Evaluation of the preliminary task

Evaluation: Preliminary Task

The preliminary task is a bit like a ‘practise run’ that is meant to help us fine tune and improve our skills. We had to produce a front cover of a new school magazine as well as design a contents page. We presented the front cover and design of the contents page, and design of the front cover, as well as the target audience profile and the mission statement on a blog that we also had to create. This offered me some experience of blogging before the main task too.

 My magazine cover followed the conventions of magazines better than my contents page. The magazine cover I created, I had the masthead in the usual position and added a drop shadow. I presented most of the sell-lines on the left hand side of the magazine cover. I added a ‘glow’ to the text as I thought it would be difficult to read it clearly. I added a more visible glow to the text ‘how to celebrate your 18^th’ as I thought it was appropriate that ‘celebrating your 18^th’ was highlighted to emphasize the idea that a person’s 18^th birthday is an important event. My contents page though was made up entirely. I did not think a lot about what other magazine contents pages contain or the positioning of images or text. I think I should have thought more about following the conventions of magazines as it looks a bit ‘messy’.

 The symbiotic link between the front cover and contents page, I imagine was average, I think it could have had a stronger link, but at the time I was designing my contents page I did not pay enough attention to how I could link the two together. I have however kept the colours similar, red and blue for the text, as on the cover the masthead is blue and the banner is a red-ish colour. I also had the same puff on the contents page -almost in the same position as on the front cover. I have a picture of a car on the contents page linking to one of the main sell lines. There is a smaller image of the model -on the front cover- on the contents page, she has a different facial expression and is standing in a altered position, the lighting and background are also slightly different to the image on the front cover- but her hairstyle, make-up and costume is exactly the same. I think I should have had the exact same text on the contents page as on the front cover to make it very easy to link the contents page to the magazine.

 I believe I have successfully made it clear to the audience that the school magazine will both inform and entertain as I have stated in my mission statement and target audience profile that- “Douay Matters will educate and entertain students”. I have provided information that shows that the magazine will inform or educate the audience as there will be national and international news as well as guidance about homework and exams. Entertainment in the magazine has also been highlighted as stated again in the target audience profile and mission statement. The magazine will provide random facts and there will be articles on music, films and books- including reviews. I think that the ‘promises’ will be satisfied on the front cover by having a sell-lines that relate to it, and more information about it on the contents page.

 The front cover and contents page I believe is appealing to both male and female six form students. The colours used on the front cover and contents page- red and blue- are traditionally associated with male and female. The main sell lines are attracting both audience’s attention as there are sell lines targeted at specifically male audience- such as the sports section- and there are articles targeted at the female audience- “how to be smart and stylish”. There are also sell lines that will appeal to both members of the target audience such as “learning to drive” and “best songs to study to”. Both members of the target audience are interested in learning to drive and music appeals to both genders as well. Ensuring that the male target audience are paying attention to the sports section and that the female target audience are paying most of their attention on the fashion section, as well as both genders focusing on the music and other parts, will enable the magazine to have a strong pull on both genders.

A strength of my front cover is that it looks like a school magazine. It looks professional but also has a twist to it, the masthead has a classic text that looks educational, but with the drop shadow it adds a more modern effect- thus suggesting that the magazine is educational but also fun. The model I used presented her-self in a smart manor but she also gave a friendly smile, inviting the target audience to pick up the magazine. I do think that the lighting could have been better but due to limited time, the weather and the location it was not easily possible to perfect everything. I was fond of the background of the front cover, but later found it was difficult to air brush signs. The background of the image was of the front of the school with a large sign displaying the school’s name, showing that the magazine relates to school.  I thought that the ‘glow’ around ‘celebrate your 18^th’ was appropriate and thought it  made all of the text easier to read- although I think it would have looked better if the text was a different colour. I believe adding a puff and a banner made it more interesting and eye catching, as well as making the magazine look more sophisticated and professional. I could have improved the banner by adding some images but I only remembered this once I had already presented the final front cover. If that happened again then I would ask my teachers if I could change it, or if I could stay afterschool to add images. My contents page had large text saying ‘Oct’ as that is the month it will be published in, the text was the colour red, which related to the banner on the front cover. My first design of the front cover was not very good and I went to see my teacher and she said I had the basics but I should re-do it. I re- designed the front cover and made improvements, I am glad that I went and doubled checked with my teacher about what to do.

I definitely need to work on my photo shop skills! This is the first time I used the program, while having a help sheet next to me I still struggled slightly. The layers on the program confused me a lot and I would be trying to select something for a while before realising I was on the wrong layer. I think I should possibly work on my photography skills as well, the image I ended up using was okay, but I think I could have gotten a better image if I had better knowledge of cameras and knowing more about mise-en-scene and the power of the outside location. I think I could have had a more simple background and used some iconography to give more of a hint that the magazine is a school magazine, instead of using the school’s name in the background. However I only became fully aware of the importance of iconography and mise-en-scene after the deadline for the front cover. I think introducing a book or folder or even a pen or pencil to the front cover would have shown that the magazine is definitely, one hundred percent a school magazine. Learning more about technology is something I also need to do. It took me a while to be able to transfer the image for my front cover onto the computer at school a while, also I found it challenging to load the final front cover onto a memory stick so I could upload it onto the blog. Luckily one of my teachers helped me. The blog is also new to me and I am having to learn how to import images and publish things.

 

To conclude I have learnt a lot of new skills on photo shop, blurring, changing the colour, changing the brightness of an image and adding drop shadow and glow onto text. I need to work harder on the photo shop and photography skills I have to ensure that I get the best possible result. I think I should also spend more time and care preparing the designs as I had to re-design because they were not the best they could be. I would like to practise using photo shop more and knowing exactly what each tool is meant to do, something I will make a priority in my free time. I would like to take more images of my model, with different mise-en-scene, different props, lighting and possibly outfit, in different locations so I have more of a choice when choosing my final front cover. I will plan my time out better next time so that I do not panic and have to make last minute decisions. I will practise using the photo shop program and I will ask if I am unsure of something as I wasted time by trying to figure something out by myself instead of just asking a teacher. I did not come across any method or technique that particularly went well, but I do think that using the drop shadow on my masthead helped reflect the target audience- as it had old fashioned text, which reflects the educational aspects of the students, and the drop shadow is more modern and fun, showing that the students also enjoy having fun, but do still study. I did learn how to edit certain things out of an image, I will probably edit my next image in some way or have a more simple background. Overall I think my final front cover was a good start considering that this is the first time I am studying media but I would have liked it to have been better, even if it was just changing the text colour, I feel like there is something I can improve on but I am not entirely sure what it is.