Saturday 18 January 2014

Reflection of my preliminary work

When analysing all of my preliminary work, I found that there were several problems during the production of the school magazine. The first issue to arise was during the editing process and using the Photoshop software. I found it very difficult when highlighting the section of my image that I wanted to cut out with the magic wand tool, as I needed to do this in order to remove the unclear original background of the image and place it on a crisp white background. This would help to make the image look more professional, and to also make it easier when I had to eventually consider the layout design of the front cover. In order for me to create a clean cut around my models head, I had to use the eraser tool to carefully cut around the section that I did not want, this unwanted section was then deleted leaving my required section. However, the eraser tool did not create a very smooth cut, and make the edges around my model look bumpy. In order to avoid this, I made the eraser tool slightly bigger, and used the blending tool to cover over the edges.

The next problem I encountered was when ordering the layout of my magazine cover. The letters that combined to make my masthead did not fit neatly next to or underneath each other. The acronym for 'The College Survival Guide' consisted of 'T', 'C', 'S' and 'G'. The 'S' in the acronym did not sit neatly next to or underneath the 'G' which stopped me from making it look as professional as possible. Also it did not look aesthetically pleasing to the eye as it should. In order to correct this, I adjusted the positions of all three letters in what  I believed was the most efficient and best looking position.

The next problem I came across when producing my preliminary magazine was that it was very difficult to make sure that I did not exceed three or less main font colours to place onto my plain white backdrop. If I did exceed the three colour limit, I was in danger of making the cover look to 'busy' and crowded, and also make it look tacky. The main problem whit this was choosing specific colours on the chart as there were so many different shades and textures for each basic colour. This made it very hard when it came to adding extra fonts to my cover.


The forth issue came with my feature image as it did not give off the effect that I wanted it too, and did not look as clean or sharp as I believe that it should have. This was crucial as I wanted the cover to look as professional as possible, however not having a high quality image made it look very amateur and unappealing to the eye. This highlighted to me just how crucial the image is to the cover, and its ability to make or break a magazine feature. It is crucial to choose the correct one, and to display it at a  high quality.

When designing my contents page, I started by drawing it in pencil so I could just erase ideas and features that  I did not like, or did not work. This basic design would suit its purpose effectively with a suitable correlated font with the cover, as well as complimentary colour palettes. The logo is a main feature of the cover as it is identification of the magazine that the readers are reading, however I feel that for my developed future version, I will need to alter the logo to make it look more professional in order to fit the clean deign look that I want present through out the magazine.

After producing my preliminary work, I have not only developed my Photoshop skills for future editing, but it has also highlighted which of my chosen features need further development in order to look more professional, and also which aspects I should consider for my real edition.




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