After being given the chance to chance a few things on my product i felt like the most i needed to do was on my first article 'Sea, Sun and a flat tum' this is due to the fact i spent a lot of time on my 2nd and 3rd and therefore didn't have any time at the end to come back to it. I firstly decreased the opacity of the white boxes i inserted behind the kicker and one of the paragraphs as it didn't look like it was part of the article. I also felt that these stood out more than header which is definitely not something you want from your article. I then noticed that where my models hand was situated, the text wasn't very clear and therefore i added another of these opaque boxes behind the introductory paragraph. The drop shadow behind my sub headers, i also felt was far too harsh so therefore i also decreased the opacity and distance of that. The softness i had created on the majority of my article had made the guidelines look very heave and therefore i decreased the width of these so that they would look much subtler. The final thing i did was change the header of my breakout box as i felt the font was too harsh and therefore i didn't work very well. I changed it to a hand written font which made it look much more professional. I also changes the colour to give my page more variety.
In my 2nd DPS 'Stress Mess', i increased the size of the introductory paragraph as i felt i didn't give the article enough context before you began to read it properly. I also re arranged my paragraphs to make them lay better on the page so therefore it would be more appealing to the eye. I also added a guide line across the top and across the bottom as this made the page look much tidier which will really appeal to my target audience. The page before just looked unfinished and 'rough' around the edges.
The only other alteration i made was adding more contents to my contents page and adding the page numbers to them as i didn't get chance to finish this within my allocated time. I also decreased the size of the tags on each image as when i looked back through the magazines they were in a fairly small font whereas mine were fairly big.
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Project Monitoring - February 10th
This week i planned to have finished all 3 DPS's and therefore i could begin to create my front cover and contents page. However due to the push back of my interview article i had already began my front cover. This week began with me finishing off my front cover by adding the rest of the sell lines. When looking at other magazine i found that their front covers consisted of a lot of page variety and therefore i decided to include a couple of button sells and brush effects. I also added a buy line, base line, barcode, website, date and price to ensure my product look as professional as possible. I also wanted to continue the layering effect so therefore i brought the models head over the top of the masthead. I feel as though i have covered too much of the masthead which count have a harsh impact on the identity of my magazine.
The second day of this week was the day i was able to finally complete my interview. The interview went very well however i asked a lot of spontaneous questions in response to her answers which i feel as though i could have prepared myself for a little bit better than i had. After listening back to the recording of my interview i also found that i hadn't put the dictaphone close enough to her as it was fairly hard to try and understand what she was saying due yo it being very quiet. I then spend a good few hours making notes on the different aspects i wanted to include in my article. I wrote one draught in 3rd person and another draught which was if she was telling the story. I then showed this too members of my target audience and 8/10 of them preferred being told the story directly from the interviewee as it made it seem more believable and real. I therefore created a second draught of this article and gave it a few more entertainment values rather than it being a straight transcript. I also said in my schedule that i was going to research how to write interview articles but i felt after reading a few of these out of magazines this was an unnecessary thing to do.
I then began to design the DPS for this article. I firstly created a header for it reading 'How to tame your man'. I used a mixture of two fonts for this as i felt this would tell the reader exactly what my article was about. I then inserted the text and realised that not all of the text was going to fit on one DPS. I then came up with the idea to create a double page spread, i looked through lots of magazines of my genre and found that a lot of them had a photo lead. This influenced me to do a similar thing within my product. I decided to have the first page containing the header followed by one main image. The main body of my article could then sit comfortably on the other two pages as there wasn't a lot of space taken up by the header. Due to the fact there was only going to be the article, quotes and images on this page, i didn't quite know how to continue the layered effect i had created throughout the whole magazine. I decided to give the last two pages a textured background as this would then give the main body of text a slight lift out of the page.
The 3rd day i had my photo shoot which i had booked for 1hr 30mins. After taking several images of the idea i had for this article, i had second thoughts as they may slightly offend some people and be seen as too provocative. My clients target audience would certainly not approve. I therefore had to change my entire idea which therefore had an effect on how long my photo shoot took. I took a wide variety of different shots to see which i felt best suited the feel of my article. In the end i decided to use imagery that made the couple now look very happy and therefore create a sort of idilic image as the majority of couples will aspire to be how they are. Looking back on m,y double DPS's i now see that this may be interpreted in the wrong way as the article is about sad things where as they look very happy so therefore the image and text may not connect in the way that i wanted them too. When editing the images, i accidentally clicked on the sepia effect and actually really liked it. I tried to get a colour in InDesign which matched the photo as best as i could and thankfully, it looked very professional. I also felt as though this gave a sort of romantic tone to the article which would go really well.
When showing what i had don't so far to my target audience to see if they liked it, they said everything really appealed to them except the header. I then came up with several more headers to show to them to see which they preferred. Out of all 6 of them, they all agreed the the quote header was most effective as it is very intriguing. Even though non of this was on my schedule i found that it was important to do this as since i had changed my whole idea on this article, i needed to know what my target audience felt as i hadn't had as much time to plan a while new idea. I then played around with the new header with different fonts as my target audience didn't like the last ones. I also changed the colour from red to a pale pink due to it being a girly article, i felt this would appeal more to my T.A. I then added the photos and positioned a few of them with cantered angles as this would draw the audience into the main article. I also added the quote inserts for when the article is skim read, i firstly had these as part of the text just in a larger font and a different colour but when i looked through other articles i found that they were usually on top of a shape of some kind. I decided to follow this rule as this would give my page more variety. I also created two breakout boxes, again to give my page much more variety. Both my quote inserts and breakout boxes needed to be text wrapped to ensure the page looked neat and clean.
This week i also planned to create my front cover, sadly i didn't leave myself enough time for this as i incorrectly estimated how much time my finial DPS would take. By the end of this week i managed to have inserted ill of my imagery into my contents page. I was strongly inspired by the layout of the leading magazine Cosmopolitan. I used a variety of my own imagery from the photo shoots i have had over the past year as well as a couple of fill images to give my magazine an energetic feel. I sadly went over my deadline by 1 day as i misinterpreted how fiddly and how much i needed to do to create a good, professional looking contents page. I didn't really plan my time effectively for the different font sizes, bold text, different colours, guide lines, page numbers etc. However when this was completed i was very happy with the vast majority of my product. If i had chance to go back there are a few small attentions to details i would like to change but sadly didn't have time.
The second day of this week was the day i was able to finally complete my interview. The interview went very well however i asked a lot of spontaneous questions in response to her answers which i feel as though i could have prepared myself for a little bit better than i had. After listening back to the recording of my interview i also found that i hadn't put the dictaphone close enough to her as it was fairly hard to try and understand what she was saying due yo it being very quiet. I then spend a good few hours making notes on the different aspects i wanted to include in my article. I wrote one draught in 3rd person and another draught which was if she was telling the story. I then showed this too members of my target audience and 8/10 of them preferred being told the story directly from the interviewee as it made it seem more believable and real. I therefore created a second draught of this article and gave it a few more entertainment values rather than it being a straight transcript. I also said in my schedule that i was going to research how to write interview articles but i felt after reading a few of these out of magazines this was an unnecessary thing to do.
I then began to design the DPS for this article. I firstly created a header for it reading 'How to tame your man'. I used a mixture of two fonts for this as i felt this would tell the reader exactly what my article was about. I then inserted the text and realised that not all of the text was going to fit on one DPS. I then came up with the idea to create a double page spread, i looked through lots of magazines of my genre and found that a lot of them had a photo lead. This influenced me to do a similar thing within my product. I decided to have the first page containing the header followed by one main image. The main body of my article could then sit comfortably on the other two pages as there wasn't a lot of space taken up by the header. Due to the fact there was only going to be the article, quotes and images on this page, i didn't quite know how to continue the layered effect i had created throughout the whole magazine. I decided to give the last two pages a textured background as this would then give the main body of text a slight lift out of the page.
The 3rd day i had my photo shoot which i had booked for 1hr 30mins. After taking several images of the idea i had for this article, i had second thoughts as they may slightly offend some people and be seen as too provocative. My clients target audience would certainly not approve. I therefore had to change my entire idea which therefore had an effect on how long my photo shoot took. I took a wide variety of different shots to see which i felt best suited the feel of my article. In the end i decided to use imagery that made the couple now look very happy and therefore create a sort of idilic image as the majority of couples will aspire to be how they are. Looking back on m,y double DPS's i now see that this may be interpreted in the wrong way as the article is about sad things where as they look very happy so therefore the image and text may not connect in the way that i wanted them too. When editing the images, i accidentally clicked on the sepia effect and actually really liked it. I tried to get a colour in InDesign which matched the photo as best as i could and thankfully, it looked very professional. I also felt as though this gave a sort of romantic tone to the article which would go really well.
When showing what i had don't so far to my target audience to see if they liked it, they said everything really appealed to them except the header. I then came up with several more headers to show to them to see which they preferred. Out of all 6 of them, they all agreed the the quote header was most effective as it is very intriguing. Even though non of this was on my schedule i found that it was important to do this as since i had changed my whole idea on this article, i needed to know what my target audience felt as i hadn't had as much time to plan a while new idea. I then played around with the new header with different fonts as my target audience didn't like the last ones. I also changed the colour from red to a pale pink due to it being a girly article, i felt this would appeal more to my T.A. I then added the photos and positioned a few of them with cantered angles as this would draw the audience into the main article. I also added the quote inserts for when the article is skim read, i firstly had these as part of the text just in a larger font and a different colour but when i looked through other articles i found that they were usually on top of a shape of some kind. I decided to follow this rule as this would give my page more variety. I also created two breakout boxes, again to give my page much more variety. Both my quote inserts and breakout boxes needed to be text wrapped to ensure the page looked neat and clean.
This week i also planned to create my front cover, sadly i didn't leave myself enough time for this as i incorrectly estimated how much time my finial DPS would take. By the end of this week i managed to have inserted ill of my imagery into my contents page. I was strongly inspired by the layout of the leading magazine Cosmopolitan. I used a variety of my own imagery from the photo shoots i have had over the past year as well as a couple of fill images to give my magazine an energetic feel. I sadly went over my deadline by 1 day as i misinterpreted how fiddly and how much i needed to do to create a good, professional looking contents page. I didn't really plan my time effectively for the different font sizes, bold text, different colours, guide lines, page numbers etc. However when this was completed i was very happy with the vast majority of my product. If i had chance to go back there are a few small attentions to details i would like to change but sadly didn't have time.
Project Monitoring - 3rd February
This week I started by finishing by 1st DPS 'Sea, sun and a flat tum' buy inserting a breakout box. I created a rectangle shape down the right hand side of the DPS. I faded the transparency slightly as when it was one block colour of red, it stood out more than the header which is not what I wanted from my article. I created 3 speech bubbles in Photoshop and filled them in white to make the layered effect more obvious when I overlapped them. I then added drop shadow onto these and overlapped them to create the layers. I also added the kicker and ensured that I placed behind any text that was slightly less visible I added white rectangles. This was evident especially on the shadows caused by her legs which I should have made sure weren't there when taking the photo or edited them out. I also used this effect on the sub-header of the paragraph at the bottom of the breakout box and behind the kicker. I'm not sure about this effect as it makes the text stand out more than I would have liked, however, I have made sure I have time to come back to it at the end to make any alterations i feel necessary.
Within the kicker I also highlighted 1 word in a different colour such as 'coming' and '8' as I thought these were significant enough to make them stand out a lot more. I also changed the font of the word 'Sun' in my header as I used a thin font for this and when I came back to it I didn't feel as though this went as well as I originally thought it did so therefore I made the header all one solid font.
I also made the introductory paragraph bold and changed its font size from 11 to 16 as this ensured that the reader knew exactly where to begin to read the article. I also included a drop cap at the beginning of that paragraph to make sure that it was 100% clear as to where to begin.
This week I also began to piece together my DPS for 'Stress Mess'. When I think of stress,
I think of people screaming, pulling their hair out and smashing things up so therefore I wanted all of these things to be evident in my article. I found my photo-shoot last week for this article very successful as I got some great images to include. The first idea I thought about was to create the font for the header looking smashed. I then had a better idea to make the entire image look smashed as this would then show a large amount of stress rather than just a small proportion on the header.
The facial expressions on my models face really emphasis how frustrated she it. Her eye line with the audience also helps them to relate with her. I began by inserting my texts into 4 different columns, putting the two smaller tips on the outer columns and the 4 smaller ones in the middle 2. I then created 4 different colour rectangles and rounded the corners to place behind them. After completing this I decided I wasn't so keen on this look and therefore began to create another to which style I preferred. I didn't feel as though my first layout fit with the genre of my magazine and therefore the look of the article wouldn't appeal to my target audience. I also felt the colours didn't create any connotations so it wouldn't work as a colour scheme for this particular article.
(pic)
I than began the design of my 2nd version, again over 4 columns. This is more of a unique layout which is fairly unusual to be seen in Women's lifestyle magazines. This layout was influence by and article in Cosmo mag, I found it really interesting and since I am of a similar age that my target audience are, I felt that this would also appeal to them. Two of my pointers cover over two columns and the other 4 are laid out in the same conventional way in which a normal magazine article would be. I then inserted 3 black, vertical guide lines to separate the text a bit more which would make my article look less text heavy. I have seen these guide lines used in several women's life style magazine where there is a lot of text so therefore I feel as though these were a good feature to include. I then chose 3 of my favourite pictures from my photo shoot:
I felt these images showed her stress levels the most due to the frown in her forehead and narrowed eyes. Her facial expression really show her frustration. I felt as though this photo shoot went really well as my model did exactly what I asked her to do which really showed in the images I was left with. After entering these images and creating a frame around them I was able to create a drop shadow which continued to create the layered effect which is evident in all magazines. I feel as though I created the layered affect fairly well as I overlap a lot of things and therefore I feel as though this is one of my stronger points within magazine production. Over lapping the numbers over the pictures and quote inserts really emphasised the layered affect as these are then brought to the front of the DPS to stand out.
I chose the colour yellow for the background of my quote inserts as the colour yellow creates the connotation of caution and therefore I feel as though this would work really well with my article. I also used this colour on the work 'mess' in my header as well as a scribbly font which also creates the image of stress. I feel as though the connotations I created in this article works really well, however, the black crackled text doesn't work on top of the broken glass of the image so I will need to change that as the header is what is meant to stand out the most from the page. I have kept the left hand side of the DPS with simply the header and kicker as text as due to the fact magazines tend to be skim read, they will happily read the header and kicker on the left hand side which will then entice them to read more. Also the fact I have done this on the left hand side encourages the audience to read it as the main body of text comes after it in the magazine. If it was the other way round they wont go back to read the actual article. To make the introductory paragraph stand out I have simply created a drop cap at the beginning of the sentence and made the font much bolder. I have also placed it at the top of the page flowing over all 4 columns. I feel i achieved the fact it is simple to follow as your eyes know where to go fairly well due to the numbers and the fact that we all know that English people read from left to right and top to bottom.
This week I also created my front cover.
I have done this week what I said I would which was finish of my 3 DPS's, which I have partially done apart from I replaced one DPS with the front cover. I began by editing the photo of my front cover using unsharp mask to make her eyes stand out more. This would make the eye connection much stronger enticing them to buy the magazine. I chose an image when she is smiling to firstly create a window to future self but also to create the connotations of a happy, bubbly magazine. I then, using photoshop, inserted my masthead on top of my image. I used a font called 'impact' as it iv very bold and recognisable which will create a strong identity for my magazine. I then thought of several sell line options for my 3 articles to include on the front cover and showed them to several members of my target audience. This is not something i wrote in my schedule but i thought it was a necessary thing to do as i wanted to see which they felt intrigued them the most.
This first sell line i chose was a command sell line for my stress article which i situated at the top left hand side of my front cover. I played around with fonts and colours until i found 2 fonts and colours which i felt look the most professional. I layered the word 'stress' by slightly over lapping it over the word above. This generic feature is used by the vast majority of magazines as i prevents them from looking flat. I then use and incentive sell line for my 'San, Sun and a flat tum' article as the vast majority of women are always wanting to improve the way they look. I again over lapped a few of the words and and added a soft drop shadow to make it stand out from the page. The 3rd sell line i used was a quotation sell for my real life story. This makes the reader want to read more and therefore create a hook on them. I always knew that i wanted a pastel orange to become my branding colour but i needed more colour on my front cover to make it look like a professional product. I always knew that blue and orange complimented each other well and therefore i thought this would be a great colour to use with it. It also make my product look original instead of the girly pinks and purples we see on the vast majority of women's lifestyle magazines.
Within the kicker I also highlighted 1 word in a different colour such as 'coming' and '8' as I thought these were significant enough to make them stand out a lot more. I also changed the font of the word 'Sun' in my header as I used a thin font for this and when I came back to it I didn't feel as though this went as well as I originally thought it did so therefore I made the header all one solid font.
I also made the introductory paragraph bold and changed its font size from 11 to 16 as this ensured that the reader knew exactly where to begin to read the article. I also included a drop cap at the beginning of that paragraph to make sure that it was 100% clear as to where to begin.
This week I also began to piece together my DPS for 'Stress Mess'. When I think of stress,
I think of people screaming, pulling their hair out and smashing things up so therefore I wanted all of these things to be evident in my article. I found my photo-shoot last week for this article very successful as I got some great images to include. The first idea I thought about was to create the font for the header looking smashed. I then had a better idea to make the entire image look smashed as this would then show a large amount of stress rather than just a small proportion on the header.
(pic)
I than began the design of my 2nd version, again over 4 columns. This is more of a unique layout which is fairly unusual to be seen in Women's lifestyle magazines. This layout was influence by and article in Cosmo mag, I found it really interesting and since I am of a similar age that my target audience are, I felt that this would also appeal to them. Two of my pointers cover over two columns and the other 4 are laid out in the same conventional way in which a normal magazine article would be. I then inserted 3 black, vertical guide lines to separate the text a bit more which would make my article look less text heavy. I have seen these guide lines used in several women's life style magazine where there is a lot of text so therefore I feel as though these were a good feature to include. I then chose 3 of my favourite pictures from my photo shoot:
I felt these images showed her stress levels the most due to the frown in her forehead and narrowed eyes. Her facial expression really show her frustration. I felt as though this photo shoot went really well as my model did exactly what I asked her to do which really showed in the images I was left with. After entering these images and creating a frame around them I was able to create a drop shadow which continued to create the layered effect which is evident in all magazines. I feel as though I created the layered affect fairly well as I overlap a lot of things and therefore I feel as though this is one of my stronger points within magazine production. Over lapping the numbers over the pictures and quote inserts really emphasised the layered affect as these are then brought to the front of the DPS to stand out.
I chose the colour yellow for the background of my quote inserts as the colour yellow creates the connotation of caution and therefore I feel as though this would work really well with my article. I also used this colour on the work 'mess' in my header as well as a scribbly font which also creates the image of stress. I feel as though the connotations I created in this article works really well, however, the black crackled text doesn't work on top of the broken glass of the image so I will need to change that as the header is what is meant to stand out the most from the page. I have kept the left hand side of the DPS with simply the header and kicker as text as due to the fact magazines tend to be skim read, they will happily read the header and kicker on the left hand side which will then entice them to read more. Also the fact I have done this on the left hand side encourages the audience to read it as the main body of text comes after it in the magazine. If it was the other way round they wont go back to read the actual article. To make the introductory paragraph stand out I have simply created a drop cap at the beginning of the sentence and made the font much bolder. I have also placed it at the top of the page flowing over all 4 columns. I feel i achieved the fact it is simple to follow as your eyes know where to go fairly well due to the numbers and the fact that we all know that English people read from left to right and top to bottom.
This week I also created my front cover.
I have done this week what I said I would which was finish of my 3 DPS's, which I have partially done apart from I replaced one DPS with the front cover. I began by editing the photo of my front cover using unsharp mask to make her eyes stand out more. This would make the eye connection much stronger enticing them to buy the magazine. I chose an image when she is smiling to firstly create a window to future self but also to create the connotations of a happy, bubbly magazine. I then, using photoshop, inserted my masthead on top of my image. I used a font called 'impact' as it iv very bold and recognisable which will create a strong identity for my magazine. I then thought of several sell line options for my 3 articles to include on the front cover and showed them to several members of my target audience. This is not something i wrote in my schedule but i thought it was a necessary thing to do as i wanted to see which they felt intrigued them the most.
This first sell line i chose was a command sell line for my stress article which i situated at the top left hand side of my front cover. I played around with fonts and colours until i found 2 fonts and colours which i felt look the most professional. I layered the word 'stress' by slightly over lapping it over the word above. This generic feature is used by the vast majority of magazines as i prevents them from looking flat. I then use and incentive sell line for my 'San, Sun and a flat tum' article as the vast majority of women are always wanting to improve the way they look. I again over lapped a few of the words and and added a soft drop shadow to make it stand out from the page. The 3rd sell line i used was a quotation sell for my real life story. This makes the reader want to read more and therefore create a hook on them. I always knew that i wanted a pastel orange to become my branding colour but i needed more colour on my front cover to make it look like a professional product. I always knew that blue and orange complimented each other well and therefore i thought this would be a great colour to use with it. It also make my product look original instead of the girly pinks and purples we see on the vast majority of women's lifestyle magazines.
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