Evaluating Existing Products

When evaluating existing products I went through a range of magazines. Some of them were fashion magazines, general magazines, free magazines and the more high-end ones. I went through the whole of the magazines and I pulled out the pages that stood out to me. Analysing these would help me in the future when making up my magazine as I would know what to do when making the striking pages I desire. I looked at five different aspects on the pages; colour, photography, writing style, font and text/picture ratio. I went through each aspect and picked out everything explaining what was done and why.

I found out a range of things from why certain colours are used and why a certain ratio of text and images is used. I found that when the article is sad and down, the colours tend to be quite dark too. When using colours they are used not too often and they are executed very well. The colours tend to have the same tone and are not too striking. When the colours aren’t the same, they are totally different from each other and this makes the article pop out.

When constructing a magazine a lot of thought process is put into it. The photography is also a highly thought part of the magazine. Most of the images are posed so this means that the magazine company have to go out of their way to get paparazzi or organise a photo shoot with the chosen celebrity. The posed images in the magazines make them professional.  If the image is not taken by the magazine, the image is often screen shots of the topic in conversation, e.g. a clip in a movie or a TV show.

The text also matters when constructing an article together. Whether it is relaxed or very posh; the text is a very big part of the article and have the correct writing style matters a lot. It has to match with the chosen topic otherwise the article will not flow. Making sure the writing is readable to all abilities is definitely important; it has to be basic enough for the lower class to read it but interesting enough for the upper class to read it.

The font is also very important too. The text needs to be legible yet eye catching at the same time. Using a sans serif font or a serif font will depend on the article.

By analysing existing magazines I have been able to decide what sort of articles I would like in my magazine, how I want them to look and what I want them to be about. Getting a range of magazines and analysing different pages has given me a wide range of pages I could possibly make. I have realised that the pages that jump out are the ones that have a very good, striking page layout, font and colour scheme. The colours have to flow, the page layout needs to be unique and striking and the font needs to stand out. 

Progress So Far...

First of all I started work on a SWOT analysis talking about my strong points, my weaknesses and how I would begin to improve on them and what I should do to meet my full potential. The SWOT analysis has helped me in many ways but mainly it has helped me understand how important it is to have a production diary and a schedule.

When I started planning for my magazine I wrote up a proposal about what I was going to make. It was about what was going to feature in the magazine and how the magazine will be advertised. It also briefly comments on my target audience and how the magazine will look. This helped me with deciding what sort of product I wanted to make and what key areas I wanted to focus on.

I then wrote my treatment; how I will go about making it. It commented on what research I will do, looking through recent magazines and different genres of them is going to help me when designing my distinctive theme for my magazine. I will also help when deciding what articles to include. It talks about how I will construct it and what with. I touched on how the end product will look and what it will include. I also talked about how I will get through the making on the magazine whilst keeping everything in order and up to date. I also went onto talking about how I will promote the magazine in a lot of detail from posters to TV adverts and promotional stands to an exhibition. I talked about how these promotional ideas would help when releasing the magazine to the public. Writing up a treatment has helped me a lot with my planning and I am now focussed of what sort of magazine I actually want to construct.

Contingency planning was my next step when planning my magazine. Going through all the possibilities of what could go wrong will help out a lot when or if anything does happen. I’ve worked out what I could do to resolve my problems and still achieve the aim of my task. Working out five different problems should cover most things.

I have also made up a schedule of my work over a ten week basis in term 2. I have split my schedule into ‘college time’ and ‘home time’ to make sure I make the most of my time. When make the treatment I realised I have got a lot to do to make sure I finish my work in time so I need to make sure I balance my work out well with the limited time I have. I think the schedule will definitely help me when coming to making my magazine up as it will keep me well organised with what I have to do and when I’ve got to do it.

I have recently started analysing existing magazines. Looking into double page spreads, front covers and adverts helps me see the conventions that are used in magazine now and what sort of articles people like to read.   

SWOT Analysis

Task 2 –

One of the strengths I am most confident with is drafting my work. After brainstorming what I’m going to do I make a big variety of potential work. I am quite creative so the work has a range of different aspects with detailed annotation. Doing detailed drafts also makes me plan for what I can improve on and what sort of direction I want to go in when finalising my work.

- I definitely need to start going into a lot more detail in my drafts and make it a big part of my work.

Another one of my strengths is manipulating images. Whether the manipulation is simple or quite extravagant, I think I can so it quite well. I know how many programs work to change the look of certain photos. I can change the photos to the certain look I want by manipulating the brightness and contrast in some photos and changing the colours to give them a different haze. By cutting and cropping in other programs I can totally change the look of a photo. By doing the littlest things it can change the whole aspect of the image or doing the biggest of things can give an image a more subtle effect.

- I feel there is a lot more to learn which will help me with my FMP. I could perhaps buy magazine or look on the internet for tutorials or even ask someone for some help.

Using Photoshop I think is one of my strongest skills. I have worked with Photoshop for a very long time so I have learnt how it works by messing about with certain parts of it and seeing different tutorials online. Different people have also taught me how to use it and this has given me the experience I need to use Photoshop at it’s best. Although there is a lot more to discover in Photoshop, I feel in what I do know, I know how to do it quite well and I have found myself helping others when they are stuck for what to do too.

- I think I need to explore Photoshop and other programs a lot more to achieve the high quality of work I want in my FMP. Asking people for help will be good when doing this.

Task 3 –

One of my weaknesses would be keeping to a production schedule. I find that I push myself too hard when it comes to planning when I am going to do things and I don’t think realistically of how long things will take to be done. When I get behind on my schedule I find myself starting things but then not finishing them and just thinking ill go back to it later but then this puts be behind even more as I have mounds of work that is still not completed. I also think that production schedules are very vague when it comes to telling me what to do; you can’t fit everything you need to do on the schedule so I end up leaving things out that are quite important.

- I feel this is one of my worst weaknesses. I hardly ever make production schedules. This is something I really need to focus on for my FMP otherwise I will forget to do something or lose track of what I’ve done and what I havn’t.

I find that working in InDesign is quite hard.  I have a lack of experience when working with InDesign, I don’t know what buttons do what and I don’t know the full potential of what I can do. I have had some teaching in InDesign but I just think that because I am used to using Photoshop I don’t take too much interest with InDesign. I find it very hard to grasp the uses of it. It’s very confusing with all the different aspects, which link different things and I just think it is too different to Photoshop.

- Getting more help and experience in InDesign will be something I am going to focus on during my FMP as it will be a major program I am going to use when bringing my work together. Again, tutorials and help of others would be good here.

When making production diaries of my work I don’t do them too well. I don’t always see the point in them as if you are running by a production schedule and you get the jobs done when are needed to be done, you wont need to write about what work you completed that day. I think it just takes up too much valuable work time writing about the work you’ve completed. Sometimes I’m not too sure on what to write about; I’m not sure if I need to comment on how I did my work or when I did it. 

- This will help me keep track of work in my FMP and especially because it lasts a year I will need to know what exact things I have and haven’t done. Working with a production diary will entitle me to reflect on my work and work out what I’m doing right and wrong.

Task 4 –

For my FMP I would like to improve on my weaknesses and improve on my strengths to maximize my potential of what I can do. When drafting my work instead of doing just drawing I could actually make a mock up of what I am going to do so people can get a real feel for what I want to make and I can decide what will work and what wont. I can show my creativity and my ideas from these mock-ups and people would easily be able to understand what I want.

- This is really going to help when making my magazine. I can see what the final product might look like, how many pages I will need, the order of the content and what is actually going in the magazine.

When manipulating my images I should discover what else Photoshop could do to my images so I can decide what look I want for my images. If I get more experience in Photoshop I might be able to use it to make different graphics with certain equipment like a graphics tablet. Manipulating images could be improved by using different programs and messing about with different effects and ask for help off others.

If I make a detailed production schedule I will be able to plan what I need to do, where I need to do it, what I need to do it. If it is very detailed with it split up into hours I could write what I need to do at the specific times so I don’t forgot to do any jobs and I don’t leave and jobs unfinished. If it is very detailed I should keep on track of what needs doing and it could also act as a checklist. This would help me for when I am close to finishing I could check if everything is actually completed. Also if I make a production diary I can double check that everything is completed as for each day it will say what I actually did and if I completed any work. If I get more experience in InDesign I might be able to make something different other than images and graphics. I would be able to make documents that look professional.

- Get a diary, notepad or make a blog of my work to keep track of where I am up to and to make sure I am up to date.

If I do all this I would improve my work tremendously and hopefully get a Distinction in my FMP.

- I need to get ideas together of what materials I will use and how my magazine will fit together. I need to start thinking of a really edgy, original and unique theme to my magazine with a brand just as good. I want the magazine to have a professional and expensive look too so I want it to have a glossy finish with a mix of content.

Schedule for Term 2

TERM 2 - 10 WEEKS, 21 PAGES – 4 PAGES FOR GEMMA’S & RACHEL’S ADS = 17 TO FILL, 1 MAC SESSION

Week	Task (College Time)	Task (Home Time)
1	Interviewing people and gathering photos for articles. (Celebrity, Gossip)	Type up interviews and edit photos.
2
3	Write other articles. (Gossip, Reviews, Adverts, Coverage)	Type up articles.
4
5	Lay pages out. - Make graphics, edit any other images. THINK CREATIVE. - Put in Gemma and Rachel’s Ads.	Any additional design work.
6
7
8
9
10	Print out and allow time for mistakes.	Finish any other work before print out day.

Contingency Planning

1. Getting Articles –

If I have any problems with getting articles, as if someone is not able to be interviewed or not able to be photographed I will have to think of a substitute for those pages. The substitute could be an advert or I could extend another article which will fill the empty page. I could also use someone else to fill in.

2. Printing –

It is not always reliable when it comes to printing your work off so I need to allow myself a lot of time to print and get the magazine together. I think people will be thinking the thing so getting some pages printed off extra early will be a good idea to make sure I have the whole magazine printed off. I may also have problems with the ink, e.g. bleeding and aligning of the pages so I need to keep time spare to make sure the magazine is at the professional standard I want it to be at.

3. Photoshop & InDesign –

Both programs are going to be used through-out the whole FMP, from editing images to laying the pages out. I need to get more experience with these programs in order to know what to do when things go wrong. I also need to get myself used to InDesign otherwise I will use up too much valuable time making big mistakes. The programs sometimes can crash and close down so to avoid lose my work, I need to make sure I’m saving it as I go along and backing it up in more than 1 place.

4 – Taking Images & Locations –

When taking my images I need to make sure that the locations that I am going to are suitable for what I want to achieve. The locations need to be outstanding and different. They need to fit in with the unique theme of the magazine too. If the locations aren’t good enough or I can’t take the photos on that day, I need to have a back-up location in place.

5 – Equipment –

The equipment I will be using will be camera, tripods and computers/laptops so I need to make sure that all the equipment is in working order and if not, I need to something 

Treatment

I will start research on magazines that are already sold in store. I will search for magazines with an interesting layout and hopefully get inspired. I will look at different genres of magazines and see what types of articles are published. I will use a wide range of materials and equipment from high duty paper to Canon cameras and Photoshop. The final look of the magazine will be glossy and will have a very strong, brand and theme that will stand out throughout the whole magazine. All photos in the magazine will be original and also have a theme carried out in the magazine. The planning will be very thorough and it will have everything in of what I need to do and when. The timetable and schedule will be very thorough also. I want to make a mock-up of my planes to show others and myself what my magazine might look like.

When constructing the magazine I will make sure I have had plenty more help and experience on both, Photoshop and InDesign when bringing the magazine together and designing the pages. I want every page to be as strong as the others and I want them all to ‘pop’. Making sure I have detailed sketches and plans will help me further down the line when making my pages.  I want the magazine to look very professional and have a glossy finish to it which will make it look much more up market.

When the construction is complete, I want a very extravagant way of promotion for the product. I would like to make an advertisement which would be played on TV, posters for shop windows and much more small little flyers etc... I will also design the products for a promotional stand which would be in the middle of town, showing off and selling the magazine. The big part of the promoting will be a mini exhibition that will take place in the Hub. The exhibition will be a showing of the magazine which should be a life-sized magazine where you can turn the massive pages and things are coming out of it. The idea of it will be to invite people into the new magazine and explore it. I think this will be a great, original way to show people the new, edgy magazine.

Proposal

For my FMP I plan on making a magazine, which will feature a range of general things. It will include articles such as new things and crazes in the world, reviews of movies, songs. It will also have celebrity gossip featured in it and the magazine will also have plenty of advertisements in too. The magazine will be promoted and advertised through websites, posters and much more. Due to the target audience the magazine will be very strongly stylized.