2. Research
The strengths of my research was gathering magazines and understanding the features they were
using. This helped me make the magazine for my final product as I knew what to design and where
to layout my text and images. A weakness of my research would be not enough detail on the
magazines are talked about. Therefore I feel I could of talked more about the features and
techniques they used to attract the attention of the customers. For example I could of talked about
the colour of the fonts as they are used to attract the customer into reading the magazine. I should
also talk about the style of the text more is it makes the customer want to carry on reading. A
strength of my research is the way it is layed out as its easy to understand and find information on,
therefore I could find the useful information I needed for my product. I feel I could improve my
research by gathering more different types of magazines, therefore I would have a wider Varity of
magazines to discuss. So when I came to do my final product I would know roughly how to do
different types of magazines for example games, music and movies.
3. Post production reflection
The processes I went through in changing my experiments are that I got rid off the unnecessary logos that can be
seen on the magazine to the left. I did this because it made the magazine look tatty and in my opinion
unprofessional. I then got rid off the age certificate as its not important for the front cover. This is because it could
put off some customers as its in the way and makes the overall look of the magazine out of place. As for the font I
made it larger and installed a new font to make it stand out more as I wanted to draw the customers attention to my
magazine. I then went around the soldiers head with the magic wand tool and copied it to another layer. Once I've
done this I dragged it over the “gamer geek” text. I then changed the font and colour of the review text, I then
placed it underneath the “battlefield 4” logo. As for the barcode I made it smaller as it was filling up the page and
then added in a bottom banner to give out rewards and prizes. I did this so I can persuade the customer in buying
the magazine.
4. Post production reflection
This week i made a website mock up where i wrote
about new games that are about to come out and
made an article about them. I did this by using a web
site called Wix to create my video game website blog. I
then used the PC gamer website to get tips on how to
layout the video game website correctly. From doing
this i feel confident that when i come to do my final
design, i will succeed in doing so. I've also leaned how
to mange and edit a website, therefore i know what
I'm doing next time.
5. Comparison
The comparison between the a two is they both have large font to get the audiences attention. Another comparison is that they
both have an image of the character in the middle of the magazine, the reason this is done is because its eye opening to see.
They both have little information bubbles to let the customer know what else the magazine will be talking about. This is useful as
you know exactly what sort of magazine it will be. A comparison is the “chance to win” advert when you buy the magazine, the
effect of this makes the customer want to buy the magazine as they might get something in return. Another comparison is the
layout, as you can see the layout is similar for example the text in the middle is in the same place. Even the colour is the same as
the professional magazine.
6. Comparison
The comparison between the double page spreads is that they both have similar layouts and designs for example the writing is
next to images either on the left or right. We both have a lot of images on the double page spread, this is because I want the
customer to know what kind of game I'm talking about. Another comparison between them would be colour because we both
use this to make the headline of our magazines stand out. For example I have used a black headline with a white background to
make it look sharper and attention grabbing. The other magazine has done this as well by using a light green to make it stand out
from the background. However there are differences for example the other magazine has more detail than my double page
spread and it also has text describing the images that you see when reading. Therefore the reader will know what information
about the images they have included in their double page spread.
7. Comparison
https://jackmorton1999.wixsite.com/gamergeek
The comparison between the two websites is that they both have similar colour designs for example we both have greyish
background colours. The effect of this makes the images and text stand out to the customer, resulting in grabbing their attention.
Another comparison I have found is that they both use large font for there website name. The effect of this makes the audience
notice the name and possible remember the name so that they can find the website again. A difference between the website is
the topics for example I am covering video games and the other website is covering news. Another difference is the way its layed
out, for example in my website it has a image of a famous video game character and then down below is has articles about the
newest video game news. Where the other website has articles on the top of the page, the effect of doing this is to get the
audience to click on the articles because they are interesting and also appeal to the audience.
8. Production Reflection – Front cover
I made a front cover for my gaming magazine. The planning was really helpful as it gave me
useful information on what to do for my final product. The process i went through was
gathering the images to use for my front cover. I then added them to my magazine and centered
it in the middle to make it stand out to the audience. I then got the rectangle tool to make a
boarder for my advertisement. The reason i added in a advertisement is to attract the
customers to the magazine as they have a chance to win something. I then went on a website
called Dafont which lets you download free font from the internet. However it is a pain to install
the fonts onto the computer, therefore it was time consuming as i couldn't download the fonts i
wanted for my gaming magazine. I then added a bar-code to make my front cover more fuller.
Another image i added to my gaming magazine is a price tag to let the audience know what sort
of price the magazine will be. Overall i do feel like i could improve some parts of my final front
cover, for example spending more time smoothing out the images to make it look neater, but
apart from that i do like the look of my gaming magazine as it looks professional and attractive
to the audience. I also feel that installing fonts could be easier and more informative as i got
confused and stuck at this point.
9. Production Reflection – Double page spread
This week i made my double page spread where i talked about a game
called rainbow six siege. I talked about the positives and negatives of
the game and if its worth the money. The software i used is called in-
design which is time consuming as the images are hard to put into
place as you have two boxes that you have to align into place. My
thoughts on this are that they could improve the image movement
and also improve the page layout as its confusing. I then got my text
for my double page spread i did early in the week and pasted it in to
the layout i created for my magazine. The tools i used were the crop
tool to make the images fit into the magazine. In my opinion it was
easier to understand an easy to do. Another tool i used was the ruler
tool which made me position my work so that it was equal and neat. I
really liked using this tool as it made it easier to follow and what the
magazine was going to look like. I then downloaded different font to
make the magazine more engaging for the audience to read. I did this
by going on a website called dafont where i downloaded two types of
font, one for my title and the other for my text. I thought the process
of this was time consuming as it was complicated to download the
font as you had to open up a program to run it, which i new nothing
about.
10. Production Reflection – Website
I then made a website using Wix, using Wix was useful
and really easy to follow as all the information is easy
to find. However placing images from google was
difficult as they didn't want to stay in place while i was
working on other things on the website. Therefore i
felt as if i was wasting my time from placing it back
into its rightful place. I then get ideas from other
websites to influence me into making articles. I feel
that it gave me useful ideas that helped me along the
way. I then got a contacts page where i wrote about
the location and how to come into contact with the
website for any questions and queries. This was useful
as i feel i got to understand how websites work and
how they communicate with their audience.
https://jackmorton1999.wixsite.com/gamergeek
11. Issues
Installing fonts was hard and confusing as you had to open a command
prompt and enter a code. Therefore it was a bit of a struggle to install fonts
in a hurry. Another issues I encountered was problems saving my work to the
right area. For example I saved the PowerPoint to downloads, this doesn’t
save your work. This resulted in losing lots of work, therefore I was behind in
work. Another issue that occurred was trying to find my work as they I lost it
in my giant folder full of media work. An issue was trying to figure out in
design as I was new to the software and therefore I didn’t know what tools
did what. I had an issue with uploading my PowerPoint to blogger as I had to
use a website called “Slide share” which puts them onto a blogger. The issue
was that it didn’t put my PowerPoint's on blogger which caused me to lose
waste time.
12. Improvements
Front Cover
I will improve the colour of the front cover as it seems grey and dull to the eye. To improve this I will add brighter colour to make it
stand out and grab the audiences attention. I will also improve the magazine cover by adding more adverts or writing as I feel as if its
empty in some parts of the magazine front cover. I also feel that the barcode is a bit to big for the magazine front as it takes up a lot of
space. For next time I will solve this issue by down sizing the barcode to make more space for my other add-ons.
Double page spread
I would improve the double page spread by making the background more vibrant and colourful, therefore it will stand out to the
customer/audience as it will grab their attention. I would also improve the images and screenshots of my work as they seem to be out
of place. I will improve the images by taking my own screenshots of the game next time, which will result in clear and colourful
images. I will also improve the gaps between the images and the text as they seem to far away or to close. I will solve this issue by
creating a grid next time, therefore I will know the measurements of where to place my text and images.
Website
I should improve the website by making the articles more interesting and attracting the customers to read more. I also feel that I need
to improve the design of the website as the layout feels off and unnatural to the rest of the website. Another improvement I would
do is making the website more colourful so that it stands out more to the audience.