Assessment of preliminary task

What Went Well:

• Using digital technology to create a high quality magazine
• Taking images for magazine cover
• Researching and analysing already existing magazines to gain inspiration

Action Plan:
For my main task I will  consider paying more attention to fine detail in my magazine creation as by this I will make sure that the quality of my magazine will be much higher than the magazine in my prelim task, making it professional. Additionally feeding back from my preliminary ask as an improvement I will watch online tutorials on desktop publishing softwares such as InDesign or Photoshop. By this I will broaden my current knowledge on different functions these softwares provide me with, which can be then put to a use in my main magazine. This will allow me to create a unique content, which will put my magazine forward in terms of attractiveness. Furthermore, to improve my work in the main task I will consider improving the amount of work I put into my blog. For example I can embed relevant videos/ images and upload more screenshots of my work. This will be to show the audience clearly the journey my magazine went through. As a final improvement, I will take a wider variety of pictures with relevant props which will convey the theme of the magazine. By this the magazine will be more effective as it would be clearer for the audience to understand.

Link to my evaluation: Evaluation

Preliminary Task - Final Result

Magazine Layouts

Below we can see my ideas which I have drawn for my school / college magazine's front cover and the content page. I have considered the various elements which I have learned about during magazine analysis, which make a magazine effective. Additionally I have performed my own research from which I have acknowledged specific magazine content which are used in professional publications. By the use of these professional magazine contents such as sky line or splash I have tried to make my designs up to the highest quality, targeting to look like the mainstream magazines.

Cover Page

Contents Page

Developing photography skills - Practical Part 2

In today's task during the lesson, all of the students including me had a go at trying out their photography skills by the use of a studio which I and two of my peers have set up. The studio consisted of a grey backdrop, one softlight provided by my photography teacher and one studio light which is mounted in the media classrom.By the use of a professional DSLR camera, all of us tried taking a picture of others which modeled against the grey background. While capturing my shots I have taken into account what I have taught the class last lesson about photography. This means I payed attention to focus, facial positioning, depth of field, colour, exposure and lighting to gain sufficient images. In my case I found this task easy compared to my classmates as I am undertaking an AS Photography course, meaning that I could apply my skills from this subject into media which was a large advantage for me as my pictures came out very well. Below we can see some of the examples of pictures which I have taken.

Underneath we can see a picture of what the studio actually looked like. Me and two of my classmates which also study AS Photography with me chose the grey background as while taking pictures this background will make the person stand out in comparison to a crowded classroom environment. As a results of this, it is easier to manipulate the images as the background is less detailed. Additionally by the use of an artificial light I was assured that the persons face is lit up very well allowing me to focus the camera on their face. As a result of this I have gained error less, clean pictures.

Developing photography skills - Practical

In today's task

Introduction to photography - Powerpoint

In this task I have constructed a powerpoint with two of my classmates, which also have taken AS Photography. As we can see I have taken screenshots of all of the powerpoint slides. Throughout the presentation I have informed the classmates with information about key areas such as focus, lighting, depth of field, colour and editing. I believe this was a useful task both for me and for my other classmates, as by this I have revised myself and taught others about the main aspects of a good picture.

Above we can see a screenshot of the first part of the powerpoint. We can see that first of all I have tested out the knowledge by showing the class two pictures. One of them was a wrong example of a portrait whereas the other was a perfect example. Futhermore I have mentioned slides about unfocused, lighting and depth of field. All of these slides convey valuable information about the key terms in photography. By showing these to the audience I have told them what they have to pay attention to, when taking their own pictures to make them successful 

Here we can see another screenshots of the last two pages of the powerpoint. In the last two slides I have shown the class a perfect example of a medium close up. Additionally I have annotated the good points of the picture around it which have been shown aswell by the use of powerpoint animation. This gives the class a brief idea of what thier images should look like when they will be trying to capture their final image for their magazine. Finally, on the last slide I have mentioned what the teacher has planned for the next lesson allowing the students to be prepared for their next task.

Concluding, from this task I have made it clear for me and my classmates what a appropriate picture is for their magazine. By this I am assured that I will achieve the best picture possible for my magazine as I can follow this guide.

Researching for possible magazine titles

In this task I have researched the web to gain ideas for my school magazine title. I have searched for key terms which reflected the sixth form/college and inspired me to come up with such magazine titles. As the results of the research I have come up with the titles which we can see below:

The can'TEEN' Times
This is the first title I have come up with and by far the most successful. In my opinion this is my favourite title as by this I show the audience that the magazine relates to them as students and the school overall. This image of the magazine is created by the 'TEEN' standing out in the title by having it in bigger font style. This also shows that the students are significant for the magazine. Overall I will consider using this title for my magazine as I believe that by choosing this, my magazine will sound most familiar with my target audience and this title will create a 'joyful' image in the students head as we associate the canteen with socialising and peer interference. The newspaper which I have based my title on was "Sunday Times" as I have chosen to use similar wording.

Student Record
I have created this title to convey the idea of "following the students". This idea has been mostly created by the title having the word "Record". As a results of this, the magazine will be seen as a caring society. On the other hand the use of words in this title could have a negative meaning. By this, I mean that the students may think that the magazine is controlling them on every step of the day. Therefore I will not put this title forward to be used in my magazine.

For us, By us
The main aspect of this title was to show the students that the magazine is created by the school community for the school community. This means that the main purpose of the title was to show the students that the magazine has a very friendly and calm atmosphere as it is all created by the students peers. As a result of this title, the whole magazine  would have a very close relation to the students, meaning that the magazine would contain content which can be seen by the students during their daily school life. This is the title which I could consider using apart from the "The can'TEEN' Times" as in my opinion, when we have a glance at this title we automatically think of the magazine being created especially by us with the most appropriate content.

Education Daily
This title has been by far inspired by the newspaper "Daily Express". The purpose of this title is to convey that the information would be kept up to date 'daily', showing the students the most interesting events.Additionally the title contains the word "Education" which as well conveys that the magazine could inform us about different revision, University application or even subject tips. I believe that this title is a suitable choice however it seems to be too mainstream. Therefore I would follow my decision and stay with my most favourite "The can'TEEN' Times" title.

Concluding from this task, I have came up with a suitable title such as "The can'TEEN' Times" to be used for my sixth form/college magazine. I have based my title on a suitable theme and additionally I have recognized the positive areas of my title which make it effective for my magazine.

Development on photography skills

The purpose of this task was for me to try out and experiment with my photography techniques. This was for me to see any key areas that I have to consider while taking the final shots which will appear on my school magazine. Due to classroom conditions I had to take these pictures using my phone for practice purposes only, however on the final photos for the magazine I will be using a DSLR camera to obtain the best quality of the images. Throughout this task I have learned that facial expressions, lighting and camera angle are the most valuable aspects to capture the perfect shot.

Here we can see the collection of my photography attempts. I have experimented with many angles and body positions of the model to see the effect this composition has. By having a high angle shot we are allowed to see more of the students body, showing his/hers body language. We can see that I have placed the models before a plain background so that the attention would be dragged to the person himself. Furthermore I have also used props such as a school folder. This is because I believe that by the use of props which link to the "school" image I make the images easier to understand by the viewer. From the various images I have picked one which I have put for further development.

This is my chosen image out of the pictures which I have taken. On the left we can see the original. We can tell that it has been taken in classroom conditions as of the chairs in the background however the overall background has not been very effective to show the school theme. Therefore I have searched in google for a better background which as a result is the image in the centre. An image of a lecture room in my opinion has been far more effective than the original. As a results of that, I have used Photoshop to edit the image. I have used tools such as the polygonal lasso tool or picture adjustments such as brightness & contrast to achieve the results which I have been most happy with. Concluding, I have came up with the image that we can see on the right hand side. I am happy with the final results as it shows far more "school" theme than the original image as it presents more education environment. When I will be taking images to be used in my magazine I will choose them to be placed in a really good background to represent my theme or have them placed on a plain background for me to photoshop. By both ways I believe that I can get the same result.

Analysing Current School Magazines

The purpose of this task was for me to look at examples of school magazines and identify why they are successful. This allowed me to recognize what others have used which I may follow in my own magazine creation. The thing which I have found useful in this task was that I managed to look at two very good examples of magazines which showed me what is particularly needed to make it interesting for my target audience, such as the use of graphics, text or even page layout. The most important or clever information/techniques which I have gained from this analysis will be put forward into the creation of my own magazine.

Pheonix 2013 (part one)

Content: Phoenix team signatures, Biographies of teachers, Educational pages (rules), Question & Answers, School events information pages, School accomplishments, School programmes, Horoscopes, School productions, Images of students, Images of teachers, Editors comments.

Front Cover: The concept of the front cover is to resemble the back of a laptop (having in mind the Apple laptop as the 'Phoenix' logo has replaced the Apple), which links onto the computer page look which we can see further into the magazine. This makes us feel as if we were using the computer to look through the schools magazine. This is a suitable technique to use as it suits the target audience of the magazine and intrigues the person to read this magazine. This is because today's sixth form/college students are very familiar with computers, so by following this 'computer' theme in this magazine they feel as if they were using thier own laptop, dragging their attention into the content of the magazine. On the other hand, at the first glance the cover does not convey the 'computer' theme as it looks very simple when closed, which could reflect to the student that it is not worth opening and reading.

Layout & Typography: Throughout the whole magazine we have a very strong reference to social media the students are most likely to visit such as Facebook or BBC News. The editor has used the layout of those social media websites and applied manipulation to them to insert their own images and text. By this the magazine looks very interesting as it again refers to the 'computer browsing' image that we get by opening the magazine. It additionally makes the magazine joyful as the reader (student) feels familiar to this surrounding which besides bring humor as the student knows what the editor has done to their favourite websites to include them in the magazine. The use of bright, eye-catching colours emphasises the content which is visible in all of the pages attracting the readers attention making him/her read on. Whereas the fonts visible throughout the magazine are very similar to the ones visible in social media such as a high use of bold text which signifies the importance of information in a given area.


Phoenix 2009 (part one)

 Content: School history (old images & write ups), Famous students page, School clubs (geography & french), Interviews with teachers, School productions, Competitions, School trips, School organisations (charity involvment), Interaction page

Front Cover: The title page of this magazine is very simple. The title page contains a pheonix logo and a brief quote. I believe that this does not make the magazine look interesting as it looks pretty boring and effortless. On the other hand, by it being this simple, it does meet its purpose. It clearly shows the person looking at it what the magazine is. It contains a clear, big image of the 'pheonix' which is underlined by the quote, with both of them being filled in with a very warm and bright gradient which stands out against the black background. By this it makes it very clear to understand the front cover in comparion to the 2013 version where the 'computer' look was used on the front cover. I do believe that the front cover is appropriate for the purpose, however for the target audience it could not be as interesting as other magazines could be meaning that the probability that it would be picked up and read is far more less. To improve it, I would consider adding cover stories or different size headlines to grab the readers attention and show them what they can find inside the magazine before even opening it, as by this they build up the need of them reading on.

Layout & Typography: Throughout the whole magazine we have a wide variety of layouts shown to us. Whether it is simple layout with a justified text or a complicated mix of angled images with different text alignments, the magazine carries on the same image throughout all of the pages. All of the pages inside the magazine refer to history of the school and the past in general, therefore most of the pages are black and white with black, old fashioned or 'peeling of paint' texture text to emphasise the image of history. All of the text in the black and white pages is black as the background is bright, whereas on the coloured pages the typography changes, it becomes more related to the content that it visible on the page. For example, the page in colour contains information about a drama production of the school, the headline visible on that page is red and has a 'funky' but mysterious font style. In this magazine they aim to refer the typography to the content that is on a certain page.

 

"Grazia" Magazine - Product Analysis

Price: £1 - Only half price

Advertisers: Chanel (make up), Gallo Family (wine), Prada (perfume), Emporio Armani, 

Calvin Klein (perfume), Bobbi Brown, Ernest Jones, Russel & Bromley (shoes), Max Factor X, L'Oreal, Swarovski, British Airways, M&S, Rachels Yogurt, Boots, Toni & Guy, Starbucks, Disney

Reader Interactions: Horoscope

Promotions & Competition: Boots - 25% off, Cinema awards (Disney), GAP - 30% off

Content: Articles, Upcoming movies, Celebrity gossips, Advertisements, Advises, Fashion news

Demographic: 17-35 age group, Young professionals/students, Women with significant income & time rich/fashion interest

Geographic: UK - Central London

Benefit: Likely to enjoy looking at and following fashion trends. Starting from makeup and finishing at clothing and gadgets. They want to read about hot stories of their favorite individuals (popular people). This allows them to equate themselves to people of a higher class than they are, as they are the role models for them. They want to have the same lifestyle & appearance as them.

Psychographic: Significant amount of free time, into more cerebral leisure activities. Most likely to come from a cosmopolitan urban area. May have inspiration for fashion trends & healthy lifestyle.

Behaviouristic: Likely to subscribe to the magazine and have their own collection on display. Into established street fashion, diet tips and celebrity gossips. Into parties and coffee bars. Internet and design aspirations with determination for work and creative industry.

Investigating Target Audience

The screenshots above represent me designing an online survey which I have used Survey Monkey website to do this. The purpose of this task was for me to acknowledge what my target audience would like to have in a school magazine to make it interesting and enjoyable to read. By the use of a specialist website to create a survey I was allowed to browse through many answer options such as mutliple choices or even comment boxes, which allowed the person answering the survey to get his response across. All of the questions which I have inputted into the survey were reflecting back to my own magazine creation e.g. they allowed me to see what I will have to include such as pictures or information for my target audience. As of it being a online survey, I was allowed to send out the link to many people of target audience, asking for them to answer. It was a quick process and Survey Monkey automatically reviewed and analysed the feedback people gave me, allowing me for clear understanding of the results. To get my final results I have not only used an online survey as additionally I have recreated the same questions in a hand out form to give to people to fill in by pen.

Online Survey:
The images below show the questions which have been placed in the online survey and the answers already analysed by Survey Monkey by the use of graphs.

As we can see all of the answers to my questions have been sorted into neat, visual graphs which allowed me for clear understanding of the results and applying these findings to my magazine research. Firstly, I can tell that my online survey has been successful as we can see that all of the answers have been from the 16/17 age group and from the same year 12 year group, meaning that these are the students which attend sixth form or college (my target audience). From the graphs I can also tell that the students which have replied to my survey were mostly interested in sport, however they also found technology, automotive, art and music interesting. This shows me that for my magazine I would have to pay attention mostly to these topics, as to making the magazine most suitable for the students. On the other hand, the majority which have answered my online survey were females which could be a problem as the results could be biased, however I believe that the overall results which I have gained apply to both males and females. Additionally I can tell from the results that the student do not read school magazines a lot as they have mostly chosen 'slightly often' as their answer. This signifies to me that they have not yet found a magazine which suits them therefore I have to pay significant attention to the results which I have gotten from them to increase their interest in school magazines.

Furthermore, the online survey has told me that the students will approve any student interaction pages such as crosswords,wordsearches or competitions. I believe that by having pages dedicated to 'interaction' the magazine would cause competition between students which would cause them to socialise more with their peers. From the graph and the comments which the students have left, I have noticed that they prefer the magazine to have bright/eye-catching colours as to the comment 'sophisticated but eyecatching colours (red,blue,gold etc)'. By this I now know that the colours which I intend to use in my magazine have to be attractive however not over the top, but neat and clear to see. From the graph feedback I can also tell that my target audience either would like to have a portrait picture or a wide shot picture of a person on the front cover of the magazine. Adding onto this I have also been told that graphic art would be a great addon to the magazine. This allows me to briefly get an idea of what I can include in my magazine as a starting point, which I will later develop in my making as I have to asses visually which image types will be appropriate .Lastly the respondents have told me that in terms of content they will prefer school news, reviews, interactions and images. Whereas for the text which will be visible in the magazine they would like it to be alligned, easy to read or even fancy. 

Handout Survey:

Here we can see a image of my filled out handout surveys. I have used the same questions which I have placed in the online survey. The only adjustment which I have made in this handout survey is to exchange the answer techniques for a small minority of the questions, as for example on the online survey the respondent could choose an option from a dropdown menu which is not available in a physical, paper copy therefore I have replaced this with tick boxes. I have left the open questions to have a comment box as by this I have allowed the person to enter their own answer, the same way they had on the online version.

Concluding, from the handouts I have gathered very similar records as to what I have received from the online survey. By this I am assured that the answers which I have gotten in the first place were correct. By the use of the online survey & the handout version of the survey, I know have collected beneficial information  as to what the magazine will look like (colour and images) and what it will contain (content) which will be put forward into creation of my own magazine.

Recreation of a magazine page

              Original                                                             Recreation

Here we can see the finished results of my recreation task. On the right hand side we have the page chosen by me to recreate from a already existing magazine, whereas on the right we have the finished product. To do this task I have watched and followed an InDesign tutorial video which allowed me to acknowledge new skills in a new DTP software. The purpose of this task was to allow me to follow and copy each detail of the magazine as well as use a software which is new to me, making my mind focus on all of the details and tools which I have to look out for. During this task I have learned many different skills in terms of software applications, but as well as in terms of visual presentation.

The skill which I have mainly acquired from this task, is finding the same resources as the article author has used in the original. I have gained this skill by carrying out multiple in-depth searches for the exact same image as the author has used. Later on I have developed this skill by using Photoshop to recreate the text which is also seen on the female silhouette in the image. I have searched the entire list of font styles the programme provides us with to find the most suitable font which was close to the original. Additionally I had to make sure the text has the same finish, proportions and positioning to the one in the original as I was aiming for the highest quality recreation. I think that gaining a skill like this has been very beneficial for me, as it allowed me to work on my focus and determination to achieve the best outcome possible. This will definately pay off in my own magazine making as I taught myself how to be careful and patient with my work, meaning that I will put my already known DTP skills to a better use.

Another skill which I have also gained from this task, is to proportion my page layout by the use of InDesign. In InDesign I was allowed to create my own rows and columns by clicking and dragging the ruler tool onto the canvas. This allowed me to follow the before measured out layout of the original magazine, which made my recreation as most accurate as possible. By this, I have been taught page properties such as bleed or inside/outside margin. This improved my theoretical as well as practical knowledge and understanding of what factors I have to follow to make my page layout successful.

Concluding from this task, all of the skills which I have gained from it will be put to a use in my magazine creation, making it far more friendly for me as I was allowed to experiment with softwares such as InDesign which I have never used and explore its functions which would help me with my further design tasks.

Typography

Here we can see my final work on typography. The purpose of this task was to acknowledge the use of different techniques such as colour, font style, bold or italics and the effect they had on the quote. As we can see above I have completed two versions of the same quote, with two different meanings. In the first quote I have decided to focus it more on the older, more mature target audience by making the quote mysterious as if it could relate to our life. I have achieved this by the use of the black/grey colour scheme which makes the text look serious and neat and additionally by the use of underline and italic technique I have emphasised the text, letting the reader know it is valuable.On the other hand, the second quote has been targeted by me for children aged 10+. Comparing this to the other quote version, we can see that the font which I have used in all of the black text in this version contains very round edges making it look rather 'cartoony', suiting the target audience. Additionally the use of different font styles for specific text parts in this version of the quote is equivalent to the use of underlining and italic as in the version before. Lastly, we can see that I have used contradicting colours such as blue which stand out against the rest of the black text. By this I have made it look very friendly and joyful, making it suitable for the age group which I have specified for this quote. Concluding, from this task I was allowed to experiment with different text editing techniques which allowed me to identify useful text editing options to convey different meanings by the use of text. I will definately use this skills in my own magazine production.

Analysing current magazines

"WRD About Books" magazine
- Age group: 10+
- Price : £2.50
- Colours: Bright, live, eye-catching, suitable for the age group
- Style: It appeals to a childrens scrapbook making the magazine seem as it belongs to the children.     They do this by the typography and hand drawn graphics on each page.
- Layout: The images visible in the magazine are mainly set irregularly around the pages making it     more attractive and more appealing towards the 10+ age group. Most pages have the text                   split into a vast number of paragraphs with slightly bigger subtitle which allows the young                   reader to acknowledge what topic hey are reading about. 
- Font: On the front page the text font used has a white border around it. By this the text stands out in front of the images and also makes the text seem easier for the eye as from the outside the border has curved, smooth lines whereas he text has jagged edges. On the inside the font is very sharp and thin. By this it makes the text easy to read against the coloured backrounds. For the subtitles the font used is very similar. It uses the same jagged font however smaller.

Above we can see a small analysis which I have performed for the images of the magazine above. By the analysis I have identified key features of the magazine such as colour,typography and graphics which I will definately consider using in my own magazine. The feature which I really like in the magazine is the audience interaction pages. By the use of these pages the magazines theme and purpose has been clearly conveyed as it shows that the magazine is for kids to have it as their own scrapbook. Adding onto that I have also looked at a second magazine called "TOXIC". This magazine clearly contrasts with the "WRD" magazine by the use of graphics, colour and typography. By this we are assured that the magazine is for a older target audience.

Contrasting, both magazines have used different techniques suitable for their target audience. Concluding, I have identified suitable features which I would consider in creating my own magazine making it suitable for my target audience and meeting my purpose.

INTRODUCTION

This is my OCR As Media blog. In this blog I will progressively upload content which will convey my progress in design and making, as well as improving my skills. 

During this year I will complete two tasks; the preliminary task and the main task.

The preliminary task will consist of me using a DTP and an image manipulation program to produce the front page of a school/college magazine which will consist of a medium close up photograph of a student, a well laid-out text and a masthead. Furthermore I must produce a DTP mock-up of the contents page for easy demonstration of the program.

During my Main task, I am to produce a front page, contents and a double page spread for a new music magazine. I will make a full use of the skills which I have gained from my preliminary, which would help me to make the main task up to the highest standard as possible.

The purpose of this blog is to show a journey throughout my year of AS Media.