FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
Feedback
Project Proposal
Did I Do What I Said I Would?
I said that in this project I would:
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Create a front cover and two double inside spreads
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Write at least 2 pages about concerts I have previously been to, a page about the music in college and facts about the artists I have reviewed
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A short interview with a fan
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Do some Primary and secondary research
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To try and embed videos in my magazine
What I did:
In my end product I did create a cover which i said i would do but I then 9 other pages with 2 of them being a spread. These pages with the articles are all about music and concert reviews and experiences.
I have also done an interview which I said I would do but I only included a quote that she said. The only piece of writing I did not do however, was about the music in college, instead I did it on local music in preston. I know that the magazine would have been better if I did it on the music in college as it would've been more personal and local, but I wasn't organised enough to email the music teachers and I got caught up on different tasks so I decided to keep the page on local music but did it about preston.
Finally I did do the research I said I would and put it onto the research page aswell as the more detailed research which was in the blog.
My Thoughts On The Project
At the start of this project I was unsure of what I wanted to create and i was deciding between a magazine and advertising a product. These were the two tasks that i had previously enjoyed and thought I would get a better grade at, but I ended up choosing to create a magazine as I wanted to know more about print work and thought it would be good to choose something I wouldn't usually do.
When I then started the whole project I started with the planning, I found this part fairly easy as I just has to fill some sheets in however I did struggle with the time plan because i knew that whatever I wrote down for that week I would've completed it but I also would've done work from the next week which would lead me to have nothing to do in the end.
The next stage was collecting my primary and secondary research. To collect my primary research I did a questionnaire about magazines and music and asked other students in my class to fill it out. I then did lots of secondary research about magazine audiences, layouts, images, fonts and also did some research on my iPhone camera. I enjoyed doing research as I got to find out more about magazines and how they have to be successful and I liked the designing aspect.
When I started the production I think that I went into designing the magazine too quickly and was stuck making choices to make near the end of production which I hadn't prepared for. When it came to writing the articles I wrote two of the articles straight onto the page which didn't give me much time to think or change the text as it was already in the layout. Whereas for the other pictures I decided to write it onto a blank document first, I found this much easier as I could choose which parts I wanted to include and I could edit it, I also found it easier as I did it at home so nobody could distract me.
Overall I enjoyed the project as I learnt many new things about print sector in the media industry and I learnt new many new skills. I think I have done well in this project as I have done lots of research which helped me create my magazine and I have done analysis to that research.
Improving my Knowledge and skills
From this project I have improved my knowledge in the print sector in the media but mainly focused on magazines. I have learnt a lot about magazine covers and how they are the most important part of the magazine and I know more about how to appeal to your audience.
I have improved my photography skills with both a DSLR camera and my iPhone. On the DSLR I carried on improving my skills by producing shots using the rule of thirds and depth of field. I have also learnt a lot about lighting and used these skills in in some of my photographs, and also editing images. In addition to this I think I have improved my Photoshop skills as I know more about editing a photograph as well as cutting out images and putting them into frames, I have used tutorials for some things that I didn't understand how to do such as putting images into frames.
In the image above was some teacher feedback that I was given for my magazine. The first sticky note was feedback on my actual magazine on small things I could add to my magazine and edit. The second sticky note was about reflections i could make and the last one was just about checking things over. These edits have all been made either straight onto the product or in my blog.
I also created a google forms questionnaire so I could get feedback from my magazine to see what people linked, what they didn't like and what I could improve. The analysis of my feedback from my questionnaire is in my blog.
From my feedback I found that many people liked the design/layout and a few people liked what the the magazine was about. I also do think my design and layout was where i performed well. Although I got told to improve my back page and to add more colour. Adding more colour would ruin the colour scheme and I am unsure where to add more colour so I am just going to leave that.
**However I did improve my back cover page by creating a tour poster for Shawn Mendes with some of his date in June and July. The process of me creating the page and responding to my feedback in in my recent blog post, I also had to do some research on tour posters and fonts that were used for other advertisements in my blog as well and a poster analysis.
Next time...
If I was to do this project again I would definitely stick to my time plan as I did do a lot of my work before I originally planned also in a different order which then lead to me forgetting about things that I needed to do. Following my time plan would also make sure that I evenly distribute my tasks that I need to complete. In addition to this I would keep my research and production plans up so I don't go off track.
I would also want to get more feedback in every stage of my main production as it would help me improve my skills and work to the best standard and it will also be helpful as my audience will be them.
Also after this project I know more about the software and what I can and what I can't do on it so I will plan out my layouts further. Finally I have learnt that its easier if I write up a draft for my articles first before putting onto the product, so I would change the way I did this.