OverallEvaluation

What was the project brief about?• Our AS Media project brief was to create a front page and

contents page of a new college magazine and the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.

• The college magazine’s front cover photograph must feature a medium close-up image that you have taken yourself.

• The double page spread in the music magazine must relate to the headline and cover image on the front cover.

• There had to be a minimum for four original images per magazine.

• You also had to show research and planning, as well as influencing decisions on how you created your magazines, both through a scrapbook and blog.

How I used my time;• I think I used my time quite well however, when creating my music

magazine I think I could have planned and used my time a lot better.

• I also think I spent to much time creating and researching into my college magazine, and if I was to do the project again I would definitely spend less time making my college magazine and focus more on using Quark and researching into my music magazine.

• I started my project quite early, however I did not start my scrap book until quite late on when making my college magazine which I now regret as I could have explained my thoughts and changes a lot more if i’d started straight away.

• I think that I could have used my time more effectively if i’d done more research before starting to create my actual music magazine and then I could have concentrated a lot more on the actual development.

Research; • I did quite a lot of research into different front covers and

contents pages, especially of the music magazine NME. • I stuck lots of front covers etc into my scrapbook and

evaluated what they looked like, how they appealed to me and what elements influenced me when creating my magazine.

• I also used the OCR Media Blog when creating my blog which gave me a really good idea of what it is important to include and the standards of other peoples work.

• I also used sites such as YouTube to look for help when creating my double page spread and using Quark and Photoshop which gave me a good idea of how to do things while unable to ask my tutor for help.

Target Audience;• I think the target audience for my music magazine

would be 15-19 male and female, however because of the over all layout maybe it would be related slightly towards the female audience.

• My music magazine was aimed at the more indie music scene as I based it quite a lot on NME so it would be for teenagers into this sort of music rather than pop or metal.

• I think NME magazine was a big influence when creating my magazine as its the type of music I like to listen too. I also really like the layout as it’s quite laid back and messy, yet really distinctive.

Use of software;• I created both magazines mainly on my Acer laptop at

home and using the college computers and Apple Macs when in lesson. I used Quark Xpress 8 to create my music magazine and Microsoft Publisher to create my college magazine. I also used Adobe Photoshop to edit my front cover and double page spread images.

• I also used Microsoft Power point to create some presentations to show how my magazine had developed and also as an easier way to show research on my blog.

• Again I used YouTube to find videos to help me when using Quark and used the blog site Blogger to keep my blog on.

Problems;• A main problem I had when starting the project was a mix

up with teachers meaning that we did not start the coursework as early as we should have done which created some timing problems.

• Another problem I had was that I didn’t know how to use Photoshop or Quark Xpress 8 when starting the project meaning I had to teach myself as I created my project, although this wasn’t so bad as I could find help from YouTube or my tutors while in college, it presented some difficulties when trying to do certain things at home.

• The main issue I had with the whole project was just timing and mainly what I had actually include in my blog and scrapbook however this problem was overcome when our tutor showed everyone the OCR media blog and specification which helped me to decide what to include.

Individual Evaluations

Music Magazine; Front Cover• I am quite happy with the way my front cover has

turned out, however I think if I had more time and more skills when using Quark I could have made it a lot better. I took my cover image against a white background as I thought this would be a lot easier to layer my text over and also because it would make the image stand out against the page and make it look more clean rather than risk using clashing colours. I tried to keep quite a natural look when photo shopping my front cover image, however I did make the colour of the guitar and clothes quite a bit lighter, as well as removing imperfections on the two band members. When starting my front cover I didn’t really have a set colour scheme and if I'd thought about this before taking my photos I could have made the models clothes stick to this scheme.

• For my masthead I used a normal windows font called ‘Segoe Script’. I wanted it too look almost handwritten to make it more personal to the audience.

Music Magazine; Front Cover• I then added a red music note to this as I think it makes the magazine look more musical. The

puff underneath saying ‘The Indie Music You Love.’ is also written in Segoe Script in black so it ties into the masthead. This font is used throughout my magazine to create an instantly recognisable image for the whole brand. I chose to use this font in comparison to a more well used one like Tahoma as it gave my image a more distinct look.

• For my headline, ‘The Girl In The Broken Mirror’ I decided to use the same font as I did in my double page spread as I think this ties the two in and creates a logo for the band. It is then also very clear that the headline and main article relate to each other. I layered this over the main cover photo in the middle of the page as after changing this round for a while I found this looked the most effective and also stands out the best. As the font used on this is a different type to the rest of the magazine I think it also stands out a lot more and is clear that it’s the main headline. Underneath this I created my strap line, explaining more about the headline. I used a read background and white text in contrast to the black text and white background used in the headline. I like the effect using a red background gave as I think it makes it stand out a lot more in front of the colourful clothes of the background image.

• For my other cover lines I used a white text again in Segoe Script. I also added a drop shadow to this to make it stand out a lot more on the page. Using a white text also helped it fit in with the colour scheme of White, Black and red I decided to use. Finally I included a plug in the corner of my magazine as I found that most of the magazines I looked at included one of these. I didn’t want this to stand out too much however putting it in the corner next to the masthead does draw your attention too it.

• Over all I'm very pleased with how it turned out, however I would make changes to match the models in with my colour scheme etc and also probably spent more time trying to make it look more professional.

Music Magazine; Contents Page• This is my final contents page for my music magazine

‘Intune.’ Again I'm quite pleased with this as I think it looks quite professional and also fits in with the colour scheme of red, white and black I set myself.

• I decided to make my background black as it made my text stand out more and looked a bit different and more interesting to the normal white background. I then used Segoe script again to create my title in white to stand out against the black background. I also added in the music note as I think this helped it relate more to the whole image of my magazine. Again I really like the side bar ‘Note to the editor’ which is red again, in contrast to the black background using white text which fits in with the smaller text. I really like the way I laid out the pictures over lapping them as I wanted them to look slightly messy however in an appealing way rather than cluttered.

• Over all I like the general look of the page as I think it fits really well with the set colour scheme and is nice to look at rather than messy. I also think it’s quite simple yet effective.

Music Magazine; Double Page Spread• I think my double page spread turned

out as well as I wanted it though, however I could make improvements to make it look more professional.

• I really like the Layout of the masthead or band logo at the top of the page as I think it adds an identity to the brand and as it matches with the front cover links the two well. I decided to continue with the black, red and white colour scheme in this article and throughout the magazine again to create a brand identity and too tie the whole magazine together

and make it a lot more recognisable. I decided to make the background black as I think this would make the text stand out and also look a bit different to a normal white background. I changed this from my original idea of having the whole background as a picture as the only suitable picture I took had the

two band members faces across the join in the middle which would look strange when folded. Like in my contents page I used white as the main body of text and interview questions and a contrasting red

as the answers again in keeping with my colour scheme. On the other page I again laid out several pictures, I wanted them to over lap like in my contents page however not look messy so I kept one

picture bigger in comparison to smaller ones.

Music Magazine: Double Page Spread• I used the font Candara in black to add captions to the pictures, originally I used the font

Segoe Script, however this showed up quite badly and also was not very clear in such a small point size so I changed it too a clearer and more easy to read font.

• I also used drop caps at the start of my first paragraph. After looking through many different magazines such as NME, Q, Elle and Heat I noticed that they all used drop caps of different sizes and styles. I decided to keep mine very basic as I wanted it to fit in without it standing out too much however to look like part of the text. I also kept it the same colour and same background as I wanted it too still look like part of the sentence as in magazines like Star it can look strange and disconnected from the actual body of text.

• I used Baseline Shift to create my quote on the right hand page. I wanted this too really stand out as it’s the only text on that page so I used the shadow function to give it more boldness. I also made the quote marks 3 pt sizes bigger than the actual text making them look really over sized but too also draw your attention to them to show it’s an actual quote.

• Over all I’m really pleased with how it turned out and the quality off it, however I think if I’d had more time to make a few changes I could of made it a lot better. I also think that if I was to do this again I’d make it look a lot more simple and only use one or two images instead of 6 images as although it does not look messy it would stand out a lot better if it was just one large image.

Comparing my two magazines and what I’ve learnt throughout the tasks

As you can see I’ve learnt a lot since I started to create my college magazine. One thing I’ve learnt is about different publishing software for example Quark and Photoshop. For my first magazine I used an easy

desktop programme called Microsoft publisher which anybody can use where as for my Music Magazine I used a professional programme. By doing this it allowed my to make my magazine look

better by making things stand out more by using Drops Caps and Shadow behind text. An example of this would be the shadow on the main headings on my contents page which makes them stand out a

lot more than the writing without shadow on my College contents page. I also learnt how to use Photoshop to touch up photos as I had no understanding of this before I started the project. Overall my understanding of how to use a more professional editing programme and how this affects your

overall magazine has improved a lot and I now know the benefits of this compared to a normal desktop publisher.