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.