Evaluation
For the preliminary task we had to design a Haydon biased magazine, I have now finished this and now i'm going to evaluate it and see what I did good and what I can improve on. I decided to call my magazine 'The Stag' as the stag itself is the logo of Haydon School and it can be seen everywhere around the school. For the front cover I decided to have the masthead large, simple and white as I think the white really stands out against the full bleed. Additionally the masthead follow the codes and conventions of a magazine by being so large and bold. I was originally going to use a picture of a girl standing in front of a tree for my full bleed, however I didn't feel that it linked to all the students, therefore I changed it to a picture of my two friends, Casey and Tom, on their prom day. I decided to use this picture as prom is something that right from year 7 everyone gets excited about, boys and girls, as well as this it was a major event that had happened not that long ago. Also I applied other aspects of a real magazine to mine, for example I added a bar code, sell lines button, issue number, and date. I also kept my colour scheme simple and consistent throughout the magazine, I think this makes my magazine look more professional.
Next I did my contents page, for this again I kept to the same colour scheme of; blue, white and yellow, this is to make my magazine look more professional, also these colours are easily recognisable and related to the school so I thought it would be a good choice of colour scheme. I then decided to go for a simple layout and just make a section at the top for the title 'contents' and space for social media, underneath I then placed the pictures. Next to the pictures I have put the large page numbers which are conventional to a magazine and then a small description of whats on each page.
Although, I admit that even though I believe my magazine is pretty well made for the amount of time we had to make it, if I was to recreate my magazine, I would change some things. For example I would add more information underneath the picture on the contents page, I would rearrange the picture so their is no large white gaps anywhere. I would write more to do with the social media and adding in a subscribing box with information regarding that. Additionally I would use pictures that are in better quality and from better angles. Lastly for my front cover I think I would use a better quality photo, and really think more about what my sell lines would be. I would also change the font to make it look more professional.
Todays lesson I completed my preliminary task, which was to create a Haydon based magazine, which I called 'The Stag'. I have also started my evaluation but I need to finish it for homework. Last lesson I finished the front page and had started looking at the pictures for my contents page but hadn't had enough time to actually work on any of it. So in todays lesson all I had to do was finish the contents page, where I had to add pictures, write the page numbers, write the title, think of descriptions, add social media, etc. So far my evaluation is coming along nicely, I think it has to be roughly over 500 words but i'm already over that. So far I have explained what I feel I did well on the front page of the magazine and I then need to add more about the contents page and what I can do to improve.
Research Post - Clare Hanington's Blog
For homework this week we got set a research task, of looking at a past AS media students blog and analyzing it. We were told to pick a blog that we thought looked successful and explain why we thought this. I looked at a chose Clare Hanington's blog. I was reading through some other blogs but I didn't feel as if they went through as much detail as Clare did in her blog. Clare did feel as if Clare made a conscious effort to explain everything she was doing and why she was doing it, for example Clare also uses a range of social media to upload her ideas and when she explains what she has done recently. She uses presentations, prezi, voki, videos herself, written word, and sound-cloud. I also like how she stuck to a color scheme through her blog, it makes it look more professional and everything looks neat, tidy and its easy to navigate. I also feel that her blog reflects her personality which is important as she spent a lot of time and effort into making it right. I hope my blog is as successful as hers.
Sketches & Ideas
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I have now completed my sketches and have chosen everything that I want to go into the magazine. I did the sketches roughly and didn't spend much time on them as I only wanted a basic outline to go by. I have chosen to call the magazine 'The Stag' as it relates to the school as that is the schools logo. For the front cover I have chosen an image of a girl standing in front of a tree, she is a new sixth former to the school. I feel that this is a good image to have as this was a bit event happening at Haydon recently. I have chosen to go with a colour scheme of 'yellow, navy and white' as these colours relate to the school well. I got the ideas for the story's for the pictures we took around of the school, additionally I am using some prom pictures that my dad took at the school prom in the magazine. I may makes some changes to my magazine depending on whether it looks right when I put it all together but for now this is what i'm going to stick to. I haven't decided on fonts and sizes yet, as i'm not sure whats going to look good with the layout of the magazine. The language i'm going to use in the magazine will be simple and clear to understand read so the whole school can read it and understand. As if I use bigger words the new year 7's might not understand as much as the sixth form students.
Our preliminary task is to create a magazine which is based on Haydon School. As soon as I heard about the task I knew I wanted to make it as fresh and relatable to the students as possible. I wanted to make it a magazine that when the students see it actually want to read it and not just throw in the bin, I want the magazine to actually relate to things they care about. We was then sent out to take pictures of the school
and the students around and within the school. The magazine will be based on everything that involves the students in the school, for example the prom, results day, new students and the canteen. After this I made a power-point of all my ideas so I wouldnt forget them, which I will link below. Now that I have all my ideas down my next step is now to sketch the front cover and contents page of my school magazine.
