Evaluation of my preliminary task; school magazine
Before starting any work on my own school magazine, I analysed a variety of different style of school magazines. I considered a relaxed format which would be aimed at students, or a more formal approach which will relate more to the parents. After a lot of consideration I decided on a relaxed informal format which would appeal to students and encourage them to read about their school and the goings on.
Whilst making my school magazine I used developed and challenged the conventions and forms of a typical school magazine. There were many elements of a typical school magazine which I wanted to remain in my own magazine. For example the idea of having school pupils on my front cover. I used this idea and edited it in such a way that it fitted in and looked realistic. I felt this element was necessary if I was going to make a believable successful school magazine. In most school magazines the heading (title) font is very bold,clear and obvious. I felt it was important to carry this on into mine; however I wanted something different and original. To develop the font I used an unusual sketchy font which remained bold. I was very happy with my font and felt it developed an ordinary serif font. In most school magazine front covers, the image of a school or its surroundings are in the background. However my front cover completely challenges this effect. The use of a pin board is my background and I used the style that every extra detail looked as though they were pinned to the board. I like this effect and felt the final product was successful and represented the look I was aiming for. I think the use of a pin board as my background was a big challenge and I was worried it would not look effective; nevertheless I worked hard to ensure the challenge was successful.
My school magazine does not represent a particular social group nor does it represent a wide variety. Whilst taking the pictures I was always thinking about ways in which I could get the message that our school is multi-cultured with a variety of social groups. In many of my photo this message is shown. However when I picked a photo for the final front cover, the one which worked best happened to have a limited amount of ethnic groups. When I was taking to photos I wanted to ensure there were different styles portrayed within both girls and boys. Although I did not use a variety of groups, I feel the clothes and hair style of each model is different which portrays a wide mix of styles within one school.
The kind of institution which would distribute my magazine would only be the school it's self. No media institution would sell it as no audience except students and parents at Fortismere could relate to it. However occasionally the local shops may sell some so the community can read about their local school even if they don't go there. Furthermore occasionally it may be necessary to distribute the magazine to local primary schools so they can see the type of things Fortismere does and encourage them to come there in later years.
The audience of my school magazine would be pupils and parents at the school. They will be able to relate to all the topics and articles and may even feature within it. However I specifically aimed at the students. I know some students at school don't like to read their school magazine but I wanted to make sure every student would enjoy reading theirs. To ensure this I came up with a survey which was specifically aimed at students. I asked questions which would give me responses to help make a successful interesting magazine every student would want to read. There is no specific ethnic group or gender that I aimed at because I think a school magazine is something which every student no matter there gender, age or background should want to and look forward to reading.
I attracted my audience through the content and format of my front cover. With help from my survey results I saw and understood the kind of articles students enjoy reading and which would be pointless to publish. I addressed my audience on the front cover by relating to them. I showed an image from a homework diary which every student has and understands what it's like to open up and see "Exams". By talking about common fears and ways to deal with it will help all the readers. The style of a pin board makes the magazine casual and a common sight within bedrooms and offices. The content of the magazine is shown mainly through the contents page. By analysing the survey results I made sure the article would appeal to the students. I put mini heading under some pages to attract the audience and want to read on from the teaser. I feel that the visual appeal is successful and reaches out to all the students. The content and teasers displayed on the front cover and in the content page help address the audience with a suitable manor in which they can relate to.
When I started this media task, I already felt comfortable with Photoshop. I had used it many times before and enjoyed the process of making something plain into a professional detailed publishing. However I did learn some more tricks to Photoshop and as I hadn't used it for a while I enjoyed familiarising myself with it again and experimenting with lots of different styles and formats.
The blog in which we post all our publishes and experiments was not always simple to use.Whilst creating detailed word documents, we were then not allowed to post it on the blog. Nevertheless I managed to work around this issue and still create detailed analyse. I feel that I know understand the use of blogs and can relate to others when they use them more frequently.
I love photography and thoroughly enjoy taking pictures. I was very happy experimenting with different models and poses in order to get the natural, happy picture I was aiming for. However in order to make the lighting suitable for my front cover (even with editing) I found it interesting to experiment with different times of the day to get the lighting and brightness I needed.
If I was to change or improve any part of my front cover or contents page I would try and get the background to blend in more. Whilst editing I tried to make the darker patches lighter and I now feel I could have done a better job. I would also try and make the football heading bolder and more effective. I feel that the writing doesn't stand out particularly well and although I tried with many different fonts and colours, I could have made it slightly better. Furthermore, I believe my contents page could have been made more imaginative in terms of font and layout. I like the background but feel that the writing could be more effective.
In conclusion I am very proud and happy with my final front cover and content page. I like the idea of a pin board for my back cover and am happy with the way it looks. Before starting I was very weary that it could not look effective of like a pin board at all. I like that I used original photography for my contents background but also that it was a picture I was experimenting at the beginning of the designing front cover. I feel that the format and language on both really speaks to the students and it is the type of magazine they will not only read but want to read.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Friday 13 November 2009
Contents page
When I started to design my contents page, I wanted something that kept in theme with the school and front cover, however I didn't want anything boring or obvious.
I decided to use one of the original photos I took for my front cover.
I cut out a part of the photo which I felt would be best suited for my contents page. I selected the main building as it included students,building and a bit of vegetation from the tree.
This was the image I cut, however in order for the text to stand out against it, I used photoshop to distort and fade some of the background.
This is then what I created:
Once I had the background sorted, I started to consider different font types and styles. The main two I considered were these:
However, once I experimented them on the background, I found they were not bold enough and sank into the background too much. I further experimented with more different fonts.
When I had decided on all the content and extra previews of the articles ,I put all the different elements together. I chose this font because I feel it stands out but still fits in with the school theme. I edited it in a way which makes it more sketchy and connected to the front cover.This is the final contents page:
I decided to use one of the original photos I took for my front cover.
I cut out a part of the photo which I felt would be best suited for my contents page. I selected the main building as it included students,building and a bit of vegetation from the tree.
This was the image I cut, however in order for the text to stand out against it, I used photoshop to distort and fade some of the background.
This is then what I created:
Once I had the background sorted, I started to consider different font types and styles. The main two I considered were these:
However, once I experimented them on the background, I found they were not bold enough and sank into the background too much. I further experimented with more different fonts.
When I had decided on all the content and extra previews of the articles ,I put all the different elements together. I chose this font because I feel it stands out but still fits in with the school theme. I edited it in a way which makes it more sketchy and connected to the front cover.This is the final contents page:
Thursday 12 November 2009
Final changes for my front cover
Once I had made what felt like the final front cover, I closely analyzed each part of the cover. I realized there were a few little changes I could make to improve the effectiveness of my magazine cover.
I felt like the colour pins which were in the top left hand corner could be swapped with another corner. I copied a section of the pin board background which I then placed over the pins. I liked the effect and colour of the pins in the corner so I wanted to ensure that they would remain on my cover. I then replace the pins where I had previously copied the background from. Although this is a small change to make I felt it was necessary as the title fits in better and looks for bold and effective.
I then decided to change the order of the two main sub-headings. I swapped "all the latest from the common room" with "winter warmers". I did this as I wanted the audience to see the common room update first and then browse the rest of the page for more previews of the articles. I experimented with lots of different layout for the text, but then decided to keep it simple yet clear.
After a lot of time making sure all the final touches to my cover were complete , this is the final school magazine front cover which I came up with:
I felt like the colour pins which were in the top left hand corner could be swapped with another corner. I copied a section of the pin board background which I then placed over the pins. I liked the effect and colour of the pins in the corner so I wanted to ensure that they would remain on my cover. I then replace the pins where I had previously copied the background from. Although this is a small change to make I felt it was necessary as the title fits in better and looks for bold and effective.
I then decided to change the order of the two main sub-headings. I swapped "all the latest from the common room" with "winter warmers". I did this as I wanted the audience to see the common room update first and then browse the rest of the page for more previews of the articles. I experimented with lots of different layout for the text, but then decided to keep it simple yet clear.
After a lot of time making sure all the final touches to my cover were complete , this is the final school magazine front cover which I came up with:
Wednesday 11 November 2009
My school magazine survey
Once I had decided on the target audience of my magazine, I made an online survey which I could ask a wide variety of questions, in which the answers would help me pursue with making my front cover. I came up with many different types of questions however I then picked the best 7 to be used in my survey. I thought about the type of questions I could use e.g. open or closed and how they would effect my results.
This is a link to my final survey which i sent to my friends and participants suitable:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tcUdYuJAb21ge0X_2fDDytmw_3d_3d
When I had all the results back I analyzed them closely with the help of the online survey website.
These are my results:
For this particular survey, knowing the gender of my participant isn't that useful. My target audience is students, however not a certain gender.
I tried to ask a variety of students from different schools, this is why there is a different percentage. It interested me to find out that a higher percent of schools do have school magazines, however when analyzing the next question I found out that not many read them.
For this particular survey, knowing the gender of my participant isn't that useful. My target audience is students, however not a certain gender.
I tried to ask a variety of students from different schools, this is why there is a different percentage. It interested me to find out that a higher percent of schools do have school magazines, however when analyzing the next question I found out that not many read them.
It shocked me to find out, that 100% of the participants don't read their school magazine, I thought a high percentage wouldn't but not that high. When reading the few results why I found that for my own, personal school magazine it is important to really aim it at my target audience of sixth form students, otherwise they just won't read it.
This result was very useful to me. It shows me that I need to include information about school and outside of school. However I must try an connect with the students and talk about topics which would interest them. I learnt that the main articles of my magazine should be based on the school and its surroundings however it is necessary to include articles about outside school life.
This was a very simple question which I also hoped would get more personal responses, nevertheless the few I got were useful as I now know i must include small articles involving sports for example.I can see from the closed responses that puzzles and "games" do not interest sixth form students which allows me not to waste much space on that kind of page. However the high percentage of results wanting reviews shows me how media orientated this target audience is and how important being up to date on all the latest things is to them.
This question is not very important to my designing of the front cover or contents page and I will not be making many issues, however it does show me that if something interests students they will read it quickly and look forward to the next.
This result helped me design the page size of my front cover of a school magazine, nevertheless it did not help me with designing the content.
Overall, completing and analyzing this survey has helped me gather the type of content sixth form students want to read in school magazine andwhat is not worth putting in.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Experimenting with fonts and the layout
I now have my background sorted, which meant I started to design the main features to be displayed on my cover.
From the first practice cover I already had my image cut out and ready to be used. I layered this on top of the pin board and enlarged it to make it fit an blend well. I also previously used the idea of a homework diary to talk about exams. I liked this feature and decided it was worth pursuing.
I ripped out an old page from a homework diary, and wrote the the main title onto it. In order to make it look realistic and old, I curled the edges and scrunched it up lightly.This made an effect which looked believable to be stuck onto this pin board. I then scanned it in making sure not to flatten it.I then added a bit more text to make it look more believable.This is my general idea of what i want to continue in order to make a realistic school magazine front cover.
After spending sometime closely analysing this draft, there were some points which I knew I needed to change in order to make it more believable. The main things were the font of the title and the "essential feature bit" e.g. price and date.
I wanted a font for my title which helped represent school and all the factors included in that. I didn't just want a normal ordinary font. I decided it was worth browsing the Internet to find a font which helped represent my pin board effect. I found one called "urban sketch". I instantly knew this would look effective and after a little more browsing decided this was the only font which worked well.
You can see that the first image is very faint and not very distinctive, to make my title more bold, I duplicated the layer three times to create a bolder more distinctive title. I like this font as it's sketchy. It reminds me of students scribbling and "doodling" in class experimenting with different styles. I think it works well with the pin board background as nothing on a pin board is for certain it can always be removed and this font give the same kind of impression, that it can almost be rubbed of. I kept it in a black colour to help create a pencil effect although making sure that it was bold at the same time. On my pin board it lies next to some colour pins which help makes the black stand out and effective, without looking boring.
Once I had the basics sorted and effective, I thought about all the feature I wanted to advertise on the front. I thought about how I was making it a sixth form magazine , which I wanted to appeal to that age group not just for them to throw away. I looked at my survey results for help on what features my target audience wanted. I decided to talk about the school sport teams and the canteen. I made a little canteen tray which I wrote on top with my title for that feature. To advertise the sports news, I took a picture of a football which I then wrote on top of. The words I used on the football are very persuasive and encourage the sports teams and the readers to be proud of their school. In order to make it fit in with the pin board effect, I took a picture of a pin and edited it to make it look like the football was pinned to the notice board. I then thought of a few more headings which would interest a wide audience and simply wrote them on in effective fonts and colours.
This is a picture of where i am now up to, including all these features.
From the first practice cover I already had my image cut out and ready to be used. I layered this on top of the pin board and enlarged it to make it fit an blend well. I also previously used the idea of a homework diary to talk about exams. I liked this feature and decided it was worth pursuing.
I ripped out an old page from a homework diary, and wrote the the main title onto it. In order to make it look realistic and old, I curled the edges and scrunched it up lightly.This made an effect which looked believable to be stuck onto this pin board. I then scanned it in making sure not to flatten it.I then added a bit more text to make it look more believable.This is my general idea of what i want to continue in order to make a realistic school magazine front cover.
After spending sometime closely analysing this draft, there were some points which I knew I needed to change in order to make it more believable. The main things were the font of the title and the "essential feature bit" e.g. price and date.
I wanted a font for my title which helped represent school and all the factors included in that. I didn't just want a normal ordinary font. I decided it was worth browsing the Internet to find a font which helped represent my pin board effect. I found one called "urban sketch". I instantly knew this would look effective and after a little more browsing decided this was the only font which worked well.
You can see that the first image is very faint and not very distinctive, to make my title more bold, I duplicated the layer three times to create a bolder more distinctive title. I like this font as it's sketchy. It reminds me of students scribbling and "doodling" in class experimenting with different styles. I think it works well with the pin board background as nothing on a pin board is for certain it can always be removed and this font give the same kind of impression, that it can almost be rubbed of. I kept it in a black colour to help create a pencil effect although making sure that it was bold at the same time. On my pin board it lies next to some colour pins which help makes the black stand out and effective, without looking boring.Once I had the basics sorted and effective, I thought about all the feature I wanted to advertise on the front. I thought about how I was making it a sixth form magazine , which I wanted to appeal to that age group not just for them to throw away. I looked at my survey results for help on what features my target audience wanted. I decided to talk about the school sport teams and the canteen. I made a little canteen tray which I wrote on top with my title for that feature. To advertise the sports news, I took a picture of a football which I then wrote on top of. The words I used on the football are very persuasive and encourage the sports teams and the readers to be proud of their school. In order to make it fit in with the pin board effect, I took a picture of a pin and edited it to make it look like the football was pinned to the notice board. I then thought of a few more headings which would interest a wide audience and simply wrote them on in effective fonts and colours.
This is a picture of where i am now up to, including all these features.
Designing the basic idea of a background and experimenting with photos
Once I knew I wanted a more personal front cover I found an image on the Internet of what I wanted mine to look roughly like. I then made a quick practice front cover.
This is what I came up with:
I knew that there were many factors which didn't work with this picture, however it gave me a good idea of what I was aiming for.
After looking closely at each of the pictures I took, I decided that the format of the last two shown were most effective for my style.In the end I chose picture 3. I chose this one as I felt it would be the most interesting to experiment with on photoshop. I knew I could delete the background and just focus on the people.
Once i had picked the photo I had to decide on a style of background for my magazine cover. I came up with two ideas. 1) a simple colour with a contrast colour as a border or 2) a pin board effect with all content on the cover to look as though it is pinned to the board.
I couldn't decide which I thought would be most effective. Instead I created a rough draft of both formats.
Firstly,using photoshop I cut out all the background of my picture leaving just the models.
I then found a suitable font and created a 1 version of my front cover.
I immediately saw that this wasn't very creative and didn't portray a believable magazine front cover. I decided to start experimenting with my second idea.
Firstly I took a picture of my plain pin board.
I left some pins on, on purpose to create a realistic background. This picture is very dark and bland. Using photoshop i edited it to make it more bright,bold and cut out the white background. This is what i created.
This gave me a structure to start creating my magazine cover.
This is what I came up with:
I knew that there were many factors which didn't work with this picture, however it gave me a good idea of what I was aiming for.
After looking closely at each of the pictures I took, I decided that the format of the last two shown were most effective for my style.In the end I chose picture 3. I chose this one as I felt it would be the most interesting to experiment with on photoshop. I knew I could delete the background and just focus on the people.
Once i had picked the photo I had to decide on a style of background for my magazine cover. I came up with two ideas. 1) a simple colour with a contrast colour as a border or 2) a pin board effect with all content on the cover to look as though it is pinned to the board.
I couldn't decide which I thought would be most effective. Instead I created a rough draft of both formats.
Firstly,using photoshop I cut out all the background of my picture leaving just the models.
I then found a suitable font and created a 1 version of my front cover.
I immediately saw that this wasn't very creative and didn't portray a believable magazine front cover. I decided to start experimenting with my second idea.Firstly I took a picture of my plain pin board.
I left some pins on, on purpose to create a realistic background. This picture is very dark and bland. Using photoshop i edited it to make it more bright,bold and cut out the white background. This is what i created.
This gave me a structure to start creating my magazine cover.
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Experimenting with close-ups
Although I wasn't absolutely settled on the type of cover I was aiming for I decided to experiment with close up images and tried to incorporate them within my front cover. I came up with two examples:
I like the way they look, however I know that the close ups do not necessarily fit perfectly within the image. I decided that I should aim for a magazine front cover which was more lively and showed more personality. Nevertheless this research and experiment testing close ups with landscape images helped me practice and gave me a clear idea on what time on image i am aiming for.
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