Friday, 25 March 2011

Week 5

Tuesday 29th March
Today we had Harry and it was more of an independant lesson, where we all undertook our work and did not have much being discussed as a class, it was like a 'workshop' day. I wanted to spend the lesson starting all 3 of my pages (front cover, contents page, and double page spread) but ended up just starting my front cover and contents page. I created the layouts for both of them, and all I needed was photos for both pages and text for the double page spread. After lesson I went to Chichester town centre and took pictures of the Cathedral grounds for my front cover. I will hopefully upload the photo next lesson and hopefully complete my front cover. I still need to take pictures for my double page spread and contents page, but again I will hopefully do this next lesson.

Thursday 31st March


Friday 1st April
This morning we organised our gutters and columns on our double page spread. It was handy to know how to create them on Photoshop but seemed pretty pointless to most people as we had already started them and not included gutters. I had briefly created a layout without them but I could always re-start it because it was only brief and was not detailed or had any pictures on.

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Week 4

Tuesday 22nd March
Today I had a 1:1 meeting with Harry so that I could find out more information about my client's needs and what he thought of my ideas. It was a great help as it helped me see what I needed to do and also what areas/topics I needed to change. As last lesson, I pitched my ideas, it meant that I did not have anymore paperwork to get on with this lesson. I extended my production schedule to include things such as creating my final product and also the deadlines for them. I need to create a mast-head and name of the magazine, come up with relevant images and create a QR barcode for my pages before next lesson.

The areas discussed in the meeting with Harry are below:
  • Need name for magazine
  • My front cover could include picture of students socialising in well-known Chichester places instead of my idea of a picture of the front of college.
  • My contents page could contain images and topics that appeal to students, such as politics, cultural, role models, or university information.
  • My text on my double page spread was going to be short and not too interlectual, but after discussing with Harry we decided that my target audience would rather read lengthy articles.
  • Finally, we discussed that my double page spread would include places to go and clothes to wear for students. It would be a cross between fashion and lifestyle of students. I could even lay it out as if it is a daily routine.
Thursday 24th March
Today we had a group discussion about magazine front covers and the layouts. We looked at a Vibe magazine front cover with Eminem. We wrote and discussed the layout of it such as how Eminem was infront of the title of the magazine because it was a well-known magazine and it could be recognisable even with some of the title covered up. We also spoke about the background gradient and how we could create this on Photoshop. We noted that the colours were mainly reds, blacks, and silvers, because of the target audience of boys and spoke about how we need to come up with a colour scheme for our magazine.

 [1]


The next magazine we looked at was called Amber. It was a gossip magazine aimed at a younger girls audience. You can tell this because of the colours that are used, such as purples, yellows and pinks. We spoke as a class about how different it was to the Vibe magazine, mentioning the colours, layout and detail. For example, on this magazine, as it is not as famous as the Vibe magazine, Jennifer love-hewitt is behind the title because if she was infront of it, people may not recognise the magazine. Things such as the price, was much more bigger probably because it is aiming to gain readers everytime whereas Vibe does not.

Amber magazine front cover
















[2]

The final magazine we looked at was Kerrang! This was a music magazine with a different target audience to Vibe. This magazine appeared more 'in your face' than Vibe because the people reading it would more than likely be rock and roll listeners and grudge people. This has a powerful image of Green Day on the front cover which is also infront of the title as with Vibe magazine because of it's popularity and identity. We noted that the colours were whites, greens, blacks and yellows. Each colour was aiming to catch the audience's eye, and collectively they made everything look cluttered and messy.

 [3]

Friday 25th March
Today we had Simon and we spoke about typography. We spoke about how each font would have a background to it, and a reason why and where it is used. I undertook primary researched in some fonts that appealed to me in Photoshop. I printed off 10 fonts that I liked, printed them off in 3 groups, a group of just upper case, a group of upper and lower case, and a group of just lower case. I then put them on an A3 sheet of paper, so that I could see them all together and find it easier to pick a favourite. I researched all the meanings of them and where they were used previously, I chose Century Gothic because it is used a lot in displaying information, and I thought this would be recognisable for readers.

[1] http://whollysblog.com/wordpress/eminem-vibe-magazine-real-rap-issue/
[2] http://www.antijen.org/amber/
[3] http://www.greenday.com/site/news.php?pageNum_NewsItems=86&totalRows_NewsItems=870

Friday, 18 March 2011

Week 3

Tuesday 15th March
Today Harry briefed us with ideas for what we could include in our pitch. He mentioned about moodboards, initial ideas, detailed target audience, market research of content, copyright, questionnaires to content and constraints. I took notes in my notepad, and then I added to my production schedule areas that I had missed off. I began my powerpoint presentation and created 4 opening slides using information I have already collected. I then filled out the other slides with areas I need to look at so I can complete them on Thursday.

Thursday 17th March
Today was my final day for completing my presentation as tomorrow I have to pitch and will not have any time for last minute changes. I completed all slides as I had done homework on Wednesday and was able to do research. I had also sketched out and wrote what was to be included in each slide, so that today all I had to do was write it up on Microsoft Powerpoint.

Friday 18th March
Today I pitched my idea to the class of about 40. Many were absent and there was about 20 from our class and 20 from the other class. I thought I would be unconfident as I would not know half of the class but I think I done really well. I thought I was confident and addressed the audience well, and thought the content was okay. I would like to find out my mark from the lecturers so that I could see where I can improve for my next pitch.

Sunday, 13 March 2011

Week 2

Tuesday 8th March
Our production schedule that we created last week came into use this week. I used it to let me know when I need to complete certain tasks and also use it as a checklist. I researched existing magazines and wrote down some names of some so that I could use them in my pitch later on next week.

Thursday 10th March
This lesson, I created a moodboard on my feelings and things that would be useful for my magazine. I made sure that I did not spend too long on it as it would waste valuable time. I then scanned it onto Adobe Photoshop and edited it, changing the contrast, brightness and adding other pictures to it.

Friday 11th March

Today I analysed a page out of an Empire magazine. I noted down all conventions that I knew was included on the page from my previous knowledge of magazine analysis from last year's media studies. I worked with Rebecca Turner and we found that our page was different to the pages from another magazine. The guidelines such as columns were different to what we expected, and they were not all of equal size so it did not co-inside with what we learnt previously. I photocopied the page so we both had a copy and now we're preparing to work on our pitch which is next friday, so we won't be focusing as much on the digital graphics side of the work, more on the practical side.

Friday, 4 March 2011

Week 1

Tuesday 1st March
We started our project and Harry spoke to us about our briefs. We were given homework,to look at several briefs that Harry provided to us. We had to analyize the briefs, depict them and write a report about them.

Thursday 3rd March
I handed in my homework from Harry's lesson to Andy. I thought it went well because I could easily understand the briefs. In class, we spoke about creating a production schedule for our work that we will start to produce next week. We were told that we were going to undertake the ASH brief which required us to create a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread for students.

Friday 4th March
Today we had to research Vector and Raster graphics. I took some notes on the tasks that we were set and then went straight on to the internet to search for relevant websites. I managed to collect six pages of notes and a vast amount of websites. This will prove helpful when I come to write up my report later on today.
New Assignment

Magazine