EVALUATION

Personally i feel that this task was successful for me, i have improved greatly when it comes to using photoshop and i have learnt many more skills within it that i can use to make something better. This task was in a way quite challenging, this was because you could make rough pages for your magazine but they would look tacky and wouldnt look proffessional or like a magazine, this meant that i would go further into detail when using photoshop and different parts of it. When i had completely finished all of this i then had to do a further in detail evaluation on a online software called Prezi, to see my further evaluation where i dig deeper into my magazine click this link.  http://prezi.com/weepm9bccks1/edit/#2_4299178

Thank you for reading all of my blogs,

Ricky Lawrence.

CONTENTS PAGE

This image shows my contents page, i feel the page looks good with the magazine title alone the side of the page as it doesnt look overloaded at the top of the page where it says contents page, its good that the contents page heading is in white as it doent make the page look like there is too much red on the page, i kept the glow around the edge of writing as this matched with the magazines style. The red titles and page numbers stand out on the pages and breaks it all up a bit and i feel that its a good feature with the text about the magazines social networking as this is all up to date with technology and it will give readers another way to keep in touch with the magazine.

Ricky Lawrence.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

This is my double page spread, this is the new version with the changes that i made to the photos and how i merged them together. I feel that it all works well together, i have stuck to the colour codes of the magazine using red for the questions and as a stroke around the page heading, i took a quote from one of the answers of the band and put it over the images, i feel that this gave it a proffessional look and made it stand out, i used a curved font for the band members name as it looks like a signature from the band members. The band photo underneath the induviual photos works well as it shows the band in action at a gig, all of text is level along the left side of the page this gave the page order and structure and it didnt look as if all the text had been scattered on around the page.

Ricky Lawrence.

FRONT COVER

This is the front cover for my magazine, i am pleased with this i personally feel that it looks quite proffessional, the image used is black & white which really helps as it makes all the writing stand out and the title looks bright and powerful. All of the writing on this page has a stroke around the edge which adds to how it stands out and looks, which makes it easy for the text to be read at a quick glance without having to really concentrate in order to read it. The text 'Tombstone Blues' is the bands single which you are able to download from the double page spread. I feel the the colour codes for the cover stories stand out well and then the colour codes of 'Tombstone Blues' is the opposite so this meant the colours wouldnt be random and they would look of some relevance.

Ricky Lawrence.

For my lesson today i used it to make any changes that i felt needed to be made and took in any advice from my teacher in order for me to make improvements,

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
i changed the whole layout of all the pictures on the double page spread, i merged the all together into a square so they were all with eachother, and then i removed the bands name/logo image and had a shot of all the band together playing at a gig which was stretched across the bottom underneath the band member photo's. I had to add the page numbers onto this double page spread and i added a small copy of my magazine title next to my page number at the bottom of the page.

FRONT COVER
For all the text on my front cover i added a stroke in order for it to stand out more efficiently, a stroke is just like an outline around the text i chose just to use a black on for all the writing as it seemed to give the writing its on background so the writing wasnt clashing with any of the images colours.

CONTENTS PAGE
The change i made to this page was the page numbers, i made the page numbers red so they would be a different colour to the page headings, meaning that they would stand out more and it would grad the readers atention quicker/easier (it would look like, 4. PAGE HEADING).

I am happy with todays changes as i feel that when i look at a 'before' and an 'after' of each page the changes look much better and the magazine looks more proffessional and like a published magazine with them.

Ricky Lawrence.

In the first lesson of my double today i completely finished off my double page spread, i had arranged all the images how i wanted to be with the 4 different band members names next to each of their photo's and had an image of the bands name/logo underneath those images. I chose to only write up 4 of my questions on to my double page spread as if i was to use all of them they would be too squashed together, and if i wanted to have them all on together but avoid them being sqashed up it would mean that the text would have to be a really small font which wouldnt be easy to read for the reader, so i chose to have less of the question and at a good size for them to be read. I added a smart phone barcode symbol onto my work which i got from the internet as i though this would be good as this is good for the youth as the majority of them would have these phones and could use this as they could get a free single from it. i chose that the headings of each question would be red this is because it meant that the text was broke up a bit and it clearly showed where there was different questions. and the colour of the used font was a mix between a white/cream colour. I used the second lesson to review each of my pages in order for me to see if there were any changes that i would wish to make as i would be doing that in the next lesson.

Ricky Lawrence.

For todays lesson i made a start on my on my double page spread, i got the title on the page i used the same style as the title on my magazine for the page heading, and i just wrote a short introduction about the band and who they were adn what they were about. At the beginning of the lesson i had trouble using the software as i had to use a different page layout as it would have to be a double page spread (double the size of the other pages) and i would need to mark the centre of the page to ensure that i would have any of my images or text passing over the middle, and i also had to try and find the same background that i selected for my contents page so it would mean that all the pages matched and linked in together. All the photos that i chose to user were added onto the page but they werent in any specific arrangement, i started to write up and add the interview to the page. I chose a bright red for my title as this matched the titles of the previous pages so you could look at each induvidual pages and know that they all belonged to the same magazine. Apart from the slight problem i had using photoshop at the beginning of the lesson i feel that i got quite a bit done today and i am happy as i am able to see how it is all starting to come together and start looking good now.

Ricky Lawrence.

I spent this lesson writing out the interview for my double page spread, i asked the band 6 different questions all of these were long answers so i would either have to cut them down or not include all of them on my double page spread. I had to write out the introduction for this page and designed how i would want to lay out all of the text and where i would want to put the images as i wouldnt want it to just be scattered around. This meant that in my next lesson i would have to produce this onto photoshop and make the page.

Ricky Lawrence.

I used this lesson to looking over my contents page to see if i could make any improvements, i feel as if i do not want to include any images on this page as i feel that it may look too crowded and everything would have to be squashed together so i feel that it would be better for me to keep just text on it. I chose to include different headings, these were NEWS, ON THE RADAR, and FEATURES this broke it up a bit and meant that it wouldnt just seem like a list of words and would look ammatuer. In the reamainder of the lesson i was organising all of the photos that i would use for my double spread and how i would arrange the interview.

Ricky Lawrence.

This lesson i could start with producing my contents page, i would have to keep the design and the colour codes similar to those of the front cover so it all worked together and look professional. I took the title from the front cover and put it onto my contents page as well, i put this along the side of the page instead of along the top as then i could have the contents page heading along the top and it would look too over crowded. The colour of the writing would be white as it would clearly stand out against a black background.
Ricky Lawrence.

This lesson was good as i added the main feature title to the magazine and the barcode including the issue number and the price, The main title which i added to my magazine was 'ANYTHING IN MIND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE BAND ABOUT THEIR CARRER SO FAR!' I had some trouble with this as the text did stand out against the background but it didnt look very proffessional so i then added a black stroke to it which meant that it then stood out clearly. Also i added another feature to it, i put a triangle in the top left corner say 'NEW' this was also featured on the left so it would be featured in the left third and customers would be drawed in by this as it was new and they would want to buy it.

Ricky Lawrence.

In todays double lesson i started with the production of my magazine getting started was difficult as it was all new to me but when i got the hang of it and was familiar with whay i needed to do i was fine. I chose the image that i wanted to be featured on my front cover and chose for it to just be set as the background and any text or images would be put on top over the picture. I decided on the design of my title which would be 'TITLE' and would be red with a yellow glow around the edge of it for it to stand out against the dark background. I decided on the my selling line which would be 'THE U.K'S TOP MUSIC MAGAZINE' the cover stories were added onto my magazine, these were 'WIN TICKETS TO A CONCERT OF YOUR CHOICE' and '10 NEW UNSIGNED BANDS WE HAVE DISCOVERED FOR YOU' these were both featuerd within the left third of the magazine as these would be used to grab the readers atention and make them want to pick the magazine up off of the shelf. I struggled today to start off with but was fine when i have been on it for a while, In tomorrows lesson i aim to completely finish off my magazine cover so i can then get on with my other pages in future lessons.

Ricky Lawrence.

Today's lesson has been the same as Tuesday's so i can completely plan my magazine, it is good for me to make sure that i have done all of this properly as it is key for me to do my magazine properly. If i plan properly this will make it alot easier for to me design my magazine and this is good as, as i am going to have some difficulties using photoshop i dont want to be worrying about how i am going to design my magazine at the same time. The headings that are in the last post have all been planned now from these two lesson i had to sort them, my magazine title is 'TEMPO' i chose this as tempo is a musical term and as it is a music magazine i feel that it is relevant. My selling line is 'The U.K's Top Music Magazine'. I have two different cover stories, one of them is 'win tickets to a concert of your choice' and the other is '10 new unsigned bands we have discovered for you' both of these cover stories would be featured in the Left Third of my magazine as the left third is usually the only part of the magazine you tend to see when they are laid out on the shelves in shops. The genre of my magazine is Indie/Rock and the band i would be using for my magazine is brothers band called 'Anything In Mind' as they would do their own gigs so i can use this to take photos of them when they are playing to put into my magazine. I would aim my magazine mainly at 14-19 year olds, The background for my cover would be black with a photo added to it and my title would be big and bright red to stand out against the background. The writing for my main story in my magazine would be the same colour code as my title as then this would all work in with eachother and wouldnt look all random.

Ricky Lawrence.

In todays lesson we have been thinking of all the information in and around our magazine, we could just do this with pen and paper as we would just be getting ideas to what we would want to do. We had a table layout with all different headings and then writing what we would do.
There were;
.Title
.Selling Line
.Genre
.House Font (font which would be used through out the magazine)
.Colour patterns
.Weekly/Monthly (choose which one we want it to be)
.Price
.Target Audience
.Age Groups

This is to help me plan my magazine clearly and properly so when it comes to me starting with it on Photoshop i wont be wasting any of my time trying to think about what i would want to do.

Ricky Lawrence.

Today we have been set the task of making our own music magazine, We would have to take and collect our own photos of any bands/singers that we would want to have featured in our mgazines and would have to think of all the information that we would want in it. We would be designing a magazine Front Cover which would have our own title on it which we would have to think of our selves and design it, we would have to think of selling line e.g. 'Englands Best Music Magazine', we would think of our own cover stories to include on my magazine and then i would have to take the left third into concideration when desinging my magazine as this grabs the readers atention, a Contents Page which would include all the information about what would be in the magazine and it would have to be designed properly to look proffessional, and a Double Page Spread for the magazine this would have various pictures of the band/singer in it on one page, and then the other side would have an interview with the band, could have any information you wanted in it but you would think of it yourself and write it up.

Ricky Lawrence.

My two lessons which i had today were very successfull i managed to get all my pictures onto the one page that i wanted and got the main layout of the page sorted. Once i had done this i then added the text that i wanted into the spaces available and then edited it to make sure that the colours of text would stand out against the background and it would be easy to read for the reader. The text i added was the address of the school this was laid out along the bottom of the page under a picture of the new sixth form block. For the other piece of text i wanted to get a quote and i decided to get this from the schools website, the quote i got was words about our school from our head "a well ordered catholic school for boys and girls, we are commited to the highest levels of achievement for pupils of all abilities." in my next lesson i will have to edit the pictures to make them brighter and more appealing towards the viewer.

Ricky Lawrence.

Today was another lesson used on photoshop, in todays lesson i still wasnt very successful with getting my pictures anywhere onto other layers or pages. On the other hand i was quite successful as i managed to get a background sorted out for my work. I took my time on this as i was trying to match the colours to the school, i was looking for a dark burgundy colour and a light gold/yellow colour as these match the colours on the school badges and signs around school. I decided to to go with a style where the top of my page was dark burgundy and fading into the gold/yellow colour towards the bottom of the page.

Ricky Lawrence.

Today is our first lesson which we haved started to use photoshop, i really struggled with it and was clueless how to do anything. I was alright at using the 'magnetic lasso tool' i was using this to cut out around pictures so then you could then take the picture and put it into another picture or background, once i had done all the cutting out i then didnt know how to actually get it onto another layer, this was fustrating me as it seemed like i wasnt getting anywhere and making any progress. I was trying to get all my pictures cut and put all onto one layer so then i could start moving them around and getting the layout correct.

Ricky Lawrence.

I had two lessons today before and after lunch, both of these were used to go out around school and take all my photos so i had them all ready for the next lesson which we would then start on our prospectus's , i took all of my photos in these lessons, most of them being on either buildings within the school and some signs around the school so i could use the school name and logo, i used establishing shots, close up shots and wide shots. The weather wasnt particulary nice today so when i upload the pictures i need to make sure that i will edit them to make them brighter as it will look more appealing on the front page.

Ricky Lawrence.

This lesson was used productively to properly plan my work, i sketched exactly the lay out of my front page and i wrote what pictures i would use and what camera angles i would and how they would be edited. e.g. i decided that one of my pictures would be taken of the new sixth form block take from behind it standing on the football pitch on the back field, this would be an establishing shot taken from a slight angle so the whole building would fit in the picture easily, and would would then also fit easily onto the school prospectus.

Ricky Lawrence.

In this mornings lesson we were told that what we would have to do, would be to make a front page for a school prospectus, i decided i would do this on my school as this would be more practical as i could take all the pictures in the lesson time which we have allocated to do so. i sketched up a rough plan of just what pictures i would have and what information would be included on it.

Ricky Lawrence.

This is our second lesson of our double and we are now having a tutorial on how to use photoshop. This is the first time which i have used it so i am really confused and clueless about what is going on. I am struggling to follow with the instructions but am learning the basics so will progress with it in time. I have photoshopped just some basic photos e.g. just putting pictures of people into new backgrounds and playing around with them.

Ricky Lawrence.

Today in our first lesson of our double we were told about our premilary task, where we would have to design a front page of a magazine of some sort and that we would have to use all our own photos and ideas.

Ricky Lawrence.