Final Products Evaluation

The following is the presentation for my evaluation of my final products.

Final Products Evaluation

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Final Products After Feedback

  

Feedback

I questioned my peers about my work and found several trends.

Front Cover

Firstly, I was consistently told that while a solid black background works on my contents, I should consider adding some kind of gradient to the background of my cover. I plan to add this and have decided that a white-grey gradient originating from the band members would look right.

Secondly, and the most concerning, I have been told that my layout has a lot of wasted space and should consider using splashes and possibly a different arrangement of the cover photo in order to capitalise upon the space. I feel that this combined with the previous point should work to create a more suitable and professional front cover.

Contents Page

I was told that my contents page looked fine with the solid black background, unlike my front cover. Of all the peers I asked, only one issue cropped up and this was that the contents on the right hand side were much too large and that decreasing the size of these will allow me to add more content and create a more professional look, my only concern here is that this may increase the amount of black space too much.

Double Page Spread

I was told that my double page spread had several things wrong with it.

Firstly, the ‘Interview’ banner at the bottom didn’t look right and detracted from the rest of the page, thus lessening the entire purpose of the entire two pages.

It was suggested that I move this banner to the top where there is a mass of empty space and to move the caption of the image into the middle of the page, over the split.

Lastly, it was also suggested that the introductory paragraph’s size was increased, as is shown in many professional magazines, to force the reader into the article.

Final Products – Double Page Spread

This is my double page spread. The most obvious feature of this spread is the image on the right hand side. It is the only image in my products to be shown in colour, this is because I decided for this page that grey would be the background colour. My reason for this is to add some contrast to the rest of the products. Again, black, red and white fonts have been used throughout. With the red being used as the introduction to the article.

With the contrasting background colour, I had to find some way in order to link this page with the contents and the cover. I felt it would not be possible to put the magazine’s logo on this page, so I went with the next best thing and did torn banners and splats across the page. Not only do these help with consistency, they also tie the two pages together, spanning across them both. I feel this makes both pages come together as one, rather than sitting on two separate pages. The image on the right hand side also helps with this, as it goes over slightly more than half of the page. This means that some of the picture is on the left page and therefore links the two together.

Final Products - Contents

My final contents page continues the theme from the first page, with blacks, greys, whites and reds being used over the entirety of the page. I have attempted to, with the colour scheme, have black and white used for text that the reader should read. With red used for the more important pieces, in this example the page numbers.

The pictures on this page are again in black and white. I did this as I don’t like coloured pictures onto black and white. When I queried my peers on this idea, they were the same.

The logo again appears at the top of the page near the title for this page, which is also using the same ‘Gargoyles’ font as the front cover. This helps with consistency as it ties in the contents page with the front cover.

Again, I improved the flow of the page by adding ‘Splats’ and in order to make sure that the boxes on the left did not interfere too much or make the page look too square, I made the pictures overlap the top side of the box by their heads.

Final Products - Cover

This is my final front cover. The distinctive black, white, grey and black scheme is carried through the entire magazine. My idea for this is that as magazines try to be colourful in order to grab people’s attention, they all look the same. One in black and white will stand out more than one trying to be more over-bright than every other magazine.

The idea for my magazine is that it will follow the visual hierarchy (Starting at top left, moving to top right, cutting diagonally from top right to bottom left and finally moving along to bottom right). This is evident as I decided to put the banner on a slant with the image also moving across this. The final part that I added because of visual hierarchy is the splash with a sticker effect near bottom right. This will be the last piece of the cover the reader will see and therefore contains the most information of the cover.

The use of ‘Splats’ was suggested by my peers who complained that the magazine looked too rigid without them. The added splats, I feel, force the magazine to flow from one feature to another.

Examples of Photos That I Took

Below are some examples of photos that I took to possibly use on my magazine.

The top row of pictures was taken to be used on my double page spread. As can be seen, I moved the shot along to the right in order to give some space I could crop away on the left hand side.

The bottom row of pictures was to be used on my contents page. The one-tone background was added to make cutting out of the picture easier.

The following photos were used on my cover and contents page.

These two pictures were designed to be used on my front cover. I decided I wanted a picture which evoked the ideas of a previous idea. The pose is commonly associated with ‘Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody’. I used a one-tone background in order to allow me to cut out the faces of the band members and rearrange them in any way I wanted. I used the right hand picture as I felt the faces would become contorted if needed to be stretched on the right hand picture.

This picture was taken in order to be used on my contents page. The band member is dressed so as to look as though they have just come out of work. The idea for this is that I wanted a section to be dedicated to busking in people’s cities.