Final Contents Page - Preliminary Magazine

I have completed my preliminary magazine's contents page, in which I used In Design to create:

Evaluation:

1) What went well with photography?

In terms of photography, I used the same photos that I took from when I shot for the front cover of my magazine, therefore the same basis applies here from the evaluation of my front cover.

2) What did you learn about using the software?

I learned variety of new techniques whilst using In Design. I mainly learnt how to insert text into columns, using the template given. I also learned how to frame images onto the page. Furthermore, I learned how make placements from Photoshop not look so blurry, by using the 'overprint preview' tool. Though this took me a long time to grasp, as I didn't know how to fix it. I tried doing the images and title separately, and doing it all on In Design. However, the outcome was that my contents page looked more unprofessional.

3) What do you think of what is produced?

In comparison to my front cover, I don't think this looks as good nor as professional. I don't like the blank spaces in the background, yet when I tried to add a background it looked quite tacky. I think overall it's not the best piece I could of created, but In Design was very hard to grasp.
 I think if I had further knowledge, I would try to utilise space more effectively, and try to make all the different aspects of the contents flow together, rather than them looking so separated.

4) Why did you choose to do what you did and how much of an effect did the audience research have?

I chose the colour scheme, because it correlated well with my front cover, yet the subtitles/ titles for the different features of the magazine are in orange to stand out and grab the reader's attention. I used orange also because it contrasts with blue, making the page look bright and sectioned.
 I also chose to have images on the page, as it breaks up all the text, and makes the page more easily navigated.
 The audience research made a big effect, because it meant I had more knowledge on how to create a contents page, and also it meant I had a template to inspire off of. This actually inspired me to use images like I did, and having correlating numbers to the images, to make my page easily navigated.

College Magazine Contents Page (Flat Plan)

On a word document, I made a flat plan of how I want my College Magazine contents page to look like, using my favourite research contents page as a template.

This is how it worked out:

 

I used a similar colour scheme, but I also used three images that correlate with the articles below, in which it gives the audience a sneak peak to what they may find in the magazine.

Preliminary Magazine Contents Page - Research

The next step with my preliminary magazine for the college is the contents page, but before I create it I want to research into how a contests page should look, and what elements I should include into my own. These were the top three that I found:

The first one I like for the colour scheme, I think it's very easy to navigate with the bold colours of the titles and numbers, and it still gives you a description of what the article will be about. Furthermore, I like how the pictures properly correlate with the articles issued due to how it has the page numbers on where to find the specific picture. This also makes the magazine easier to navigate.

The second one I like as the articles go down vertically, yet it has enough room for a small description of each article. Not only this, but it has a strict colour scheme which I like, and gives it a rough edge to it - something that could be a theme to the magazine. It is almost like it is a rock magazine or something similar. Ultimately, it has bold titles for navigation, and alike the first contents page, it includes images that can be used for finding an article.

Lastly, the third contents page I like, because it differentiates the colours between the numbers and the titles of the articles. It also has a minimalistic attribute to the page, so it won't confuse anyone and will be easy to navigate.

Although I think that these are the best in my opinion, we had a class poll to see who liked which contents page. These were the results:

The covers:

Preliminary Magazine Research

During the making of my preliminary college magazine, I chose on three example college magazines for research purposes. The top three were:

I like the first one because of the explosion of colours and the ripped look about it. It gets my attention to the cover, and makes me intrigued to know what else is in the magazine. It is quite different too, as it doesn't have photos as such. This isn’t something I could interpret for my preliminary magazine as it does not have a medium-close shot.

The second one I like, because it has a nice picture in the middle which grabs my attention as it’s so pleasing to look at. The person is smiling and looks relaxed, giving me the impression of college being ‘stress free’. This is something that I could base my preliminary magazine off, because it has a medium-close shot that is required. This also has some detail because it includes a barcode and an issue number.

The final magazine I liked because of the picture also, it looks interesting and catches my attention as I want to know why the person is posed like that. This also includes a barcode, but also some another photo that could catch the viewer’s eye.

 

Preliminary College Magazine Cover

I have created my first draft for my preliminary college magazine cover, in which I took photos from around the college and used them for my front cover. This was my first attempt at using Photoshop and learning the basic skills that I will evolve from to be able to complete my music magazine.

This is my evaluation of my cover:

1.What went well with photography? What could have been better?

When taking the photographs I went over to the fresher's fair that was on during the college to take photos of the stalls that were there. Unfortunately, by time I got there, it was closed and I had to work with what I had. I used blank walls for a background, and tried to use some props to make more interest. Furthermore, I used wall art for interaction, making things more relatable - especially for when adding captions. Although we had a lot of ideas, some were not executed correctly, hence having some blurry photos that we couldn't of used. It was unfortunate but we still had some that we could in fact use, and looked well took. This was mainly of people.

2. What did you learn about using the software?

I had never used Photoshop before, therefore it was a new skill I had to learn. This meant starting from the basics, and making my way up to more difficult techniques. I mainly learnt how to use layers, and how adding a new layer to each bit of my cover would be more beneficial, as it meant I could change my mistakes, rather than having them all merge and it being difficult to move around certain bits without moving others. I also dipped into the 'blending options' when adding my pictures and text. It made it much easier for text to stand out against the background (especially the title), but it also helped when I wanted some of the images to blend into the main image. Though I had many successes with learning how to use Photoshop, I still had many struggles with either remembering how to use a tool, or even just knowing how to use it. This seemed to be with tools like the crop tool, yet to over come this I just tried cropping my images outside of Photoshop to make things easier, and then placing them into a new layer later on. Something that I'd like to improve on, is definitely my blending of images into the background. This is something that I could sometimes do, yet other times it would not be as successful, and I hope to learn how to improve as I do my music magazine.

3. What do you think about what was produced?

  I believe that my cover uses simple skills due to the placing of the articles, and the colour scheme that I chose. I used mainly blues and whites for the colour scheme, because that was the background of my main focused photo, creating a blend of all the sections on the cover. Although simple, I like my cover because of it's colour scheme, I think it co-ordinates well. and I blended the images well for my amount of knowledge. I added details like the barcode and the prior logo, to make the cover more realistic. Furthermore, I added appropriate captions to the pictures to correlate and get the reader's attention, as the pictures are relevant to college life at the moment. - Something that I believe makes the cover more convincing as a college magazine. I believe it's successful for the requirements, because it uses a medium-close shot. However, my college magazine cover isn't that professional due to the simplicity of it, and how it is quite sparse. If I had further knowledge of Photoshop, I'd try blend the student reception imagine into the picture more. Moreover I need to improve on my composition of images and text, because I don't think they're perfectly placed. I also think it misses a finesse that the other college magazines I looked at had, as they usually had a running theme to the magazine to make it all link together.

4. Why did you choose to do what you did, and how much of an effect did the audience research have?

I chose to use a picture of a student smiling as my main image, because I believe that gives an impression to the audience that college is fun and friendly, and shouldn't be something to be upset about. I learned this whilst researching other college magazines, when I came across a magazine with another smiling girl on front, and it was a defining feature of the magazine. I also chose to use recent topics that have risen up within the college, as it makes the magazine more relevant and relatable to the students that may be reading. These were things like Student Union and the Year 1's finding their way around the college after their first days.

Psychographic Profile - Mood Boards

Within this task I chose 3 genres of music and used psychographic profiling to come up with 3 separate moods boards that associate conventions/brands to the genre of music, as they will appeal to the audience: Reggae, Pop Punk, and Punk. These are also based upon he VaLs of the audience.

Mood Boards:




This mood board focuses upon the audience that listens to 'Pop Punk', therefore I chose a few bands like 'Green Day', and 'Sum 41' in which they may listen to. I then associated brands like Vans, Rockstar, Converse to them. Not only this, but I added in values that the audience may associate with. This is things like dyed hair, or being straight edge.

 

This is the mood board for the music genre: 'Reggae'. I included things like skull candy headphones, in which they did a line of reggae stylised headphones. I also added in Bob Marley, because he seems to be a staple to the reggae industry.

 

Ultimately I did 'Punk', in which I included values like piercings, but then also brands of hair gel, because usually people who listen to punk will spike their hair up. Furthermore, I added clothing brands that punks may buy from, like "Criminal Damage".

My Grand Introduction

Hello, my name is Megan and this will be my blog for my AS Media Studies coursework. Featuring upon it there will be a music magazine that I have created - something that is the basis of my Media Studies coursework.

 

The first post will focus on my preliminary magazine for the college I attend, using photos I've taken from around the campus, and photo-shopped into the front cover.

 

 

 

 -Thank you