Wednesday 20 October 2010

Evaluation
I was asked to design and create a college magazine for Wyke College and a mock up of a contents page for the magazine which i therefore went on to design.
Our magazine had to have a photograph of a student that was a medium close up shot, the main connotation of this magazine is to inform former students of all gender, social groups and between the age of 16-19 at Wyke College, such as events and general information.
I decided to name my magazine 'Wyke & You' the 'You' directly talks to the audience drawing them in.
I decided to keep the Wyke College colour house style to allow consistency and allow the magazine to be recognisable for the students.
As the photograph of the student is the main theme for my magazine I wanted her to stand out, I did this by blurring the background and turning it to a black and white contrast i then changed the contrast to brighten the student. I also changed the colour of the folder that the student is holding because this is a connotation for learning this folder represents that so by changing to colour to match the Masthead colour palette created consistency and relevance. I learnt from my research that it is important for the main image to connotate positivity, I did this by allowing my student to smile and look happy this creates a sense that by reading this magazine you'll be as happy as this student.
By rotating the 'You' in my masthead it allowed the masthead to be interesting, the different angles created texture and a playful look. I kept all my text font the same to allow consistency, the cover lines are all in a white colour palette as this stood out from the main image. White is also a positive connotation.
A date and issue number was also added, these are vital to allow identification of the magazine, in my research I found that all dates and issue numbers are placed at the top of the magazine near the masthead.
I also placed a barcode on my magazine, this is also used for identification, when researching the barcode position differed either being on the right hand side of the magazine or left.
A website address of the magazine is added to let the reader know that they can find more information on this website address, information that may not of been put into the magazine.
I am really happy about my final design for my magazine, I think everything works well and everything I design was created for positive connotation. If I could re-design this magazine to improve it I would change the layout of the coverlines so that they don't interfere with the main image as much.


Contents page
A contents page is the next page after the front cover, it is used to inform the reader of each page in the magazine and was they consist of.
My final design is simple but informative and this is exactly what I wanted to achieve, by having a text heavy and busy contents page would take the main use of the contents page away.
I used two images of students working this creates a positive connotation of  hard working students. The main house colour for this contents page is white - a positive connotation. I then added a block colour rectangle to add more colour and to modernise it, I then changed the opacity of this colour block to simmer the colour down so that the background would not take away the importance of the text. As you can see I have used a consistent house style once again created a recognisable contents page.
My numbers of each page number are larger than the actual text, I decided to do this mostly to allow the page numbers to stand out but also because it looked better than a smaller sized font.
I also decided to write a message for the readers of the magazine to directly connect to the audience this is also essential for magazines to allow the readers to get in touch to ask questions and even to let the institution what they thought of the magazine and future cover stories to write about.
I am very happy with my final design for contents page, if i had to improve my contents page I would play around with the idea of creating a more image heavy design, this could create more of an interesting theme.


In what ways does your print produce use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real print products? I feel the print that I have created does use conventions of a real print product, I have used a consistent house style which all real print products use to allow the magazine to be identifiable to the consumer. My magazine consists of various cover lines and a medium close up shot that mostly all real print products would use.
Most magazines that I researched had a blank canvas background therefore I challenged the conventions of real print products by having what could be explained as a heavy background but I managed to get around this by blurring and changing to a black and white contrast.
I have also challenged the conventions of


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? I feel that my main product and ancillary texts are effective together as the subjects of the text that i have included are related to student life, the cover line 'Revision Tips' relates to every student in the whole world every student does exams and revision tips is very useful for them.

What have you learned from you audience feedback?
I am happy with my audience feedback, it has informed me of good decisions i made to create this magazine also of elements that I can improve on, like laying out my front cover differently so that the cover lines do not interject with the main image. One comment was mentioned about my contents page and that I can improve it by adding more images in but this is what I did not want to do, I did think about the advantages of having more images but I felt that having many images would take away the main concept of a contents page, which is to inform the reader of page numbers.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?
When creating my college magazine and contents page I used media technologies such as a digital camera to allow the photograph to be sharper and better quality, I also use Photoshop, this allowed my actual process of creating the magazine easier and also I was able to create more detailed designs with different effects. I also used media technologies throughout the process of designing and creation process as well as the evaluation of the magazine by posting each part of the process onto a blog.
Final Design of Contents Page
This is my final design for my contents page, I did not want a contents page that was too busy or text heavy so I acreated a simple design by using a consistant house style, by giving simple text and a few images allows the reader to be informed of page numbers but not being distracted from too much.
Contents Page - Mock up

This is a mock up of my contents page for my college magazine.


Final Front Cover Magazine Design

This is my final magazine front cover design. I have made many developments when creating this magazine but all very vital for a successful looking magazine. I feel the blurred and black and white background works perfectly against the main image, allowing it to stand out.

Chosen Image, Editing & Development

This is the image I have chosen for my front cover, I chose this photograph mostly because it was one of the better medium close ups out of all the photographs that I had taken. I also preferred the position and body language of the student, she's smiling creating an inviting sense and I liked that there was a little bit of background showing, enough to see what’s happening but not enough to grab the attention away from the main image of the student.

I then took this image to Photoshop and started to create my front cover of my college magazine.
I firstly started off by editing the background, I wanted the student to stand out, and so to do this I blurred the background and changed it to a black and white contrast. I then changed the contrast of the student to create dominant feel, this allows the audience to portray what students at this college is like - (happy and smiling).

I then created my masthead with a simple text font 'copperplate gothic', by having a simple font allows the text to be clear and readable. I also used the Wyke college colours to allow consistency and familiarity. I also decided to enhance the folder the student is carrying, mostly to represent learning but also to allow it to stand out more, I used the same blue as in the title colour.
I then started to develope my magazine by putting in the coverlines, website adress, issue number, barcode and date.
I decided to use a white pallette colour the text of the coverlines as this colour allowed the text to stand out against the background.

Sunday 17 October 2010

Here are all the images i took in college of students for my front over design. I wanted a good selection of pictures to choose from so by taking a variety I had more to choose from. I decided to take photo's during lesson time to create a sense of learning in the picture.















Magazine Coverlines and Anchorage

An important element for a successful magazine is to have intreging coverlines and anchorage, It was hard thinking of coverlines for my college magazine as i did not want to create coverlines that were not relevant to the college so i came up with coverlines relevant with this year and students.

New York 2011 - This will be my main anchorage for my college magazine,

EMA - EMA is relevant for many students at Wyke college this therefore could pull in their interest to read
Student Crew & You - Student crew at wyke college are important they help students and plan events for the whole college to enjoy.
Revision Tips - Revision tips are relevant for EVERYONE at college, they are useful and potentially allow students to pass their exams.

Friday 15 October 2010

Magazine Name
I want my magazine name to be fresh and diverse to visualy apply to my target audience, I want it to be short and snappy somehting that clicks and grabs attention when read.

WSFC Magazine
Wyke Student
Wyke Times

Wyke & You
Wyke Knowledge

I have decided to name my college magazine - 'Wyke & You', I initially chose this because it is short and catchy, the 'You' also adressing the audience directly creating an importance for the reader.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Plan of Magazine Cover
This is a mock up of what my magazine front cover may look like, I have included all the key concepts for a  successful looking magazine, I decided to have a large masthead that will be centred at the top of the page. I want my magazine to be simple but effective so by having a simple structure will alow me to create this. This is only a plan, my ideas may change in the way I layout the Language concepts but I will not know until i start playing around ith ideas and layouts on Photoshop. 
Spider Diagram

My Magazine Ideas

After researching and analysing relevant magazines i have started to plan my ideas for my college magazine front cover and contents page.
I want my magazine to be colourful diverse and edgy and will have all the required magazine concepts.
This magazine is a college magazine for students so it will be free of charge, i will be using the existing Wyke colours - Purple, Green, Blue and White, I decided to keep these colours to allow identification , these colours are also bright and eye-catching which is excatly what I need for a successful magazine.

Colour Connotations Purple - purple is asscociated with wisdom, independence, creativity, nobility and power. this is a great colour to have represented with the college, all these connotations of purple can represent a student that is creative and full of wisdom, it could also represent the college in its independence and power.

Green - Growth, freshness, safety, stability and endurance. Green can represent the growth of the college and the growth of students throughout their educational experiences (grwing up into adulthood)


Blue - Depth, stability, trust, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, calming and intellect. Blue can represent the intelligence of students and the colleges confidence of great education.

White - Possitive connotation - Light, goodness, innocence, purity, perfection, safety, successful beguinning, simplicity. White can represent the goodness and safety of the college and represent the succession of students.


My front cover will have catchy headings and sloagns to absorb attention from the consumers, i would like to create articles rhetorical questions to also get the consumer thinking. My main image will be of a student(s) to represent the college.
Codes and conventions of a magazine front cover
Masthead: This is the name of the magazine. The masthead is how people recognize the magazine, most mastheads are of a unique font to make the magazine more recognisable.
Selling Line: Short description of what the magazine is about.
Main Image: A big image, relevant to the magazine, usually meant to draw people in.
Main cover line: Vary large writing usually telling the viewer the main story inside.
Cover lines: Usually distributed around the images in the left third (the left third of the magazine, important for selling the magazine, usually where the title is located and m0st of the cover lines).
Bar code: Most Magazines have a standard barcode printed for retailers.
Dateline: The date, usually the months and year of the publication. The price is usually displayed with the date

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Analysis of Magazine Front Cover

This magazine is a called GQ, I felt that if i anaylised more magazines that were completely different i could compare and contrast between them. Even though this is not a college magazine it still has the same properties as what a college magazine would have, which is relevant. This front cover of this magazine I feel is simple. The simplicity works well with this magazine; it contains the well known GQ masthead. GQ magazine has been around for many years. The main cover line is a vital importance on any magazine. A cover line is like a hook, bringing the audience in with one glance. The main cover line seems to be up in the right hand corner ‘How to dress for warmth weather’ as it is larger than any of the other cover lines. Although my eye contact went straight to the name of the cover model –‘Robert Pattinson Is Here’
the main colour theme that stands out the most is red, the master head Q is red and so is some of the cover line text. The black text against the white background allows the text to be easily readable and clear. The colour of text depends on the background and image on the magazine as I have found in my research. By looking at different issues of GQ magazine I was able to identify that there isn’t one consistent colour theme for this magazine. On this magazine there are a total of eight cover lines. Most being laid out to the left of the magazine, and another pushed to the right in a grey box, this text may be in a box to allow it to stand out better. If there was no box there’s a chance the text would clash with the image and not allowing it to be clear. This magazine also has a slogan – ‘Look smart, Live smart’ this is also important, it is on every GQ magazine located below the mast head. This anchor is also a technique of drawing an audience in. This magazine also contains the GQ website address.  I feel this magazine is effective; the simplicity is perfect it balances every single thing out from the GQ website address to the photographic image. The colours contrast well and does it s job by drawing the audience
in.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Analysis of Secondary Magazine

I have decided to look at another Secondary Teachers magazine for extra initial research. Also because this magazine is closer to my target group for the magazine i will be designing. This magazine has the same layout concepts as the Primay Teachers magazine I analysed first, the different colour scheme creates a separation between the primary and secondary age. The image is of a student looking happy, again this creates a theme that students will be happy if the teacher reads this magazine. I would say this magzine is alot more simple to the Primary school magazine. Initially this magazine has exactly the same concepts of the Primary school magazine just different language elements like coverlines and imagery. The connotation for this magazine is again to inform teachers.

Codes and Conventions of a College Magazine Contents Page
Headings- the heading of each story is displayed on the contents page, this is so people can find what they want to see quickly and easily.
Sub-heading- this is usually a quick sentence explaining what the story is about.
Images- on the contents of most magazines there are some pictures which are part of the whats inside, this gives the reader visual information of the stories.
Page Numbers- the contents contains a page number next to the heading and sub-heading of each story.
Linked companies or organisations- magazines often display organisations which they support such as recycling.
Contact details- the contact details for the magazine are often printed on the contents so people can write into the company for any reason.
Analysis of College Contents Page

Here is the contents page for the Primary school magazine.
It consists of the same colour sheme as the front cover given a sense of consistancy. The masthead is large and tells the reader atomatically what they want to know, 'what's inside'. I would say this contetns page is complicated, full of information that may be relevant but too much for a contents page. It has all the features (cover stories) and a coverline for regulars, this created separation between the features and pages that are regular to the magazine, this allows the reader to identify each page. There is one main image of children which gives consistancy of the style of the magazine. There is a welcome message to the teachers, the welcome mesage also askes for there thoughts of the magazine, having questions like this is helpful to the institution allowing room for improvement if any. The use of font is a medium size, that is readable and clear. On the right hand corner at the bottom of the page there is all the editors names of the magzine, it also gives information about recycling the magazine. There are terms and conditions about the magazine abou the rights, errors or omissions also about the opions that are expressed are those of the author.
Codes and Conventions of a College Magazine

Masthead- the masthead of college magazines tend to be very basic, i think this is because college magazines tend to be a tad more formal than a normal magazine. The masthead on a college magazine also goes from the left page edge to the right page edge.
Main Image- the main image on college magazines is usually a basic image with little editing of the image as they want it to look real.
Cover Lines- the coverlines on a college magazine are not all located on the left hand side and they are all in the same font and colours, there is one main cover line which is usually linked with the main image, other than that the rest of the coverlines seem to be equal.
Web Address- most college magazines have a web address so people can contact the magazine.
Date Line- this is the month and year that the edition was published.

Image Analysis

This is a magazine front cover for primary teachers. i can use this magazine to help me identify the important cpncepts of a school magazine.

L- This front cover is simple, with a white back wash and a large mast head that is centred and stretch's from the left side to the right side edge of the magazine. The masthead is large, and the use of colour works well against the blank canvas background allowing the masthead to stand out. Part of the masthead has been cut of by the image but this does not seem to be a problem as it is still identifiable and readable. On this magazine there are four cover-lines, all consisting of the same colour, again to keep consistancy and identifiation, cover lines are used for anchorage, to intrege the audience with snippets of what the magazine consists of. A website address is also shown at the bottom in the right hand corner, websites are normally created for informative reasons, so this web address will lead you to more information for teachers. There is a date line to show who the thr magazine was made by and when.

I- The instituion of this magazine is the teachersnet.gov.uk who are a department for children, schools and families. their logo is also shown on this magazine, for identification.
I- The ideology of this magazine is to inform primary school teachers, this magazine gives tips and adivce.
A- The target audience of this magazine is Primary school teachers, mkaing an age range between 20 - 50 years of age. having a target audience just for primary school techers makes it harder for this magazine to sell as it is only for  a group of a majority.
R- The representation of this magazine is the primary school girl, who is smartly dressed in a typical primary school uniform. she is identifiable as a student.
she is smiling and looks happym having this school girl represent the magazine allows the target audience of primary school teachers become drawn in, it will allow the audience to think that this magazine will help them let there students happy when teaching.

Friday 8 October 2010

Key Concepts
LANGUAGE- Visual representations - masthead, slogans.
INSTITUTION - The company that produced the text
IDEOLOGY- Purpose of the text, ideas, the message
AUDIENCE- Who is this text aimed for, target audience - male, female, mothers, teachers etc
REPRESENTATION- How is it represented? Does it create a positive/ negative connotations of something?

The Brief
Premliminary exercise using DTP and an image manipulation programme, produce the front cover page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP. Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you- minimum of four images.

Presentation of your Work
The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any on, or combination of two or more, of the following:
. a presentation using slideshow software such as Powerpoint;
. a blog
. a podcast
Final Product and Evaluation

I was asked to design and create a magazine advertisement for a perfume advert; I chose the brand name Ellen Louise and decided to call to perfume Every Desire. This perfume is also multi gender and I am targeting between 17 – 45 years of age, this is a large age gap but I want any person wearing this person to feel desirable and anyone deserves this no matter who they are. I want my perfume to be sexy, seductive and passionate.  
To start with I drew up some design ideas of layout, text and images; this helped to create a visual idea of what my final design would look like, I researched colour schemes and also looked at other perfume advertisements to get ideas. I chose this perfume advertisement to be put into magazines such as Vogue, Company, Cosmo, Marie Claire, and Elle also for men’s magazines like FHM and GQ.
By having it in these high fashion magazines my advert will need to have areas of high fashion in it.

First of all I thought of a perfume anchor, which is ‘Journey To Your Every Desires’ this then gave me inspirations for the denotation of my advert, I chose to have a long road for the background to symbolise the ‘journey’. The main focal point that I wanted was the perfume bottle itself; I allowed this to happen by keeping to a simple colour scheme. The connotation I used was by having a black and white scheme, black and white is simple and classy the black and white also contrasts with the colour balancing out all the elements of colour. I also chose to keep the sky in colour because this blue represents Heaven, as if you will journey to Heaven also truth and wisdom. Black represents power, mystery depth and elegance. White represents perfection, success, goodness, purity and has a positive connotation, all these elements contribute to my final advertisement these three colours go beyond and show a real sense of meaning.   
I chose to have a car photographed with the models as this can also represent the journey your about to go on with this perfume, it allowed my models to reflect off as well, they could position themselves in particular positions. Both models have eye contact on each other; it is also a long distance image showing their body language towards each other, the eye contact allows us to see passion between themselves and the sexual tension which invokes a sense of desire. We could also relate this to the narrative of the perfume - that they are both about to journey to their desires with each other.
 In any advertisement there may be a narrative; mine consists of - ‘by choosing this perfume and spraying just one drop of it will take you on a journey to your every desire, these desires could be sexual, an adventure, excitement etc’ this is also known as the signified.
My second advertisement poster I designed and created is for the same perfume, I just used a different style that created a complete different narrative. This poster consists of one model; the image is a close up of the models shoulders, face and arms. I used the same colour scheme as my other poster, this created the same connotations that I wanted. I only kept the perfume bottle in colour to allow it to be the main focal point. It worked perfectly against the black and white contrast. In this poster the model is holding the actual perfume bottle; this creates a better sense of realism. Her view point is directly towards the audience allowing the viewer to be directly looked at engaging the viewer’s attention. By having a black and white colour scheme it creates a sense of simplicity, I wanted to follow this simplicity by having simple text on the poster, by only having the brand name and the perfume name. the convention of my poster is this text, it is expected to show text  the brand and perfume name which is the only necessary information that is needed for any perfume advertisement. This poster doesn’t show much sign of narrative but only draws our attention to the model; the viewer may get a sense of desire by just looking at the image. Also by looking at the model she has a slight sexual tension in her eyes, by slightly having her mouth open also creates a sexual feeling therefore allowing the viewer to relate to this. The models makeup and hair is also simple, I didn’t want the perfume to be taken away from the main focal point as it is a perfume advertisement.
Photoshop/ Editing
My final images i opened up into Photoshop were i could then start editing where i could start creating an advertisement. As you scroll down to each image you will see each process i took to edit this photo

Second Advertisement
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Extra Photo's
All these photgraphs are what were taken for my perfume advert, i have uploaded extra that i may not of used, but just so i can show the concept of my idea and what i was trying to create. These photgraphs are simple, and this is what i wanted to portray.



 These images were taken on my driveway, were i had two models posing next to a car, in some shots they are using the car to lean against. i chose this concept of two models and a car becuase my perfume is desirable, passionate and sexy, i wanted to models to portray this by there body langage eye-sight. i chose the car to be photgraphed to represent the 'journey' that these two people are about to go on with this perfume





Perfume Advertisement Research

Firstly I researched different types of magazines that would be relevant to my perfume advert.
 i looked at different perfume ads to compare and contrast each one, this also gave me ideas of how i wanted my perfume advertisement to look like and what magazines my perfume advert would be relevent to. As i wanted my perfume to be desirable sexy and passionate i chose to research advertisments that had all these elements.

Monday 4 October 2010

Induction Task

The Brief
You are a new employee in an Advertising company, your company has just been asked to produce a magazine advert for one or two new products.
Choose either:
A new fragrance (male or female)
or
A new mobile phone
Your task is to construct this advertisement.
The finished product will need to be:
- An advertisement of at least A4 size, featuring both text and image. this needs to be completed on a P.C.
- You must have a digital photograph (taken and arranged by you) that features the product chosen, in a way that will appeal to it's target audience.
- A brand name
- A sell line or slogan as anchorage
- You must present a draft and your planning, including any unused photos.
Your advert must follow advertising conventions.
When you Ad is complete you must complete a 500 word evaluation explaining your technical and conceptual decisions.