27/02/12. Improvements:

What I did in order to improve my draft product into my final design were:
- I changed the size of the cutout image to look more like a midshot.
- I changed the font of the title to look better and less like a desktop font.
- I made alterations to my subhead text on the cover page. I instead of having subheads over diagonal red banners decided to have it placed on the side of the page as text which either appears red or ylellow depending if it shows over the white BG or black silhouette. This colour contrast was used to challenge typical media conventions.
- I changed the colour scheme of the whole product to just black, white, yellow and red. Blue, orange and green were all removed from the colour palette. This was so that the covnentions of colour use would be used better and not messed up.
- I changed the font of my DPS text to time new roman to look more standard of an article, and not look like a strange capital letter font which is not fitting with the content of the magazine.
The DPS BG behind the image of band members, instead of dark green, now has a more interesting gradient.
- Finally, I saved this new image as cover page final to be distinguished from its draft level counterpart. Already have many of the vital improvements to the product been made.

What I need to improve?

Document displaying teacher comments on draft product:
jack k

This is a document that was sent via Microsoft Outlook 2010, and was used to give me feedback, mainly based on the areas for improvment requried for higher grades on each of the 3 pages, the cover, contents page, and DPS. Going on what has been said, these are my main concerns for areas of improvement with the draft product and its procession into a final product:
- Fonts chosen need to be more suitable. E.g. with the title, make it less 'desktop' and make it more fitting, more nociteable and attractive when applied to the magazine product. Do this for all font, also, vary whenever necessary.
- Rethink the colour palette for the product. E.g. the unique colour palette is nice, but try to make the scheme of colours more fitting to the genre. Either lay the colours out more effecitively or change the colour scheme used. Remember that colours need to be attractive to the reader but also make surrounding content attractive at the same time.
- Experiment more with the typography used to create the product. Have better fonts, effects, colours, more variety, more style, etc...
- More pages on the contents page need to be added. 18 is too small, really...
- Resize all conntet where ever appropriate for task at hand. E.g. the cover has a price tag and barcode which are way too large to be realistic to apply to a cover page. The data must also be added.
- Get rid of main text font used for DPS. It looks strange. Other than that, DPS seems to be okay.
- Possible rethink main image of cover page. Maybe silhouette should be replaced with actual image of the band standing there.
- Possible rethink of concept. Should guitars and keyboards really be a main focus of the magazine?
- The photos used. They could be retaken. This can be either in order for there to be a better quality of images used, or for a larger variety of images to be used for the final product, thereby adding a larger amount of actual interest to the product.
- Other things that may or may not be featured in the teacher feedback sheet above. Many things will need to be done if I am to achieve a high level 4/A grade in my media studies coursework.

Peer assessment:

Notes based on assessment for my draft Key Point magazine:

Feedback from peers:

The criteria, based on 3 reviews, as follows:

Criteria.	Martyn.	Josh.	Alex S.	Improve? My response:
Framing a shot. Including and excluding as appropriate.	Level 3. ‘Pictures suitably framed with relevant headings.’	Level 3. ‘Good framing.’	Level 2. ‘Images cut-out well but some edges are sharp.’	Images are generally considered to be satisfactory. Area for improvement includes better cut edges for professional quality.
Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.	Level 3. ‘Many distances used. Close-ups, mid-shots.’	Level 4. ‘Great variety of shots.’	Level 3. ‘A variety of distances used.’	Shot variety is generally praised; perhaps a few more distances should be taken just to be sure.
Shooting material appropriate to task set.	Level 3. ‘Yes.’	Level 3. ‘Shots suit genre.’	Level 4. ‘Appropriate for task.’	Another liked quality of my magazine. The shots taken and used seem to be generally suitable.
Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.	Level 2. ‘Backgrounds could be used. Even lighting is good though.’	Level 3. ‘Clothes again suit genre.’	Level 3. ‘Mise-en-scene for all areas is relaxing again.’	A slight concern for this criteria. Though generally good, more backgrounds could be used to add to the representation of the magazine.
Manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing.	Level 2. ‘Images on contents could be larger. Some jagged edges need to be smoothed.	Level 3. ‘Cut and shading used well.’	Level 2. ‘Some manipulation of images. Needs more.’	A cause for concern. Images do need to be smoothed and the contents need to be edited. Manipulation needs to be clearer.
Accurately using language and register.	Level 4. ‘Good grammar and language used.’	Level 4. ‘Correct language.’	Level 3. ‘Only a few mistakes.’	This area is generally fine. Besides a few spelling/grammar errors, language is perfectly fine.
Appropriately integrating illustration and text.	Level 3. ‘Quotes on DPS work well. Layers are good.’	Level 3. ‘Good level of text.’	Level 3. ‘More text and image integration.’	Generally okay. More may be necessary and to a better quality.
Showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design.	Level 4. ‘Layouts on contents page is organised, DPS well structured.’	Level 2. ‘Layout seems muddled.’	Level 1. ‘Some more though needed for layout.’	A real concern, as well as a slight contrast in opinions. The layout either needs to be improved or explained as to how and why it shows understandings of media conventions.
Showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size.	Level 3. ‘Headers appropriately sized. Body text too.’	Level 3. ‘Very clear fonts suit genre.’	Level 3. ‘Variety of text sizes and fonts.’	Generally well used text. The variety of size, font, type and everything is wide. Text could be more fitting too.
Using ICT appropriately for the task set.	Level 3. ‘Essentials.’	Didn’t mark.	Level 4. Ticked.	Seems generally well, could be improved with more input and skill.

Scans of peer assessment:

Self assessment of draft product:

Criteria.	Me.
Framing a shot. Including and excluding as appropriate.	Level 3. ‘Pictures are framed well but could be made better. Graphics and cut-outs could also be worked on.'
Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.	Level 4. A lot of different shots were taken and used. Their relevance to the product is debatable.
Shooting material appropriate to task set.	Level 3. ‘Yes it is.’
Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.	Level 2. ‘No backgrounds were used, only gradients. The colour scheme seemed to be unorganised.’
Manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing.	Level 2. ‘Images need to be larger and cut out a lot better.'
Accurately using language and register.	Level 4. ‘Mostly good grammaer and relatively well thought typography.'
Appropriately integrating illustration and text.	Level 3. ‘Quotes on DPS work effciently and the illustration is mostly appealing.'
Showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design.	Level 3. ’Layout is structured very well but is not very clear to a lot of the audience, its relevance to the product is also questioned.'
Showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size.	Level 3. 'Many different fonts were used for different sections of the magazine.'
Using ICT appropriately for the task set.	Level 3. ‘Most skills and abilities required were used for a "decent" model of the final product.’

However, it is still fair to say that many adjustments need to be taken. From this point, I will update my blog using a log diary, which notes my progress during each lesson, from now until the middle of march, when the final product is due-in...

Draft evaluation:

Media Evaluation Draft

Draft images:

The draft images for the final magazine product:
Draft Images

Write up for the draft designs:
- The draft designs turned out okay, however, some improvements for the final product could be:
* Better designed contents page overall, with a colour scheme relating more to the designated colour palette.
* Better cut-outs of images, which are moderate at best.
* Possibly have a less varied amount fo colours.
* Include more images for various reasons including meeting accuracy for mock-up designs, representation of the product, appealing to the target audience due to interest in visual content, etc...
* Improved background for the contents page, which looks somewhat dull excluding colours and images.
- What I did like about my designs was that they fit in with all conventions and the standard design and alyout of a magazine. Excluding cut-outs and a few minor faults, the magazine looks professional when purely based on layout and design qualities of the draft product.
- Another thing that fits in with the draft designs is how all of the pages look similar and are shown to be realted as part of the same project. For instance, the Key Point title/logo appears on each of the designs, representing how they are all connected as part of the same product. Also, the white background, or mostly white in the case of the double page spread. Also, the colour yellow is used for some of the text on each page, as a more subtle example. Basically, all of the designs fit togtehr via similar features. This adds to the professional representation of the product as a whole.

Test shots of magazine product:

Test Shots

New Magazine ideas:

Name: Key Point. This is a catchy name with a stylish logo which contributes to the colour palette. The KeyPoint name is relative to Keyboards,which is relevant as this magazine focuses on keyboards and guitars, and the genre of rock.
Typography: The main title will be very bold, but straight. In other words, it will be like an Impact font, or like Arial but thicker. As far as all other text goes, referring to headers, subheads, sell lines, text in articles,(etc) the text will probably vary as sticking to one font can look considerably boring and uninspiring on the final product.
Colour palette: The palette will be like this: A white background for all pages, this is so that all content actually stand out more. The text will be black as far as small text for articles goes. The other colours featured are green, blue and red as the orginal and optional colours,since black and white are needed anyway and are not truly part of the palette. The red will be used for banners and paragraph boxes, (etc) whereas blue and green will be used for multiple purposes. The palette is red, blue and green.
Content featured: The main page will feature a shadow of a person, which is Bg imagery used as a metaphor to demonstrate how only one shadow means that the band called The HIT will all be alone ater the split up. The band members themselves will then appear inside that shadow. Other than that, banners,sell lines and headings will be featured, all underneath the title at the top. The contents will serve as a typical contents page, complete with images and page numbers.The double page spread will feature an aritcle complete with interview and summary. (For more on this, see the mock up images and previous blogposts)
As far as layout goes, see the mock up designs.

Here is a visual demonstration for magazines as far as typography and the colour palette go:

Draft article:

Draft Article

This word document contains the article that will be used for content to fill the double page spread when it comes to the stages of magazine product production. The first part of the word doucment is where there are sentences with either dashes or bullet points in front of them. The dashes highlight that they are questions that will be asked in the interview. The bullet points highlight that they are answers to those questions. Hence why a sentence below a dashed sentence will have a bullet point. The interview will be related to the topic discussed in the D-P article, which is where a band called 'The HIT' has split up due to personal issues and bad behaviour. The questions will be asked by an anonymous worker of a company, presummably the publishers of the magazine AKA Bauer media group. The one being interviewed will be the leader of the band called Mr Messai. The interview will relate to why the band broke up and what is in store for the future.
The second part of the article is a short summary of the situation being discussed in the interview. Basically, it is a brief sum-up of the story from an outsiders perspective. This has really only been added for two reasons. One, so that an outsider can comment on the story from a logical and unbiased view, thereby adding interest and buzz to the storyline, and two, so that the layout of the double page spread on the mockup will make sense. (See mock up)
Basically, the article fits all needed requirements.I made sure that it was not too long, so it would still fit the page, but not too short, so at least the storyline discussed would appear as interesting among readers. The content in the article text relates to very interesting, as well as important issues involved in a (fake) storyline involving the band. The article is veryimportant to have in the double page spread if fullmarks for research and planning are to be achieved.

Magazine product mock-ups:

Mock ups