Jack Conman Media: October 2013

Evaluation of final front cover

What I think went well

I think the main image and main masthead were good because I liked the affects of the masthead. I thought it was conventional because of the contrast and texture of the text coinciding with the magazines purpose and audience, young musicians studying at Wyke College. In explanation to this the text was readable but still looked attractive and unique- with a drop shadow and bevel and embross effect.

I liked the positioning of my secondary image and the splash across the models chest. I liked the image because it didn’t overpower the main image but still grabbed attention. I liked the splash because it gave the cover a different contrast and gave me something to write secondary cover lines on.

Before I decided to put a splash on the front cover over the models chest the layout of the cover looked blank and had a lot of empty, bland space. However the shape of the splash looked artificial and unusual when I first added it to the cover. For this reason I used the outer glow effect to make the outside of the splash merge in with the splash itself so it didn’t look artificial.

I also liked how there was a shadow behind the main image because of the camera flash because it made the model look mysterious and almost had a “caught in the headlights” effect. I liked the effect it made on the model himself because it coincided with the models neutral, “caught off guard” facial expression. It also gave the models face a smooth and blemish free effect which was arguably effective. In my opinion I think it worked well.

I liked the two plugs and how they draw attention and influences the target audience to buy the magazine. “Win a mic” and “99p!” these features are meant to stand out because they are marketing strategies that influence the consumer to buy the product. I had trouble with making these plugs blend into the cover however using effects I managed to get the plugs to look like they belonged on the page by using an inner glow effect.

Things I think didn’t go well

I thought the main image looked burnt out because of the flash which made the models features deteriorate slightly. However this created a “caught in the headlight effect” which I wanted. But I think the flash left out too many of the models facial features in the image.

I also didn’t really like the cutting out of the models head to be put in front of the text. It looked slightly inaccurate and uneven. I could improve this by spending more time on cutting around the model to make it more accurate or ask my next model to flatten their hair down so that I have less of the image to cut around.

I also didn’t really like the header and footer because of the contrast of the colour. I thought they were too bright and overpowered the main image and the masthead slightly. I could improve this by using a slightly dull colour and using the effect to blend the image and the header and footer together.

I didn’t like the font I used because I think it looks too boring for the cover. However if I used a more handwritten, fancy font the audience may not have been able to read it. In the bold text I used some of the worlds were lost in the boldness of it which looked quite unprofessional. Next time I need to refer to other magazines and use similar fonts to what they use to ensure it is readable, attractive and professional.

I think I could have produced more text to put on the front cover and used the technique I saw on another magazine where the text was wrapped around the model. This would have filled up more of the blank space and made the cover look more professional. Also this would have greatly complimented the main image making the whole cover look more organized.

On the main image the model was holding as mug with a microphone image on it. I thought this would be appropriate to the target audience and the theme of the magazine itself. However I grew increasingly unsatisfied with this because it began to look like a pointless prop instead of a quirky and humorous image feature. For this reason I covered it using the splash and used the space for secondary cover lines. I think the mug prop could have been misinterpreted and thought of as pointless by some audience members so I decided to be more safe and conventional and just have the model in the image.

I also think I could have done more with the skyline and the footer. These features still had a lot of space in them and weren’t used to the full potential. I could have used them for cliff hangers to entice the reader such as “finds out who trashed the recording studio!” etc. I think all round I could have thought more about the textural features of this magazine in comparison to the imagery and layout.

Conclusion

The magazine lacked a few textural and font features along with the presence of space on the page making the cover look quite blank. I think for the first piece of assessed work it went reasonably well and I know a few things I need to do to improve it for the next piece of assessed work.

This is the picture that i used because i liked the quirkiness and humour of the model holding a mug. also the magazine is a college music magazine so i thought the image on the mug would be appropriate. when i brought the image into photoshop i had a problem with putting text on the background because of the grey soundsheet. i used photoshop to edit the background with the clone stamp to make the background creme.

I didn't like this picture because the model wasn't looking at the camera and you couldn't see his face. (he seemed distant from the audience.) i also didn't like the background because there was unwanted objects in the background which would have made this picture difficult to edit. there was also a lot of shadows which would have made it difficult to add text. it also looks unprofessional because of all these issues.