Week 4...preliminary task...

Evaluation of preliminary task...

My task was to produce a front cover and contents page of a school magazine. The front cover had to feature a medium close up of a student plus some appropriately laid out text and masthead. The contents page was a mock-up to show layout of text and photos.

My initial ideas were to create a clear well presented front cover that would appeal to any student at my school. I wanted to include interesting sell lines and to make it evenly laid out. For my contents page I wanted it to also look appealing to readers, mainly to have a good layout and colours and text that would work well with the front cover.

Looking at my front cover I notice that I have succeeded in having it evenly laid out, the photograph I took of a student is in the centre with the writing around the students body. The writing is in capital letters apart from the main story, they are clear to se. The name of the magazine is ‘Sheldon’s best’ and is in a navy blue which is the colour of the school uniform. The rest of the writing is also this colour. I used a star as a competition prize to grab the reader’s attention and used a vibrant yellow colour. There is a picture which is linking to my main story, which is in large black text across the front of the student’s body.

The sketch I drew of my front cover is generally the same layout as my finished front cover. It includes the writing alongside the body and the star with the competition in it. It also has a banner at the bottom which is also include on my finished front cover. Although the picture I drew is slightly different front my final photo. The picture looks like the person is looking down at the camera, whereas my final photo has the student look slightly to the side at the camera. The writing is entirely different. I originally wanted to use an old fashioned style of writing, slightly italic. This is not what I used on my final front cover; I used a more modern and clearer style.

I found it quite tricky to get the photo perfect for a magazine cover. I tried taking a photo outside, but couldn’t find anywhere suitable on a rainy day to take it. I thought a library would be acceptable, as it is educational and is setting a good example, although when I took various photos, I could not make the photo stand out and look good enough. I did take many photos of the same student in different position such as leaning on a table, sitting on a beanbag and standing by a window. I had a problem with the background for the photos. Firstly that the books on the shelf looked untidy, and that I could not line up the book shelf behind the person in the photo. I finally found a photo which was suitable, sitting on a beanbag with bookshelves in the background.

I decided I needed to use Photoshop on the photo to make it more enhancing. I had used Photoshop before, but wasn’t confident on it. Looking at the bookshelves in the background of the photo I knew that if text was put on to it, it wouldn’t be very clear. So I used a blurring filter which would make text clear, but would also make the student stand out more. I also enhanced the contrast and brightness because the photo was dark and dull. This made it look much more positive. I used the magnetic lasso tool to make the student fairly brighter than the background as well.

I am happy with my Contents page because think make use of layout is good and I think it would be appealing to younger students. I have used similar colours to the front cover. Down the side there is the list of contents and a main story on the right hand side of the page. The title is my favourite part of it, because it is slightly transparent and behind it is a musical note and stars which grabs reader’s attention. I used the same star for the competition prize for this page too. I used three boxes to show where there would be photos, of different size and some diagonally placed on the page.

The sketch I drew of my content page was exactly what I wanted to achieve, so I did the same for my final page which I am happy with. The only thing I altered was the border around the edge. On my sketch I put everything into one border, but I decided to use separate boxes for all my text on the final outcome.

As this was a mock-up I didn’t use any photos and I didn’t use Photoshop either. I used the drawing tools on word to make the boxes for my text and to layer the title and the stars and musical note together. I also resized everything to fit to size onto the page.

I think my layout of both my front cover and contents page turned out really well, because it really does stand out to readers, especially young readers. I’m also happy with my photoshopping on the photo on the front cover because it looks so much better brighter. I think I made a good choice on what text to use and what sizing to use so it can be seen well. Although I think I blurred the background of the photo well, I think the one thing that I would change would be the setting of my photo. The writing is clear on top of the blurring, but I think it could be clearer. Next time I may also try doing both my front cover and contents page on Photoshop as it is easier to fit onto an A4 sheet to print.