Front Covers
The variation
between the two front covers is massive. From my first front cover I feel I have
become a lot more creative and bold with my use of colour and techniques. In
the preliminary task I was still very new to Photoshop and in fact it was one
of my first times using it meaning that I wasn’t very in tune with all the
different tools that Photoshop has to offer. This really restricted me when
creating my magazine as all I was able to do was remove the background of the
image and nothing else. This is contrasted in my final design as when creating
my final design, I had become a lot better at using Photoshop and I was able to
apply a range of editing techniques other than just removing the background using
the lasso tool. I was able to make the image warmer by increasing the
saturation, I was able to remove ‘imperfections’ and merge two images to create
a background. I used the shapes tool to create light flares and boxes in which I
inserted text boxes into. This was all thanks to the help of both YouTube where
I learned how to do these techniques and also playing around with the software,
figuring out what looked good.
Furthermore,
my use of colour has become a lot more out there as I used more than just two
main colours. In my preliminary exercise I was wary about using bold and out
there colours so I just followed the school colour scheme, however when creating
my Kpop magazine I had to step out of my comfort zone and use colours which I would
not normally use such as dark red or bright pink (double page spread). On the
other hand, I believe that this paid off as in the end it looks a lot more
aesthetically appealing when compared to my preliminary task.
In
addition, I decided against cluttering the front page too much. In my preliminary
magazine I feel like I crammed way too much writing onto the page and this runs
the risk of detracting attention from the main image which is something I did
not want to do. By leaving one side empty in my main task I feel as if I have
made my magazine a lot easier on the eye. This made me think about what I was
going to put on my magazine before I put it on as I didn’t want to repeat my
mistakes again in my final design.
Furthermore,
after creating my preliminary task I decided that the background was just too
plain. Considering the bright and vibrant audience that Kpop fans are I concluded
that I’d have to make a much more interesting background in order to catch the
eye of a potential reader. The background of my front cover merges two images
together to create a blurred street (In Gangnam, South Korea). After making
this background I could see that it made a huge difference to the aesthetical
appearance of my magazine. This was a big learning curve for me since when I was
creating my preliminary task I was unaware that the background made such an
impact however if I was to make another magazine in the future I would defiantly
focus a lot more on the background.
Mastheads
When
looking at the two mastheads there is a large difference in their design. In my
preliminary task I tried to create the illusion of the text fading away, which
although may have worked, it defeats the purpose of having a masthead since a masthead
is supposed to be bold and recognisable. The light blue on the white background
makes it almost disappear and the only text that catches the eye is ‘Sixth’ . Additionally,
I feel that my first masthead also comes across quite unprofessional since the
text is very rounded. In my main task I chose to use a serif font instead for
this reason. In my final task I was very happy about how my magazine masthead
turned out. The dropped capital ‘K’ in bright red immediately grabs the
attention of the reader. Furthermore, I positioned it differently due to the
fact that in my preliminary task I felt it took up too much space along the
top. By placing it on the right hand side I believe that this looked a lot more
professional as it didn’t compromise the background. This being said I made
sure that the masthead was a lot larger in font size since in the preliminary
task I think the masthead, whilst going across the whole page at the top, it wasn’t
as effective as the font was quite thin and small in comparison to that of my
final design. Also, I have added a line just to separate the page a little bit
and make the masthead stand out a little bit from the rest of the text on the
page. This is ended with a star putting emphasis on ‘star’ at the end of ‘Kstar’
thus giving the magazine a sense of identity which I felt it lacked in my preliminary
task. Finally, to avoid the issues I had with colour on my first masthead I chose
two very bold and contrasting colours (black and red).
There is
quite a contrast in the two images that I used for my front covers. For instance,
in my preliminary task I was very new to using a photography camera and I found
it quite difficult to get it to focus and I had a few lighting issues. This left
me with a small selection of images worthy of being used since others were too blurry
or had lighting issues. I resolved these issues when creating my main magazine however
I still found photography challenging. Overall I am quite happy with both
images however I think that the one I used for my main task is slightly better.
This is because in my preliminary task I didn’t really have much of a theory as
to why my model was posed in a certain way. I wanted them to pose facing the
camera, addressing the audience which follows the codes and conventions of any
magazine out there. However, in my main task I had a theme which I wanted to
flow through all the pages that I created and this was mystery. This mystery is
emphasised in the front cover image since the artist in not directly addressing
the audience since half of her face is covered however one of her eyes is
looking directly at you which in a way does address the audience. This creates
an element of mystery as we wonder who this person is and why they don’t want
to show their face. The theme of mystery is carried through right till the double
page spread of my magazine. This has an impact on the reader as they will
wonder who this person is and want to find out more. On the other hand, my
preliminary task lacked this theme or ‘story’ since it had no real purpose as I
hadn’t created a story or an interview which I could gain meaning from. On the
flip side however I think both appeal to the targeted audience, but creating my
main magazine has taught me that you can use images to convey a sense of
meaning to the audience rather than an image just being there for the sake of it
looking nice.
Contents Pages
Here you
can see the two contents pages that I created. I Feel that through my
preliminary task I learnt a lot of different things when creating my contents
page. For instance, the background of my contents page in the preliminary has
the same background of the front cover page of my preliminary magazine. By using
the same background, I feel that this made my preliminary magazine feel quite
boring. The fact that it is the same means that there is a lack of variation in
what the reader is seeing which can lead to boredom. Therefore, in my main task
I made sure that I didn’t use the same background as I had before. Furthermore,
I think that the background which I had used on my preliminary task was too
distracting from the text and makes it quite hard to look at for too long. In contrast,
the background I used for my contents page was a lot plainer and much more
simple. The use of an ombre grey background makes the magazine a lot easier on
the eye without it seeming boring. Also I believe that a variation in the use
of colour is important. Much like the front cover, the preliminary contents
page follows a colour scheme of two different blues where as in the final
design I have used two contrasting colours which I believe makes it more
interesting and aesthetically pleasing for the reader. Furthermore, I believe
the contents on my preliminary task was a bit too crowded in terms of text.
However, in my main task I used lines and a dotted box as separators for the
text so that it did not look too crowded and like one huge cluster of text
which may be intimidating for the reader. In addition, by doing this I was
keeping the reader in mind as when it is laid out this way it is much easier to
navigate to other pages which means it is fit for its purpose unlike my
preliminary task. On the other hand, I did like the title I used for my preliminary
contents page as it was interesting to look at but this was taken from another
magazine that I had seen and I wanted to make my own title so for that reason I
prefer the title on the final design. I also liked this one better due to its
incorporation of Korean text which makes it quite unique as I had not seen this
in other magazines.
In conclusion
Overall, I believe that I have drastically improved my skills in a lot of areas through the progression of my magazine from the preliminary task to my final product. I believe that if I had not made a preliminary task then my magazine would not have had such a good outcome since I would have skipped out on the learning of key skills and techniques that have enabled me to make my magazine professional and realistic. By completing the preliminary task I became much more confident when creating my final magazine and it allowed me to gain a knowledge in the technologies necessary when making my magazine, for example PhotoShop. All in all my preliminary task allowed me to make mistakes which I was able to rectify in my final design and I think that by making these mistakes it has paid off as I am left with a media product which I am very happy to have produced and one which I believe was a success.
