Project Management and Monitoring Production – 24/02/12

This week was the final week we had to complete our projects before the deadline, which is today. I have therefore spent my time this week making changes to my product to make it look more professional, and more aesthetically pleasing. In order to do this, I have invited comments from both my assessors and my peers, so that I have a better idea of what I needed to change. I have managed to meet the deadline, and my product has been handed in.

I have been working on all four parts of my product this week. Firstly, I felt that my front cover looked a bit cramped in terms of sell lines etc. I therefore changed the size of some of the sell lines, and in particular the main sell line, so that I could move the other sell lines around in order to fit better on the front cover. I also changed the console sell line, to one which suited the magazine better. In addition, effects such as drop shadows and inner glows have been added to give the page more depth.

On the contents page, I have standardised the font, so that the page looks consistent throughout. I have also added small features which make the contents page more engaging. For example, I have added red corners to each feature story to make it stand out more. I also used a brush to seperate the bottom half of the page as there was too much space before, and it made the page harder to follow.

I have also made various changes to the double page spreads.This has involved making sure that various elements on the double page spreads are lined up properly, and so that they are not wonky. For example, on the tablet article, I made sure the boxes which had the text in were the same size, and also that they were the same distance apart. Similarly, I lined up the 'p' ratings, so that the double page spread was professional. I also changed the position of the boxes on the page, as there was too much space on the pages before, which made the article difficult to read. In addition, I have added a kicker to introduce the readers to the article.

In terms of the DPS with the headphones and iPhone article, I have made little changes to it, apart from adding branding to it e.g. 'www.plugged.com / headphones'. I have also changed some of the fonts to make it easier to read.

Overall, I feel that this project has been a success, but looking back, I wish I had asked for audience feedback before the deadline, so that I could have made improvements to them. Despite this, I am still quite pleased with the outcome, and hope that it suits the needs of the client. I believe that I have managed my time efficiently, however I could have spent more time out of lessons, improving the graphic design of my products.

Project Management and Monitoring Production – 16/02/12

It is half term this week, the media work I have done in this week has mainly consisted of graphic design on both the contents page and the front cover. Unfortunately, I have not been able to work on the articles, as I do not have InDesign at home, and the links would also be broken if I chose to work on the documents at home.

 In my schedule, I had planned to create the contents page for my product, but as I had already started this, all I had to do was add more stories to the contents page, so that it shows the reader what is in the magazine. In addition, I have worked on the front cover, and have made various changes to the design of it. One of the main changes I have made is to the font used. I was previously using 'Excelsior Sans', but changed the font to 'Aero Matic' which I downloaded off dafont.com, as I believe this font looks more professional for the front cover. I have however continued to use Excelsior Sans for the contents and double page spreads. I have also changed various effects on the front cover, and have added drop shadows, and inner shadows, to give the page more depth. The only doubt I do have however is that the front cover looks too cramped, so next week, I will invite assessor comments and see what they think in terms of the front cover.

I believe I am nearly finished in terms of the front cover, but minor changes will be made next week in the days running up to the deadline, however I plan on spending most of next week making improvements to the DPS articles, as I have not had any chance to do that in this week.

Below you can see both the front cover and contents page, and how they have changed from last week:

Front Cover: 

Contents Page:

Project Management and Monitoring Production – 10/02/12

In my schedule this week, I had planned to edit the pictures for the double page spreads and write both of the article for the double page spreads. However, I have been ahead of schedule, and I had finished both the headphone article, and most of the tablet article.

I have therefore spent one lesson this week writing the article for the iPhone 4S. I did not manage to complete this in lesson though, so I spent some of my free time at college finishing it off. I also had to finish the verdict for the tablet article, so spent half a lesson this week completing that.

Since then, I have continued to carry out the graphic design work for each element of my product. I have added more sell lines to my front cover, and changed both colours and sizes so that it fits onto the front cover, while also looking professional. In addition, I have created a contents page for my product, which I started in lesson, but have also spent free time on.
 
I have also started to tidy up the double page spread articles, for example in the tablet article, I have made sure that on Photoshop, the images do not have any lines around them which were not erased when I used the magic wand tool. I have also added 'P' ratings, so that the products have been rated, giving the reader a better insight into the quality of the tablet. I also added boxes to the description of each tablet, so that it stands out against the background, but changed the opacity so that it looks more professional.

In the Beats Headphones/ Apple iPhone 4S article, I used the skill that I learnt previously, and wrapped text around the image used for the iPhone article. However,when I used the 'detect edges' setting for this, it did not work, so I had to use the 'bounding box' setting and change the size of the image accordingly. I also changed the quote insert to make it look more professional.

I have learnt various skills this week. For example, I have learnt to rasterize text/ shape layers so that I can make selections in them, either to fill in, or remove so that the background can be seen. An example of this is the 'P' ratings on the tablet article, where the blue background can be seen behind the P. I also learnt to use the polygonal lassoo tool, to cut part off a rectangle, so that it looks more triangular. Along with the new skills I have learnt, previous skills from AS Media: Communication and Production are helping me to progress in my project.

I am happy with my articles, and do not believe I need to write anymore for any of the articles, but think that the rest of my time needs to be spent on the grapic design of my product. This is therefore what I will be doing in half term. I have downloaded the Photoshop trial from Adobe, so that I can use this at home, and improve my product over half term.

Below you can see the documents as they are now:

Front Cover:

Contents:

DPS 1:

DPS 2: