Production Diary 3

Final Peliminary Task Evaluation

I have now finished my preliminary task. This task was to create a front and contents page for a magazine about our school Haydon. Throughout this blog post I will be looking and evaluating different areas of my magazine and including screenshots, also talking about individual decisions I made or didn’t make to create the final 2 pages.

Before I started my magazine I looked and studied a lot of headlines to get an idea of what I wanted and how I wanted it too look and then I finally decided on a big bold headline which said ‘THE HAYDON SPOTLIGHT’ It would have been stretching across the top of the magazine and really captivating. However, when it came to creating the final piece on in design, I had to go with a different background picture therefore the title didn’t fit anymore due to the colours clashing and it just didn’t fit. I then spoke with my teacher who showed me a GQ magazine and their logo. It really fit with my design although different with my initial first designs. I believe that the logo is subtle but also in your face. I know that may not be a real thing, but the colours compared with the actual size, shape and font of the logo really draws the reader in. I chose the font and colours because they are simple yet bold and they look very arty but professional and that was key for me in my magazine. Another reason I chose them was because I wanted something that I could use throughout my magazine and they seemed to fit best. I think that is key with the audience I have, you want to be able to really grab their attention from the second they see the magazine. I also needed a strap line for my headline, I couldn’t just leave the magazine being called ‘HS’ because I did want to incorporate my initial headline so I put it in a small strap line underneath the logo so it didn’t take away from the boldness but you could still next to the actual title.

    Moving onto the background for my magazine. I firstly wanted the school stage as my background because my magazine was based on the arts and I think that fitted quite well. Clearly that isn’t what my background is. My background is of my friend Holly. The reason I chose this was for a few reason. One of them was there wasn’t a suitable picture of the school stage that I thought looked good on my magazine. One of the more important reasons was that I chose Holly compared to the other pictures is because of the positive message that the pictures. As soon as you see Holly smiling it automatically puts you in a good mood and I want this kind of positivity to flow through my magazine and reflect on the students in Haydon that read my magazine.

  I chose to put the non-important things out of the way for example my barcode because it doesn’t really do much for the magazine so I didn’t want it blocking out the real selling points such as plug lines or pictures, so I thought it would be easier to just put the barcode out of the way.

   Moving onto the plug lines, I chose to only do the three main stories within the magazine but advertise that there were more inside. The reason I chose to do 3 because they were the most interesting and if you read that on the front cover you would be enticed and want to read inside. I also didn’t want every single plug line on the front cover cluttering up the front page. I also wanted an element of surprise, so when you open the magazine you are surprised to find a whole heap of additional stories inside. The reason I chose to position the top 2 plug lines there was so it wasn’t all bunched up and they were spread apart.

With my contents page I wanted something quite basic and something that didn’t give too much away. For the background, despite my original ideas I chose to go for a plain background that matched the colours on my front page. I also chose to not have too much going on. On my front cover it was quite busy, not overly busy, but I didn’t want to crowd my contents page as well. When choosing the fonts and colours, I knew I wanted to keep constancy throughout my magazine and not stray too far away from the original colours I chose for the front cover. Additionally when choosing the images for my stories, I wanted pictures that really reflected the stories and weren’t pictures that didn’t relate. I tried to match the pictures to the story as closely as I could. Moving on to the positioning of the stories. I wanted to alternate so moving one story to the right and another to the left, I thought this was an effective way of filling up the space and made sure there weren’t any pointless gaps.

Overall I was very happy with the outcome of my final magazine and I wouldn’t change much as I believe that instinct is key and I am very proud of my first attempt at making a magazine.

Final Peliminary Task

 

Production Diary 2

Past Students Blog Review

Preliminary Design Ideas/ Production Diary 1

As you can see from the pictures below I have completed both of my perliminary design ideas for this part of the task. I really like the layout and design of my front cover. Some of this front cover wasn't planned and I completed it free hand. I believe that instinct is key and if you drew or wrote something on the page you intened it to be there, so that is why I decided not to plan everything to the last detail and I was happy that it fitted the look I was aiming for.
I think I might make a few changes to my contents page however. I will probably change it throughout the process of actaully making the final product. I am not as happy with it as I would like to be as I think it looks quite bare and empty so as I go along in the actaully making of it, it will become a lot more filled and reach a place where I am as happy with it as my front page.
When chosing the colours of my magazine, I wanted colours that could be bold and stand out but also be subtle and not too in your face. As my magazine is about the arts, I did want the colours to represent that. The arts can be subtle but they can also push limits and be out there and by chossing the boldness of the navy and the subtleness of the beige, I believe it represents what I was trying to capture.
The reason behind the name is very simple, I wanted the name of the school and something to do with performing arts and that is where the title 'Haydon Spotlight' came from. It is bold, catchy and simple. Moving on to the stories, I wanted to include stories that could include all students however catered specifically for the arts. This is why I included stories about 'canteen food that helps you focus' but also 'new exta curricular arts clubs'. Even though my magazine is quite specific, I believe covered a variety of stories.
I haven't decided on what specific fonts I want for each part of my magazine as I am hoping that it just comes naturally when I start creating it. Before I start to make the magazine however, I will look at some fonts and pick which ones I like best and which ones suit each heading.
Before I start creating the magazine, I do think I may need to go ou and collect a few more pictures, but since I first took pictures a week ago, my magazine has changed and I don't think I have as many pictures to fit my magazine as I would like.
The next step in my perliminary task is too start working my way through creating the finished product. Even though I haven't had much practise with photoshop I hope to work out bits with the help of my teacher and peers. My target for the next time I write a blog post is to have started actually peicing together parts of my magazine and to have the pictures ready to go.

Preliminary task

Our preliminary task is to create a magazine surrounding Haydon School. Once this task was set I knew that I wanted to do a magazine surrounding the creative side of Haydon. I started by taking pictures of the school and people within the school. This magazine will include subjects such as Art, Drama, Media and Music. For the front cover I wanted the stage in St Mary's Hall. In the magazine there will be articles such as 'exam results on the rise for the arts', 'new extra curriculum activites' and so on a so forth. I decided on the name 'Haydon Spotlight' as it reminds me of the performing arts and it's catchy so people will remember it. Now I have decided all of these elements, I will now begin to sketch my designs for my front cover and contents page and go into more depth as to what colours and images I want on my magazine.