First Amendments from Personal Evaluation

First Amendment of Front Cover Draft Based on Personal Critical Evaluation

Hayley McCarthy City College Norwich AS Media Studies

Highlighted Elements From my critical evaluation of the front cover first draft, I noticed some areas which I personally wanted to change.

Having a printed version of the front cover enabled me to see issues such as colour differences, as well as the overall impact of the main image and cover lines. The main issues raised were: - Change colour of ‘Up Close’ cover line to be more consistent with others, aiding readability - Change ‘i’ of masthead to off-white - Change colour of main cover line (consistency) - Increase vibrancy of anchorage text - Smaller font size for price - Include price with date stamp and issue number - Redesign puff to create impact - Reword buzz to create impact - competition?

- Tidy edges of main image (white space) I intend to address all of these issues before trying to gain further feedback from my target audience.

Insignificant language which will not attract the reader significantly.

http:// hayleymccarthymedia.blogspot.co.uk/ 2014/01/critical-evaluation-of-firstdraft.html

White space around edge of image. I shall use the magic wand tool to remove this, whilst maintaining a smooth edge.

Accidental colour change within the masthead.

Too subtle colour use.

Slightly darker than rest of cover lines.

Puff too similar to background, lacking impact.

Font size too big against issue number and date stamp.

Main Image With some white spaces left around the image from the original background, I originally started to use the ‘Magic Wand’ tool, however this was quite time consuming, so I decided to use the ‘Magnetic Lasso’ tool instead. This snapped to the outline of the image, creating a crisper line than what could be achieved manually.

Brightness To increase the brightness of the image, I used the Brightness/Contrast tool in the right-hand menu. I toggled the sliders until I found a brightness I was happy with, ensuring that it wasn’t too washed out, and the contrast gives enough depth to the image. I then merged the two layers so that the filter would not effect all of the layers beneath it.

Before

After

Saturation

Before

Before

After

After making these changes, I felt that the image looked slightly over saturated in some areas. I used the Hue/ Saturation tool in the right-hand menu and desaturated the image slightly, removing this orange hue.

Masthead A fairly simple task, I used the ‘Eyedropper’ tool to select the same white as the rest of the masthead, before using the fill tool to fill the ‘i’. As well as checking the colour by eye, I have used the eyedropper tool to ensure the consistency in colour, as well as using the brush tool to compare the colour on each base.

Cover Lines I originally had problems with the anchorage text attached to the main cover line not being impactful. I then looked at my original designs for the masthead, with this teal colour proving most popular among my target audience. Whilst this may be perceived as masculine, the aforementioned positive feedback from my target audience gives me confidence in this colour choice.

Post which mentions science behind colour choice on my blog:

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http:// hayleymccarthymedia.blogspot.c o.uk/2013/12/pre-productionplanning-masthead-designs.html

Buzz & Puff Whilst I intended to completely redesign the buzz and puff, looking once more at the overall composition of the magazine, I feel that this blends with the cover nicely, yet the darker text contrasts against the predominantly white font.

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The original text of “Exclusive Content” wasn’t very enticing, so by advertising a competition to “win signed merch[andise]” offers the prospect of winning something for free. I intend for the competition to be run via social networking sites, further advertising the magazine through sharing the page. The lack of a ‘freebie’ keeps production costs down, while avoiding the perhaps ‘gimmicky’ feel which free items attached to a magazine can bring.

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The abbreviation of the word ‘merchandise’ adds a more informal tone, which is heightened by the use of the exaggeration mark. This indicates that the magazine is for entertainment purposes - a break from the target audience reading textbooks.

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Experimenting with colour changes to that of the main cover line’s anchorage text, I found the teal colour less effective than the dark grey, which brings an aforementioned subtle impact.

Price By placing the price with the issue number and date stamp, this caused the barcode box to become stretched and cramped. To avoid this, I placed the price where it previously was, an just lowered the size of the font as to make it the same as the issue number and date stamp.

This is my second draft of the front cover.

By taking into account elements which I discovered to be unsuitable through personal critical analysis, I have managed to improve certain elements, further developing the aesthetics of the page. I was also able to include elements from my original design ideas to include in these subtle changes. I shall show this design to my target audience in order to gather their feedback.