Preliminary Evaluation

A) I used mainly mainstream magazines for influence for my preliminary magazine. These include copies of the music magazines NME and KERRANG! NME in particular use a big bold main coverline that also spans the full width of the page, i followed this technique with my main article 'Cyber Bulliyng'. I also took hints from these magazines about the banner at the bottom of my page displaying advertisements that could persuade a reader to buy my magazine. The contents page also took inspiration, I followed a familiar layout usede by NME of where a main image is centred followed by smaller images around it, this is useful as it makes it easier for the reader to focus on each article/image.

B) I have learnt many skills throughout my production of the magazine, including the use of cutting out an image on Photoshop Elements, this is what I used to produce the main image on my cover, it allowed me to alter the background colour and give me a plain background so the attention was focused on the image. I also developed layering skills throughout my project, this means i could drop images and text into different layers, this gives my magazine a lot more depth and makes it overall aesthetically pleasing.

C) I definately felt my front cover was successful, i tried to create a cover that displayed sadness through the topic but was also bright and attractive so a reader would be attracted to it. I believe this was achieved through my correct decision of the layout, as the girl is leaning forward i put the image to the right giving the impression she is almost leaning out of the page. If it were on the opposite side it may of looked odd and unbalanced. I belive my photography worked well in the magazine as they had good brightness and were the correct angles and distance (mid-shots). Finally my time management was very good as i met the targets set and completed my project to the given date.

D) Improvements i would have made are with the contents page, i could of used a big main image as the whole pages backgrounded like a lot of magazines do, this gives a good effect. Also on my front cover I could of tried blending the colours together better, i feel the colour sheme was too bright and contrasting, to improve and would use a more simple colour scheme, this would allow me to blend the images and texts together in a much better-looking way. I believ doing this preliminary work has showed me what it takes to create a top magazine and i now know what I need to do to achieve this.