a go at using the filter gallery provided in photoshop, where I altered many photos to create different styles which can then be taken forward when using my magazine as it needs to be colour and exciting to gain the younger audiences interest. There are some examples shown below;

 

Emulating Magazine Front Covers

Over a series of lesson I have looked closely at the way in which magazine front covers are presented and how they meet their audience needs. As shown below I have complied a detailed analysis of an 'Elle' magazine front cover, it is this work however (shown below) which has allowed to make clear comparisons on different types of magazines, thus allowing me to have a clearer idea on how I would like my school magazine front cover to be presented.

I particularly like the magazine presented on the left here featuring Jennifer Aniston. It is eye catching and gives off a refreshing yet contemparary style. I will look at emulating this sort of style in my later magazine as coursework.

After looking directly at the specific features presented on a magazine front cover, of all ranges, it has become clear that the mathshead of the magazine is the part in which makes a stand. It is normally partially covered by the main image, have been successful enough for its audience to know what magazine it is. The main features on a magazine include eye catching commentary and exclusive insights as to what the magazine will entail.

After careful consideration and analysis I have decided that I will plan and put forward my ideas of making my own school magazine for the higher end of the school, preferably sixth form, this way I will allow it to have a sophisticated outlook yet keeping it classic with an 'old school' style.