Lesson 11 - Creating the final design for my preliminerary school magazine

22nd October

After getting feedback from other students and my teacher, I decided that there could be some improvements on my magazine.
I realised that because there was so much going on in the picture, there was no need to have so much text on the front cover.
There was also the problem of having white text on a light background. The words "Beaverwood School For" weren't very literate.
I thought that it would be better if I re-arranged and changed some of the text in order for it to be more readable.
Here is an image of my final design:



I thought that I would darkern the overall look of the magazine in order to make the colour stand out. We can clearly see the red of the blood and how it links with the text on the page. I thought it looks better now that I have removed some of the text so that the image itself is still as powerful. I think its good how I have used the text font and colour to connote the sense of death in the magazine.

Lesson 10 - Editing the images and creating the first draft of my magazine.

19th October

I decided that I wanted to emphasise some of the colour in the image before I added in the text. First of all, I added a grey colour to the overall image. I did this because I felt that it would then allow the other colours to stand out more. In the original photo, the make up of the two scare characters was very faded. I then added an effect to their faces so that the white and black colours were stronger, as well as the blood.
I added a colour to the eyes of the school girl character. I felt that it would add more of a scary look to the magazine.

I added text to the magazine front cover and this is what I created for my first draft:



I went on to analysing this magazine for features that I could improve. First of all, I liked the font of the title, however the "wood" part of the word was faded and it wasn't that visable. I decided that I wanted this text and fading to make it look as if it is part of the image.
The next part that I decided that I needed to change was "Beaverwood School for". This is because it is on a white background and isn't that visable.
After getting feedback from classmates, I agreed with them that I have added too much text to the magazine. Seeing as there is a lot going on in the picture, the reader will focus on that instead of looking at the unwanted text on the front.

Lesson 9 - Drawing designs for my front cover

15th October

 Before I started editing my images and editing text for the front cover, I drew some designs.


(scan in image)

Lesson 8 - Taking pictures of different scenes for the contents page

12th October

I took pictures of different areas for another image to insert into the contents page.
First of all I took a picture of the bell tower as it can be seen as scary and daunting. However, after editing it, it still didn't look how I wanted it to:

I then took a picture of the quad, however I think the scene seems more picturesque instead of scary for the theme of halloween:

My final picture I took was in the main corridor which I then edited:

Lesson 7 - Taking my pictures for the front cover and contents page

8th October

After looking into where I should take my photos, I then took photos of different areas with people in.
My first shots were in the quad. I decided not to use this image and scene because the lighting was bad for that time of day. The effect of this was that the faces of the characters because shiny and blurred.

After that, I then took a picture in the main entrance but I didn't take enough pictures to get a good one. The picture wasn't in focus and the characters didn't have the right facial expressions:

I then moved to the final scene, that being the main corridor where I managed to get my final shot:

Lesson 6 - Moodboard of initial designs

5th October

In this lesson I thought up of ideas for my magazine. I sketched out some deisgns and made a moodboard of the sort of things that I might include.

Seeing as the theme of the magazine will be Halloween, I wanted to include pumpkins in the scene. To make the the front cover give off the 'horror' vibe, I thought it would be a good idea to make the girl of the midshot have scary make up on. I then decided that I could have additional people in the far background with pumpkins on their heads to have them walking around looking like zombies to add to the effect.

Lesson 5 - Deciding on a theme for the magazine and analysing my questionnaire

1st October

I thought that in order to attract my target audience I should create a theme for the magazine. My initial ideas were Halloween, Christmas, Autumn, Fireworks night and New Year. The feedback I got from the questionnaire shows that most people in year 10 and 11 would want to have a magazine designed in the theme of Halloween as it is coming up.

From the results of my questionnaire, I found out that the majority of the people wouldn't pay for the magazine, therefore I made it free. 7 out of 10 people wanted more information about further education opportunities such as sixth form, college and university. Users also wanted a fashion section in the magazine, therefore the magazine in general will be educational and social. The most popular theme selected was halloween, therefore the colour scheme I will be using is red, oranges and blacks.

I didn't get much feedback on the question about naming the magazine based on the theme they had chosen, therefore I named the magazine myself, "Scarewood".