IN ESSAY FORM:
When I created my preliminary task, I had little knowledge on how to use a camera, how to edit images on Adobe Photoshop CS3 and on magazines in general.
Firstly, when looking at the front cover of my ‘Haydon Monthly’ magazine, you can instantly see lack of creative skills. My masthead doesn’t stand out at all, as it is near enough the same size as my main sell line. It is in a black, rounded font, therefore does not pop out the page, grasping the audience’s attention. The actual name of my magazine also shows that I had not considered what might stand out and sound interesting to my target audience of a school children and teachers. This page has a lot of white spaces; this will instantly make my magazine unappealing as audiences will not feel they are getting value for money when buying a magazine that does not have enough content to fill a page. There is also no consistency of font, by looking at all the sell lines, all of them are different sizes, some are bold and wide, where others are thin and small. Rather than displaying a different range of skills in text editing, which was my original intention, it just makes the magazine appear to be amateur and unplanned. As for the image, it suggests I was not aware of how to cut a photo out. This makes my magazine appear unprofessional as the cover model on a magazine would usually dominate the page and the sell lines would fit in around it. However in this case, the sell lines are placed on top of the image at times, making it difficult to read. For example: “come to the library for information!” is placed on a cream part of the image and is written in yellow, making it difficult to read.
When looking at my contents page, it is clear I hadn’t considered a colour scheme. On the front cover, there are uses of blue, yellow, pink, black and white. Whereas, on the contents page, there is a use of black, red and white for the background. Therefore, if audiences were given both pages separately, the only thing that would suggest they are from the same magazine is the fact they both say ‘Haydon Monthly’, other than that, both pages are completely different. Again, on my contents, it is filled with white spaces; the fonts do not complement each other – making the page appear unprofessional and unplanned. And there is also only one image, this would be disapproved by the target audience as it would suggest the magazine is not worth its money as there is not enough content for the price, implying my magazine would be unsuccessful in a professional market.
Now, if we look at my finished music magazine, we see none of these issues. The texts on all pages, particularly my front cover, complement each other as I have tried to consistently use blocked, square, bold fonts. This is because when studying my similar product research, I concluded that music magazines use bold fonts to conotate power and dominance. It will also help to make my magazine stand out to its target audience, against other music magazines on the shelf. As for white spaces on my front cover, it is filled with sells lines, indicating to my target audience that it is worth its money. I have made my cover model a lot larger in this page, in order to dominate the space more, and to imply that this person is the most important feature in this issue. My main sell line is very different from the splattered effect masthead I used, as I created it on Photoshop, making black boxes using the shape tool and placing white text on top of them, in order to create an original newspaper-like styled text.
My contents page is also much more professional looking, as I have five different sections, with headings for each feature, as well as explanations. My target audience will look at this and feel spoilt for choice as there is also a band index, displaying the different artists featured in my magazine. I have also tried to relate to zeitgeist on here, appealing more to the younger audience, by placing a Facebook sign and a subscription option, this shows I have tried to think more about my target audience when creating this magazine, and have thought about how to further appeal my magazine to them. And also, now it is clear I am aware of how to use colour range/magic wand tool to cut out images, to make my magazine seem more professional and for them to fit together more.
When looking at my contents page, it is clear I hadn’t considered a colour scheme. On the front cover, there are uses of blue, yellow, pink, black and white. Whereas, on the contents page, there is a use of black, red and white for the background. Therefore, if audiences were given both pages separately, the only thing that would suggest they are from the same magazine is the fact they both say ‘Haydon Monthly’, other than that, both pages are completely different. Again, on my contents, it is filled with white spaces; the fonts do not complement each other – making the page appear unprofessional and unplanned. And there is also only one image, this would be disapproved by the target audience as it would suggest the magazine is not worth its money as there is not enough content for the price, implying my magazine would be unsuccessful in a professional market.
Now, if we look at my finished music magazine, we see none of these issues. The texts on all pages, particularly my front cover, complement each other as I have tried to consistently use blocked, square, bold fonts. This is because when studying my similar product research, I concluded that music magazines use bold fonts to conotate power and dominance. It will also help to make my magazine stand out to its target audience, against other music magazines on the shelf. As for white spaces on my front cover, it is filled with sells lines, indicating to my target audience that it is worth its money. I have made my cover model a lot larger in this page, in order to dominate the space more, and to imply that this person is the most important feature in this issue. My main sell line is very different from the splattered effect masthead I used, as I created it on Photoshop, making black boxes using the shape tool and placing white text on top of them, in order to create an original newspaper-like styled text.
My contents page is also much more professional looking, as I have five different sections, with headings for each feature, as well as explanations. My target audience will look at this and feel spoilt for choice as there is also a band index, displaying the different artists featured in my magazine. I have also tried to relate to zeitgeist on here, appealing more to the younger audience, by placing a Facebook sign and a subscription option, this shows I have tried to think more about my target audience when creating this magazine, and have thought about how to further appeal my magazine to them. And also, now it is clear I am aware of how to use colour range/magic wand tool to cut out images, to make my magazine seem more professional and for them to fit together more.
No comments:
Post a Comment