Magazine Design EvaluationCesca Haig

For my initial research I created a questionnaire and gave it to people around college and to people in my class to fill in, I put all the results in a table so that I could compare the results for each question and find the things that I should include in my magazine. My results showed that I should include advertisement for free posters and interviews with different actors/actresses. They also showed that people were more likely to buy a magazine if they were offered free things and had more pictures than writing. The results showed me what type of cover people were most drawn to so I used that magazine as inspiration for my magazine cover.

Initial Research

For my product I compared two magazine covers, as I originally was going to do a music magazine I compared two music magazine, from this I learnt about all the different parts of a magazine and how they are made to stand out. This research showed me that I should include things such as cover lines and a main selling line. It also showed me that I should have a bold title to stand out as this would help if I was actually selling my magazine.I also compared two double page spreads and two contents pages, so that I could see what elements I should add to mine, this helped me decide how to set out my double page spread and what things I should have on my contents page. I want the target audience of my magazine to be anybody who is interested in film, the people who are more likely to buy my magazine are young adults aged 14-35, the films featured are blockbusters rather than small indie films. I will make sure that the colours, logo and images that I use in my magazine appeal to people of different ages and who like different genres of film as the magazine will feature different genres.

Product Research

The aim of my project is to make a magazine that appeals to people of any gender between the ages of 14-35. My magazine will feature different genres of films and different elements that will appeal to people of younger ages and more detailed elements for the older person. My magazine will be similar to magazines such as Empire and Total film, these both feature different genres and elements liked by different ages and genders. I will have to make sure that the house style and set out is done in a way that doesn’t turn older people off but catches the eye of younger people as well as older people.

Aim of project

This is my logo design, I picked it from a selection of five that I found on the website www.dafont.com. I liked this design best out of all of them because I thought it stood out the most as all the others were a thinner font. This font is more scribbly, rather than a computer text which the others were. I think this goes more with my magazine design because I didn’t want my magazine to be too strict looking, this is because I wanted it to appeal to young teenagers as well as older, more mature people.

Logo Design

These are some of the images that I edited for my magazine, the bottom one is the one for the cover and the others were used on the contents and double page spread. For each image I cropped them down so there was less background and more person. I then changed the hue and saturation of the image, I did to make the images less bright and to take away the glare from the light slightly. The next thing I did to these images was changed the colour balance, I only changed them slightly as to not changed the colouring too much but to make all the colours match up on the image.

Image Editing

This is the magazine cover that I have designed, I put it the cover together on Photoshop, I mainly just used the text tool and added my logo that I made on dafont.com. I had previously looked at two magazine covers which showed me what elements I should add, the elements I added were the main cover line and other cover lines telling you what is in the magazine. I picked a dark blue and a lighter blue as my main colours as I think it makes the cover stand out and is different from the red used in many other magazines I looked at when researching. I think the text that I have used is easily read and stands out enough for if it was to be on a magazine shelf. I think I have spread everything out well and that it isn't all crowed together, I think this works well because there isn't too much to have to read but you still get an outline of what is in the magazine. I have left space for my main image to be added, the main image will cover most of the page and have the text over it.

Magazine Cover

This is the contents page for my magazine design, I completed this design on Photoshop. I have kept the same colours, grey and blues, as on my front cover, this is so that it follows on and doesn’t look as though you are reading a different magazine from the cover. On contents pages that I have looked at from other magazines, they have smaller images showing what things you will find in the magazine, I have added some images of Iron Man 3 and Despicable Me 2 as I have stated in my list of contents that you will find pages on those two films. I have also made a box with subscription details on, which I made in adobe illustrator, and added it to the bottom, this was something that I had seen on the contents pages that I looked at for my research. I think again I have spread everything out well and that all the text is easily read, the description of the page is smaller than the main title, I think this works because it doesn’t distract you from seeing anything else on the page but can still be read.

Contents page

Double Page Spread

This is my double page spread that I made on Photoshop, the text used is the same colour and font used on the front cover, again this is so that the pages go together and don’t look as though they are from different magazines. I used smaller italic text for the introduction to my interview, the main image for this page will go underneath this text but will still be readable. I copied and pasted the interview, which I completed on Microsoft word, into text boxes on Photoshop and spent time finding a readable font that could still be quite small to fit it all in. I think the final product is good because you can read it all and differentiate between the questions and answers from the interviewee. I think this page works well because the persons name stands out well but when the image has been placed you will still be able to read both bits of text, the interview also stands out well without distracting you completely from the main image.

To gather feedback on my magazine I made a survey on a website called survey monkey, I put a link to the survey and my magazine on to a blog, I thought this was an easier way for people to see what they are giving feedback on and for them to find the feedback survey. I then asked 10 people to complete the survey. Link to survey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RW8C5MYLink to Blog - http://cescamagsurvey.blogspot.co.uk/Results -

Feedback

Feedback

I think that the task I did best were the research into magazine covers, contents and double page spreads. I think that my finished cover is good as I have used the covers I researched and others that I have seen and used different elements from them on my magazine, this shows that I have used the research that I did and used it to help me make my magazine look more professional.I have been consistent with the house style throughout the magazine and I think it is all easily read and well set out. I do think my research was my biggest strength in this project, this is possibly because it is something that I enjoy doing as in other projects that has been my strength also. I think that I have met the aims for my project because I have used a good house style, that is eye-catching but doesn’t make older people think that the magazine is aimed at children.

Strengths

My weaknesses on this project were time management, I didn’t get my images until the very end when I had completed everything else. It took me a while to actually get into the project and I spent a few weeks wasting time not doing anything. This was not an ideal thing to do as it meant that some of my work might look rushed although I did go back and try to improve this. I am easily distracted by the internet and this is another reason why my work took a while longer than it should of done. While we were doing this project we swapped teachers and for a while he was unsure of what work to set us but this was sorted out by our original tutor and our new one within a week.

Weaknesses