Evaluation presentation

Callum Kennedy AS Media evaluation

View more presentations from Anne Horne.

'S-Cool Life' Vs 'GRIME Monthly'

As you can see since my preliminary piece my skills on Adobe Photoshop have improved massively, in my preliminary I used a basic image taken in the school corridor, I didn't even know how to give the image a filter effect so it was left plain, in comparison to my final product, I have added a filter effect to the image this gives the magazine a much more proffessional look.

As for cover lines, based on my final product and my research into real magazine front covers, 3 cover lines is not really enough, which is another fault with my preliminary task. I think the choice of font on my preliminary task wasn't very good, I went for very basic fonts unlike on my final product I went for a range of different interesting fonts, that can really stand out to the consumer.

In terms of the masthead, the 'S-Cool Life' title is in a fancy handwritten effect font, its not very bold therefore is not very eyecatching, if this was on a newsagents shelf it would not be the first thing you see. 

On the other hand, for my main task I went for a very large bold font, I used black writing similarly to my preliminary, but because of my choice of background it contrasted well.

Overall I believe I come along way from 'S-Cool Life' and have produced a really effective magazine cover.

My Final Magazine

Creating My Double Page Spread Step by Step

After drafting my article that is going to feature in my double page spread, I followed my prepared layout when creating it, this involved a large background image similarly to my front cover, I felt that the background that the image of my artist was taken on did not need changing as the brick wall and graffiti fits in with the style of my magazine and of my genre.

The image on its on is effective, yet after trying out a few different filter effects I came across one called 'Cutout' this worked well with the bright colours in the background and gave the image an almost cartoon-like effect, personally I think it works well.

The next stage of creating my double page spread involved choosing my title and entering it onto the page, the title I chose for my article is 'Whats Going Through Outlaw's Mind?' Outlaw is my fictional artist I created for my magazine. I used three different fonts for my title, one font for the 'Whats Going Through' another font for the artist name and the third for the word 'Mind?', (http://www.1001fonts.com/) I decided to do this because it is a rather long title and if it was all in the same font it may look slightly boring and plain. As you can see when I first entered my title I chose the font colour black, this made the title very unclear as it blends in too much with the background.

So I experimented by giving the 'Whats Going Through' a white outer glow, this made it more visible but still not enough. Finally I decided to draw white rectangular boxes using the rectangle tool to place behind each word to increase the visibility, this looked really effective, almost like newspaper cutout's, this related nicely to my artist as the fact that he is the main feature of a magazine suggests he is in the public's interest. I also gave each box a drop shadow to make each box look separate, further emphasising the cutout look.

As a draft of my article had already been written, it simply left the job of how I wanted the words to appear on my page, as there is quite alot going on in the background with the graffiti and brickwall, it is hard to get any font to stand out on its own, therefore I took the same idea used for my main title, and created white boxes also using the rectangle tool to act as a base for my article. Through my research into double page spreads I often found that most magazines aswell as having a title also have a brief summary somewhere near the top of the page to entice the reader, I decided to use this technique as you can see in the top left hand corner I created a box using the custom shape tool and wrote a small bit of information about the artist being featured on these pages.

Here I entered my article into to text boxes, I used a larger and bolder font for my questions as I have seen this done on most double page spread interviews, it makes the question stand out on the page and breaks up the article, if the whole article was in one font and one size it would look very dull, and as my target audience is teens to young adults this would not be very ideal.

Another technique I picked up through my research is the use of large quotations of what is in the article, this is very effective as say a reader is just flicking through the magazine one of these quotes may catch their eye this gives them a preview of what the article contains and may entice them to read on.

Here is my final draft of my double page spread..

Once again I felt satisfied with my first attempt at this piece of my magazine, but for arguments sake I thought it was worth giving my other draft layout a go, I simply decreased the size of my image, moved the title, changed the size of my text boxes, and as I no longer had a large background image this left a few white spaces so I decided to give the background a grey colour this made it look slightly better, that was all the editing I had to do to create this version of my double page spread...

Double Page Spread Article Draft

Here is the draft for the interview that is going to feature on my double page spread, the title of the interview is 'Whats Going through Outlaw's Mind?'

Interview with OUTLAW:
So Outlaw how does it feel to be getting so much hype at the moment?
Outlaw: You know what it’s a lovely feeling to have. Carrying the flag for all the youths out there but there’s only so far I can go for them, with the album I wanna take it that step further man.

So what can fans expect from your new album and when is it set to be released?
Outlaw: My albums gonna drop early Summer, and what you can expect is progress, I'll never drop a new track or CD without showing no progress what's the point? I've kept my target audiences in mind when making my album as there is alot of HARD grime on the album, but I've tried some new stuff out to try and please everyone, the ladies, your aunties, your uncles, your nans, grandmas, cousins, brothers, sisters so I've tried getting a bit of everything on there but it's still predominantly grime.

What producers have you got working on your album and have you got any features?
Outlaw: Boy Better Know is the Label so the production teams from there, it's gonna be alot believe me. As for features I'm keeping them on the down low for now so people will be surprised when it drops.

I know you’re only 17 and you've put out three mixtapes already how often are you in the studio?
Outlaw: Man I'm in the studio everyday, whether it be recording, vibesing, helping someone out or writing, I'm in the studio now just taking a break to do this interview.


What else have you got in store for 2010?
Outlaw: Really I’m just focusing on my album, a hundred percent focus on my album, you’ll still here me smacking up radio and might see me doing few features along the way. But really the album man I’m going hard cos there’s a lot of albums dropping this year, I’ve just got to make sure mines not one that stays on the shelf you feel me?

Thanks for your time Outlaw, d'you have any last words?
Outlaw: Shout out to circular movements my Boy Better Know recordings crew and check out www.myspace.com/outlawartist.

Creating My Contents Page Step by Step

Researching into real contents pages gave me a good understanding of what is needed to create a well layed out contents, I took the ideas of many real magazines and put them into my own.

One of the main things is to clearly label your contents page with a big header if possible, so your reader can find it easily and without any hassle...

I found the font for this title on http://www.dafont.com/, it is large and bold therefore there will be no problems for my reader.

I chose the theme colours of black and a sort of army green, both very earthy colours which fits in well with the grime genre as it originates from the streets, a plain white background I thought was too plain so I simply gave it a series of stripes in two of the corners using the rectangle tool on Photoshop.

Through my research I found that quite a few music magazines liked to incorporate a miniature version of there masthead or logo on their contents page, I thought this was a good idea as it just adds that something extra to the page.

At this stage of creating my contents page, I reached a problem my lined background has clashed with my contents title, although most people would still be able to read the title it did not look very professional, after trying out a few different options, I settled on giving the the part of the title which clashes an outer glow in the army green colour I used already.

As you can see the outer glow makes the last part of my title much more visible and also looks very effective.

When creating my contents page I was following a draft layout I had already prepared, so the next stage of my contents page was laying out the bases for my images and actual contents script.

I coloured the boxes sticking to my theme colours, yet the 4 image boxes on the right of the page I felt blended in a bit too much so I decided to add a drop shadow to each box.

The next step was typing up what was on each page, the font I used for this was the same as my main title font as it still looked affective in a smaller size, I used white coloured font on a black background this made it stand out a lot more and therefore made it easier to read. I also decided to write my page numbers in letters e.g. 'Twelve' I have seen this being used before but not very often so I thought it would be an interesting method to try out.

Instead of just dotting images around my contents page I used a technique which is used my many real music magazines today, this technique is giving the reader a preview of what is on some of the pages in the magazine, I put an image, the page number and page title in each box, this I felt made my contents page look more like the real thing.

After finally adding all my preview images and titles here is what I came out with...

I was pleased with this as my contents page, but I thought I would give my other draft layout a go just to have something to compare it with, I kept the exact same images, theme etc. I just moved things about a little to match my other layout draft.

The problems I found with this layout was that everything looked a bit out of place, there was lots of white spaces, and I had to make my images smaller in order for them to fit each side of the contents, this made them less clearer, there was also alot of overlapping due to lack of space. Overall I felt my first contents page looked good, wasn't too overcrowded and had a nice layout.

Creating My Cover Step by Step

After researching front covers, choosing my magazine name, fonts, and choosing my front cover image, I decided that it was time to start putting my magazine cover together.

Here is Screenshot of my background image after adding the 'Fresco' filter effect I mentioned earlier...

Once I was satisfied with my background image the first thing I thought I would add is the masthead...

After doing this as you can see the 'Monthly' part of the masthead because of the background is not easily visible, through my research I found that it is acceptable to change the colour of your masthead through each issue, therefore a colour change was definately necessary here.

Having 'Monthly' in red makes it much more visible, after playing about with a few different colours I thought this came out the best, it also fits in nicely with the colouring of the artists clothes in the main image.

Next I had to think about adding the artist name onto the front cover, this had to stand out, and as I was following the layout of one of my previous drafts I already knew where I was going to put it.

The font for my artist name had to be large so it is easily seen by consumers, I found this font in 1001fonts.com, I personally thought the font suited the artist name as it has an unorthodox way of writing letters for example the letter 'O', grime itself as a genre is often related with breaking the rules, there for this rebellious font fits in well.

Next I had to think about cover lines, I already knew what was going to feature in my magazine so now I just had to choose the correct font and colours to make my magazine cover look most affective.

Seeing as I had already incorporated red, white and black into my magazine cover before doing my cover lines, it made sense to stick this theme, I chose a font called SF Port Mckenzie for my cover lines also from 1001fonts.com and I wrote some words in black and some in red, at first they didn't stand out enough like this so I added an 'Outer Glow' of the colour white which really added that something to the cover lines.

Some of the conventions of a magzine is the barcode, date and price, this for me really finished of the cover and gave it that professional look as if it was an actual magazine being sold in the shops today.

So here it is...

Even though I was more than satisfied with this front cover I thought it still made sense to try out my other draft layout just to have something to compare it too, I went through the exact same process as the making of this cover yet I used a different image, different layout and different theme colours, here is what I come up with...