2. Cork film festival 2017
-The magazine has the standard layout and follows the general convention of all film festival
brochures, with the same structure, clearly displaying the sponsors and the people involved
on the first pages, then following up with all the possible events to attend during the festival.
-The language used throughout the brochure is formal meant for the more educated
individuals interested in the film industry, whereas the color scheme is a contrast of light and
dark in order to make certain parts of the brochure stand, for instance much of the
background is colored blacks or dark blues, with the areas of text being bright yellows or
oranges.
-The images used throughout have clearly carefully been composed for usage, as well as
likely also photo shopped for clever visuals a standard photo can’t achieve.
-Font styles are very standard such as Calibri, the only editing done to them is the change of
size and color, otherwise this text is purely meant to inform, not capture the attention of the
audience.
-The website of Cork film festival integrates idea from both Aesthetica and the Finnish
industry, using a simple design and color scheme with easy to read text and also utilizing a
trailer to describe their festival, however of using a twitter page although they undoubtedly
have one, is the system of having a newsletter, with this process they can keep all followers
of their programme up to date with the latest news.
3. Aesthetica film festival 2017
-Much of the contents of this brochure matches the description that of the Cork film festival, a huge
difference however is the text style and the color scheme, it is primarily composed of a contrast of
white backgrounds and black colored, with the occasional exceptions of adverts part way through
using colored backgrounds designed more for capturing the audiences attention, as these colors
make them stand out from the rest of the pages, as well as using this effect to mark the end of
segment of the brochure.
-The design to the Aesthetica
Website is similar to that of it’s
brochure, in that it displays all it’s
information clearly for any readers
to see without putting a bunch of
ads to the side to draw their
attention elsewhere, as well as
placing a trailer at the top of their
homepage to show off the annual
film festival.
4. Finnish film industry
-In comparison to the film festival posters ‘Finnish’ has very little in common with them, the
main similarity is the text, again using basic black text used to inform rather than captivate, a
notable exception to this rule is the cover as seen on the left which uses a visually appealing
image of a coastal area using darker colors, which then contrasts with the text which is large
and white to help stand out compared to if it had been against a bright background.
-This magazine makes use of an increased amount of images to capture the attention of the
audience, however the majority of them are informative, this is done by including the concept
art for the movies themselves, this can include a snapshot from a scene in the movie or even a
scene that wasn’t even placed into the final product. Another popular method used to capture
the attention of the audience is by including pictures of celebrities in the latest blockbusters in
order to grab the attention of the audience as a wide majority of the population will be
interested in the latest news concerning their favorite Hollywood icons.
-This magazine also makes more use out of the mast heads, using large titles to give a brief
summary to the audience without going into detail to spike curiosity.
-The layout of the website is a sleek and modern design which is accompanied by a dark color
scheme similar to that of it’s magazine, the homepage is comprised of the latest news
concerning the company and it’s twitter page in order to receive efficient feedback from their
audience.
5. Total film issue 266 2017
-The previous magazines have been aimed at the more educated reader, this however is a regular
magazine covering the general media of film, using the techniques that many other magazines
employ in order to grab the attention of the consumer, this includes a bold unique styled title, a
hot topic currently in the media in order peak the curiosity of the reader in this it’s the latest in
the star wars franchise ‘The last Jedi’
-At the bottom of the magazine is the cover line ‘Will Smith Xmas gift guide’, using a popular icon
will draw attention of anyone currently reading the magazine as you would be under the
assumption that they are interested in the celebrities, plus many people never know what to buy
for Christmas so this is an excellent way to sell copies.
-While the magazine definitely includes a significant amount of informative text, it is laid out
differently compared to others for example it is set up in loop around images at the center of the
page, this particular magazine also makes an increase in usage of images, particularly scenes from
new or famous movies such as the new ‘Bladerunner’ or ‘The wingman’.
-Total films’ website focuses on drawing the audience in with interesting news stories regarding
the latest in cinematography, whether this be arguments between stars on set or simply movie
theory controversies, anything that sounds interesting to the reader whether what is being
displayed is true or not. This accompanied with the bold text and eye catching pictures make this
a popular website to be visited.
6. Canal walk gaming expo 2017
-With gaming magazines like this there are immediate noticeable differences not just with the
content displayed, for instance there is a noticeable lack conventions that go with magazines
generally, instead the entire page is taken up with advertisements as the idea is to try and sell all the
products they possibly can, and this year has been a popular year for the consoles with the release of
the Xbox 1 S and even VR now finding it’s way into mainstream media as famous games have found
their way onto the niche market such as Skyrim, Doom, Fallout and Super hot, as well as the VR
headset becoming more affordable for people. (the price tags on the magazine are priced in the
South African rand which is approximately 0.054 the value of the British pound)
-The aim of this is to offer the audience the latest in gaming, details about the game aren’t provided
to save room and to try and convince the reader that it’s a good deal as a new game is somewhat of
an unknown anomaly is the media. However due to this being part of gaming expo they also
advertise all the different events going on at the time, which is also a feature present in all film
festival brochures including the two listed above.
-The homepage to the canal gaming expo is rather plain for a gaming website, the convention of
these websites is to use eccentric color schemes and large text followed by exciting pictures to
capture the attention of the audience, this one however is a simple white background with basic
black text, with a rundown of events, deals, venues and dates.
7. Edge magazine
-The design and layout of edge magazine is incredibly similar to that of total film
magazine, in that there are many eye catching images on the screen setup around the text
for additional effect.
-The main reason behind this is because they are both hosted by the same server and
company who would use similar design for all their magazines as it’s this design that gets
the views, the primary differences of these magazines are the color schemes, this one
using a combination red, white and orange, and total film using a combination of reds,
whites, blacks and blues, the type of advertisements on one page, for instance this one
has video ads whereas total film has more professionally made print ads, and finally
obviously the news stories.
8. Empire magazine
-Empire magazine too uses eye catching news stories much like edge in
order to efficiently get the news stories across, but in comparison to
edge, this magazine rates and reviews movies based on the opinions of
their critics and the audience giving their general reviews.
-They also use a more simple color scheme and text style, likely done like
this in order to have the viewer focus on the facts rather than the
decoration, despite this however they still display ads on their site but
this is to profit from people viewing their page.
-In addition unlike edge, empire has done news stories and reviews on
popular TV series such as ‘stranger things’ and ’the walking dead’.
9. Retro gamer issue 161
-Retro gamer magazine has stuck with the theme of old fashioned games by using a green and pixelated style
cover, which was a graphical setting used by the first Gameboys and occasionally the Gameboy advance, plus
many consoles that came before this.
-To carry on this theme they will naturally use snapshots from retro games, hence the name. In this case it’s
images from the Pokémon red and blue games that took the Western media by storm and has been going
strong ever since.
-Of course like any magazine they have also included ads on the cover including the ‘latest’ in gaming in the
blobs and stars, as well as sticking with the convention of using large and bold text to capture the attention of
the audience. With the main cover line stating “an exclusive interview with Junichi Masuda”; one of the lead
designers behind the Pokémon franchise since the ’Ruby and Sapphire’ twin games released on November
21st 2014 for the 3Ds, this will have been placed on the cover because an interview with one of the lead
minds behind one of the most famous videogame franchises in history would have been a huge sales point.
-Another feature this magazine commonly utilizes is the inclusion of bright and flashy images from the games
of yesteryear, with quotes about said games in the column beside them, used to emphasize the impression
that particular game had in the media, whether that impression was good or bad or even controversial.
-As the games included in the magazine all have separate color schemes, the designers have made it so there
isn’t a strict color scheme on the page itself, simply changing the colors to match the theme of whatever is
currently being displayed, this will have been done to ensure that no matter what page the reader turns to,
the selected color scheme will never Look out of place.
10. Websites
• Cork film festival brochure 2017-http://corkfilmfest.org/
• Aesthetica short film festival 2017-http://www.asff.co.uk/
• Finnish film industry-http://ses.fi/en/home/
• Total film 266-http://www.gamesradar.com/totalfilm/
• Canal walk gaming expo 2017-https://canalwalk.co.za/events1/canal-
walk-gaming-expo/
• Empire magazine-https://www.empireonline.com/
• Edge magazine-http://www.gamesradar.com/edge/
• Retro gamer magazine-https://www.retrogamer.net/
11. Proposal
Working title: Next gen magazine (An idea taken from the development of a new console is called the next gen)
Audience: My audience doesn’t specifically have an age range or gender target, the idea is to create a magazine that
covers the gaming industry as a topic for anyone who takes gaming as a hobby or career more seriously and is interested
in being informed about this segment of the media, as a result of this, the magazine would most likely appeal to the
psychographics of wanna be’s/achievers, the reason behind this is because the magazine would be informing them of the
industry and if these are the type of people who supposedly want to do better in this area, the additional information
this magazine would grant would be appealing to them. Social status is also generally not too much of a concern,
however the reader may have to be more educated (abc1) in order to understand all lingo used in the magazine, as well
as enough wealth to be able to afford a platform for gaming, as this magazine is not aimed at non-gamers.
This magazine would be useful for anyone who takes part in the gaming industry, primarily due to it covering all aspects,
from the companies and the latest news regarding them, how gaming is currently being viewed in the media and even
the most anticipated upcoming releases, which is useful data for anyone looking to advance their experience in the
gaming industry. The reason as to why this magazine doesn’t have a specific age or gender barrier is because I believe it’s
the work of a limited mind to think that gaming stops at teenage boys, when in reality gaming is a media enjoyed by
people of all age categories and genders as there are so many different games of different genres in the industry there is
generally something that appeals to everyone, the same rule applies to peoples’ sexualities, as this magazine is suitable
to everyone regardless of their sexuality. The magazine would likely be on an international scale, this is because on a
regional scale a magazine that reaches a certain area would be a very limited space for a something that covers such a
broad topic, a national scale is better but because the magazine would also be tackling topics world wide such as
companies overseas it makes more sense to distribute it internationally. The use for this magazine is primarily for
information and to learn, as well as to seek advice on this section of the media.
12. Proposal
Rationale: The first project I completed surrounding ‘Irn Bru’ has given me the knowledge and skills that I need in
Photoshop in order to manipulate images in the software to make them different and this is a crucial part of
magazine design, making the infographic and print ad have also taught me how to setup different layouts to a print
to either make them line up or to make them more aesthetically appealing. Studying media has given me the insight
into the industry that I need in order to understand not only how magazines are designed but also the research that
goes into making them. I also have a passion for paying attention to the latest news regarding the gaming industry of
all aspects, and it’s this that has inspired me to do a magazine based on the project. I acquire this knowledge
through news stories found online, generally recommended to me by a browser, the primary portion of it however
comes from YouTube with channels that cover the news in gaming and the newest controversies, these channels can
include ‘Whatculture’ and ‘OutsideXbox’, but even less popular gaming channels like Gopher touch on these
subjects and express their opinions on the matter, the input also comes from forum posts dedicated to discussing
the latest events.
13. Proposal
Project concept: The initial idea for the project is to create an informative magazine on the gaming industry, this
includes everything involving games, old titles, upcoming releases, news on the largest videogame conglomerates,
designers and producers and all points in-between, a general overview of the industry as a whole. I will need to
continue the line of research I currently do if I am to be successful, however that won’t be enough, I'll also have to
research the history of gaming, and even though I have looked into this subject before it will require further research.
On top of that I will also have to conduct research into the technology that has been used to develop games in the
past and how that technology has been adapted and upgraded in order to improve the capacity and quality of games
today, that is to say how we transitioned from the Nintendo 64 to the PlayStation and Xbox, the first sign of advanced
gaming tech, historical research also requires study into how gaming has been received in the past this includes when
they were critically acclaimed hits such as ‘Resident evil 4’ which to this day has an occult following and to many is
still a fan favorite, to the parts of gaming that weren’t as well received, such as the ‘Manhunt’ franchise and of course
‘Mortal Kombat’, which has been a victim of the media since it’s inception.
Likely the front cover of the magazine is going to display the hottest topics in the news at the moment, one topic that
sparks the interest of people the most is controversies, almost everyone has a side in these arguments and are
curious to know the details, most anticipated games are also a good thing to place on the cover, since they haven’t
been released yet readers will want to discover as much as the can about them before the actual release date. The
double page spread is likely where I would contain the stories such as development in technology, the history of
gaming, and news regarding the game development companies today, and much like magazines like ’Retro gamer’ I
would most likely use a mixed color scheme depending on the images I display so that it always matches and doesn’t
contrast, and naturally use large, bold text as this is most likely to capture the attention of the reader.
14. proposal
Evaluation: The primary method I will likely use in order to evaluate the work is by creating a survey by the end of
the project in order to receive feedback from an audience and use this to aid me in my evaluation, this is a method
used widely by many online columns as well. I will also reference existing projects to compare my work to, to see if it
is up to standard, how many conventions of a magazine that it’s following etc, much of this evaluation will likely be
included in my on-going weekly analysis posts.
15. Website work
-This is the first website page I created using ’Wix’ a free online
website creator , which out of the programmes I used, vastly
preferred, this is down to Wix having a much easier to understand
layout, or it may have just been easier for me to understand, either
way I able to immediately start up the programme and create a web
page with relative ease. I liked the color scheme that I used to create
this website, this is
because they went
very well with the
theme of it, film noir
has always involved
dark colors as well as
themes, as a result the
black background
contrasted well with
the grey text, however
tom improve it further
I could’ve included
videos to make the
website more
engaging.
16. Website work
This work was completed using the website ‘Wordpress’ to more mixed results. I was unable to complete as much work and to the standard I
would’ve liked, this was mainly due to the confusing layout of the website, I was unable to get a grasp on the tools available and how to use
them effectively, that I was unable to get much done with this website. The advantage to this website however is that the template allows it to
look more professional, whereas Wix didn’t have this feature as present.
17. Magazine practice
The magazine cover on the right was created by using exclusively Photoshop, the
partial DPS on the left however was created with Indesign involved, and as result I
had an easier time of fitting the images while keeping them detailed.
18. This is my finished cover to my magazine
design, while it represents the design of a real
magazine, the background restricts how much
content can be displayed, if I have time by the
end of the project I will see if I can re-create
this design. From left to right shows the
process of my design work.
Final piece
19. A small version is available on the previous slide but this is a full
sized version of my finished magazine cover.
20. My ‘old world blues’ poster however is very simplistic, including hardly any of the details commonly found on a
magazine cover, for instance it has a significant lack of cover lines and blobs and stars to take up the cover. The images
placed on the cover of the magazine are not very obvious, people who are not well informed on American stars of the
time will not know the topic of the magazine, in this case it’s musicians like the Inkspots and Ella Fitzgerald. However at
first this would not be obvious, as a result more cover lines would have been useful to explain the context of the
magazine.
On top of this the color scheme of this magazine is very bland, the justification I had for this was that the photos I found
were in black and white so I thought it would be best to have color of the background match the images, however given
that the first colored photos reached the common market in 1907, there would have undoubtedly been colored photos
of the stars for the cover, and therefore it would have been fine to use a more vibrant color scheme.
Additionally while it is obvious what the mast head is on the cover, what isn’t obvious is what it’s describing. The term
‘old world blues’ refers to those so obsessed with the past they can’t see the present or future for what it is, which
while it holds relevance to the 60’s is hardly relevant to the musicians, and is not obvious at first.
21. Magazine practice
This was one of my final products
of a DPS for my practice
magazines, using Indesign to
properly fit the photos, followed by
exporting them in order to
properly move them over to
Photoshop I was able to complete
a DPS of a magazine to a
reasonable standard however it
can still be improved, primarily
through changing the color scheme
and style of text used to make it
more engaging to the reader, I
could’ve also made the images
interact with the text more, for
example making the images go
slightly behind the text provided it
didn't make the text hard to read.
22. Indesign
-Indesign is another editing software created by adobe, the makers of Photoshop, one of the key differences between
these two pieces of software however is that one of them is good at processing images(Indesign) and the other is good
at resizing them while keeping them in detail (Photoshop.
-However the issue that arises from this is that both programmes are required in order to properly transfer any image
to Photoshop to not only keep resolution but also to keep the placement accurate, Indesign itself has a way to bypass
the accuracy issue however by using grids, these are guidelines that are customizable before being placed, this allows
you to keep track of where you are placing everything to make sure it lines up, this as a result makes it look more like an
official document rather than a hastily thrown together article.
-To further reinforce this image, it is also possible to wrap the text, by doing this you can make it so the text is placed
around the image to your choice, overlapping it, going round it or just simply avoiding it altogether to name a few
options.
23. Mast head
Image
quote quote
Quote relating to
image
Topic relating to the
double page spread
Blobs and
starsCover line
Blobs and
stars
image
image
text text
headline
26. • 8th December finish front cover
• 12th December finish DPS
• 15th December finish website
• (Complete any finishing touches over the weekend)
Production schedule
27. Finished DPS
This is my completed
version of my DPS for my
magazine, I have been able
to successfully contain the
information I wanted,
however due to the size of
the magazine I had to cut
down how much I included,
at the same time I was
unable to get a color
scheme, perhaps this is for
the best however as having
a color in the background
would make the text harder
to read.
29. Evaluation
After finishing my project I believe there are areas of it that I did well, and others that require much improvement if I
am to bring them to professional standard. For instance I believe I completed my website well with it achieving most of
the criteria set but also included multiple pages above three, including a contact page and an FAQ page. It had a
“professional” looking design and useful information vital to people who are gamers, new and old so I think my website
was completed well, however I do think that the structure could’ve been better. By this I mean that I talked about the
gaming café and indie games on the home page of the website when in reality this page would’ve been more useful for
welcoming the audience to the page and giving them a general idea about the website, saving the indie game story for
the news page and the gaming café page for the blog, so I think that the overall structure of the website could’ve been
better.
The part of my project that needed the most improvement is my double page spread, this is due to the design of it
being all over the place. Specifically though the colour scheme was bland despite in my plan stating that I wanted to
change the colour scheme depending on the colour’s in the images displayed, the text and images displayed didn’t
follow the conventional structure of a magazine. On top of this while I did explain what the pictures were and provide a
little context to each one, they didn’t hold any relevance to the actual article I typed, this is because for them to hold
any relevance I would have had to use more stock imagery, in an attempt to avoid this I used some of the imagery I
hadn’t already used, whether or not this is better than just using some stock imagery to make the imagery more
relevant to the article I’m unsure but either way it was a major issue with the DPS. A way I could’ve fixed this is by
either changing the topic of the article to fit the imagery available to me or by taking more pictures relevant to a
planned article. However it is unlikely I would’ve been able to retype the article due to not only the time consuming
task of retyping a lengthy piece to a quality standard, but also having to redo the entire front cover due to it no longer
holding any relevance to the article inside.
30. As is evidenced by this slide and the
next five, I used the majority of this
page for creating news stories and blog
posts, which is fine you are including a
few headlines to some of the major
stories but generally most websites
won’t end up placing a blog post and
one of the major news stories on the
front page.
Most websites will use a portion of this
page to explain what the website is and
the content it posts. A way I could
improve upon this in the future is by
planning the layout of the website in
advance, this doesn’t mean the content
I will include I had good idea on the
content I would include before hand, by
this I mean a better idea on where I
would display the work and have a
better idea about where it should be
located on the site.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36. As shown on a previous
slide this is my completed
DPS which is clearly not
showing the aspects of a
real magazine, the bland
design, lack of relevant
images and large clumps of
uncustomised text make it
much less engaging for a
reader. A way I could
improve upon this in the
future is by having more
research time focused on
looking at different DPS’s in
order to have a better
grasp on creating one that
looks more proffessional.
37. Evaluation
The next part to my project was my cover page to the magazine which, to be honest had mixed results, on the one hand
the structure and design of the cover was to an acceptable standard (after a lot of changes) and the images displayed
held relevance to the blobs and stars and cover lines on the page, the writing was customised and unique which gave
the magazine a sleek and modern feel, after attempting the copy the Star wars themed text (for obvious reasons) the
text became to hard to read so therefore I changed it back to normal, unwarped text. However I also had to change up
the text displayed on slide 24 as many of the letters became incomprehensible at times and it was impossible to read
unless you knew what it said before hand.
In the end however the largest sticking point with the front cover is the background photo used, the design is good and
it is relevant to the main story stated on the cover, however the issue is that it’s a stock photo, not only that but the
helmet of the soldier also takes up a lot of room on the front cover which severely limited my design space as I couldn’t
type or place any imagery over this helmet. It would’ve destroyed the point of putting it on there in the first place, it also
took up about half the front page so it was very restricting, however despite these issues I believe I completed my front
cover to a decent standard. In this case the primary issue was unique to this piece of work, however if I wanted to
prevent a similar problem like this from happening on the future, it would be wiser to pick a subject where I can obtain
relevant imagery through photography or even just a screenshot, rather than a topic that would rely on me using stock
photos to have relevant imagery, as this became a problem on my front cover, DPS and even my website in some parts.
That was another issue with my website, I believe I relied too heavily upon stock imagery (especially in my blog) for any
relevant photos to go with my blog. This is because it is difficult to get screenshots of particular games without a PC.
38. Evaluation
This project has further enhanced my experience using Photoshop, aiding me in all projects I undertake in the future
and has also given me the basic knowledge on how to use Indesign, however due to a lack of experience in this area
the work I completed on Indesign was lacking in many aspects, while I still haven’t done much with Photoshop I have
had much more time to learn the ins and outs of it than I have with Indesign.
As a result of this I wasn’t very effective in using Indesign to create my DPS, however my front cover was completed
to an acceptable standard due to it being created with Photoshop. The software I used for creating my website was a
website builder called Wix, which was exceedingly easy in my opinion to use and helped my to create a good website
without too much hassle, there were other website creators I tried such as WordPress, but I found this website to
have controls difficult to grasp, a complicated design system and it felt like I was running more off of trial and error
to get things to work rather than being taught how to utilise all the tools, perhaps for other users this isn’t the case
and the creator is simple and easy to use, personally however I preferred Wix.
An area that I need to majorly improve in is Indesign, this software was as new to me as it was to many others,
however I have been struggling to get a grip of the software, chances are high it will require a lot practice before I
am able to effectively use Indesign and all of it’s features well.
39. Research and Proposal analysis
My research for the project was quite thorough I believe, I researched multiple magazines and DPS’s of them by looking
up PDF versions of them, however I also researched formal magazines including brochures for film festivals, it is for this
reason I believe that my DPS was so basic, I was attempting the recreate the design of one of these magazines instead of
an informal one, such as edge magazine. This would suggest that in the future I should focus my attention on more
informal magazines rather than formal so that I don’t make the mistake of such a crucial design error.
My magazine cover probably went better because I focused more on the informal sort of covers rather than the formal
ones, same for the website I focused my research on the websites that publish the informal websites so they had a
similar sort of layout, this was likely a contributing factor as to why my cover and website were more successful than my
DPS.
The end result of my magazine compared to my initial proposal is very different, I’m not 100% sure where down the line
I changed my mind but going from a DPS that includes mini stories about everything in the industry to one big story that
covers one controversy surrounding EA, in the end I think I preferred my original idea, in hindsight I think I would’ve
stuck with that idea instead, the reason I changed it was because I didn’t think I could get everything I wanted onto the
DPS with that idea, but as it transpires, I wasn’t able to fit my new idea entirely onto the DPS, I had to cut out many
parts of it to get it to fit the pages(the full article is on my blog). A way to prevent this from happening again would be to
look back on my portfolio more often in order to remind myself the exact details of the task, then compare it to any new
tasks that I think of along the way, compare them together and see which one I prefer.
40. Idea
generation
analysis
The inspiration for my initial idea came from
my passion for the video game industry and
how I like to keep up with all the latest news
concerning it and the companies involved,
not just the games and the players, it was
for this reason I wanted to do a magazine
concerning the entire industry, however
concerned that I wouldn't be able to fit all
the content I wanted but still wanting to do
something concerning the video game
industry I decided to cover one topic in
specific, preferably something quite recently
in the news, which is how I arrived at the
Star wars battlefront two controversy. I also
toyed with the idea of doing something on
the film industry, with the specific category
of film noir, even going as far as to create a
mock website to get practice, however in
the end I decided it would be better to the
videogame industry due to my increased
knowledge on that particular industry in
comparison.
Practice
Website
design
41. EvaluationIn a literal sense the idea I started off with is very much different from the one I ended up with but technically it’s still
the same idea, because the topic I covered is still the gaming industry, simply scaled down from the project I had in
mind, which may in a way be better. This way instead of including a whole bunch of news stories that have little
detail in them to cram in as many as possible, I had the freedom to research this one topic in extensive detail and
provide the full story on what happened and why. However I believe I could’ve done a better job at including the
details of the story that actually mattered on my DPS, as it may seem that many of the parts are inexpensive details
that could’ve been spared.
A good magazine to compare mine to is “electronic gaming monthly”, this magazine has been a reliable source of
reviews and news regarding the gaming industry since 1989 When the first issue was released, based out of
Lombard, Illinois. And a quick look at it shows it has similar designs to many magazines, with every monthly issue
having a character from the a video game in the spotlight located in or around the center of the page, for example
issue 238 has General Shepherd from the ”Mass Effect” series. However a design feature that this magazine has
which is similar to mine is many of the issues have an enlarged image image of the characters face/helmet, which
they don’t type over and takes up most of the magazine leaving the writers to fit in the information around it, for
instance this issue with Link from ”The legend of Zelda”.
While the EGM magazine also has large clumps of uncustomised text the main difference
That makes their magazine more engaging is the bright colour schemes that grab the
Attention of the reader and also the abundance of pictures that are relevant to whatever
Story is being displayed.
48. Gamepro comparison
What is becoming quickly apparent is that most professional magazines make a lot of use of bold text all over the
cover and DPS paired with bright colours to draw the readers attention, this is something that both my cover DPS
have a lack of and therefore they do not catch the eye as easily, placing one of those professional gaming magazines
on a shelf would result in standing out from the rest which is exactly what the designers behind it want, to ensure
that it sells more than it’s competitors. They also make use of all the space that has been given to them by including
as many blobs and stars as possible to clue the readers into as to what is contained in their magazine, this is
important as it tempts the reader to find out what exactly what they can get in detail that the cover is only being
vague about.
This is something that my magazine doesn’t have, it does have text on the front that hints back to article on the DPS
but the truth is it doesn’t stand out, it’s not bold and doesn’t use any vibrant colours to capture the readers attention,
it has more of a formal style rather than an informal. The colours are also bright, big and loud to help them stand out,
this is something that the majority of my images failed to do almost merging with the background, feeling more like
filler for the empty space rather than engaging images that go with the article well.
49.
50.
51.
52. Gamingindustry.biz comparison
There are many distinct differences between my site and pre-existing, the most obvious one being colour scheme, my
website has a more diverse colour scheme in comparison, making use of greens, black, purple and white, while the other
one just uses a grey and white colour scheme, this may however have been because they preferred the display of
information than the aesthetics, which is another point. They use their homepage to display more facts, new stories and
headlines in order to immediately get all the information across, this may be because this particular website covers a wide
range of topics not just gaming, and so had to use a neutral colour scheme, another difference is that I created a sort of
community and contact page for my site, Gamingindustry.biz hasn’t created one of these, however this could be for any
number of reasons.
Previously mentioned the next big difference is that their website covers a whole multitude of topics, this would mean that
regardless of the aesthetics of the site, it contains a lot of the latest new stories in on the site and so serves as a useful media
outlet for many people in all walks of life, and while this can be useful this means they can’t dedicate their website to one
subject in particular, a result of this is it limits how much they can customise in their site, making it look less appealing to the
audience. Another advantage of having a simplistic layout that this website has is that everything is easy to locate and don’t
have to spend longer searching through the multiple categories to find the story that they need.
53. Gamasutra
Gamasutra follows the conventions of a gaming website much more than gaming industry does, for instance it has a
bright and wild colour scheme, the articles uploaded on the page are also aimed more at students, for instance the
article, A level designers guide to the art of making great puzzles, my website is similar to this with the design of
Gamasutra with the varied colour scheme and news stories, however a distinct difference of this website is that they
make use of ads, and all the pages have multiple ads, this will likely be due to the website not generating enough
revenue from the stories by itself, this is a tactic that many websites use as money is generally not generated off of
news stories rather than the ads next to them, the website also has a newsletter that is advertised as soon as you visit
the website, this will be used to increase the number of people who use the site on a regular basis.
61. DPS after
changes:
I decided to use
Photoshop in
order to make the
final changes to
my DPS, as a
result I imported
the it as an image
into Indesign to
finish it off, a
consequence of
this however is
that I was unable
to move any of
the images on
screen, for
example I was
unable to move
the image o the
PS1 to the middle
of the empty
space.
62. Final thoughts
The final ideas that I would have changed with my project if I could have vary, for instance with my website the
homepage uses standard block capitals, and I would have changed this so that the text has a more sleek and modern feel,
unfortunately I was unable to change this due to the restrictions of the website creator so I was forced to leave this as it
is. With my DPS while I have made changes to improve it as shown above there still things I would have liked to improve
on it given the time, for instance I was able to fix the colour scheme issue and I have been able to add an image that is
somewhat relevant to the article, however due to the DPS being edited in Photoshop I had to import it as a PNG file, this
as a result meant that it was all one image and I was unable to move the images around separately in Indesign,
potentially I could have fixed this by moving them around in Photoshop then using it’s position in Indesign as a frame of
reference to make slight adjustments until I got it right, this however became too much of time consuming task and had
to leave it as it is.
The reason I used Photoshop for editing is simply because I find the software much easier to use than Indesign, I will in
future require more practice with this programme to use it efficiently, this is an issue that I have stressed multiple times
throughout my work and blog posts however. With my magazine cover the last issue I had with it after comparing it to
professional work, was that there wasn’t enough text on it, the front cover felt quite empty in terms of cover lines, blobs
and stars etc, the issue is that as mentioned before the helmet took up a lot of space, consequently I was unable to place
a lot of text on screen, so if I was to redo it next time I would likely choose a background that didn’t take up as much
space.
63. Conclusion
Overall in conclusion I believe this project went quite well, I struggled with some parts of it while finding other
parts much easier, this as a result much like my last project has taught me useful skills, and while I still struggle to
use Indesign effectively it has taught me the skills I need to utilise this software, as well giving me the ability to
create official looking websites, which is something I had never gone near before now, so I would say that this
project has been a rewarding and educational experience for me.
64. Website comparison references
N/A. (2017). Gamasutra's best of 2017: the top 10 game developers of the year. Available:
https://www.gamasutra.com/. Last accessed 20th December 2017.
James Batchelor. (2017). Nintendo's leads games industry figureheads' 2017 highlights. Available:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/. Last accessed 20th December 2017.
TJ Hafer. (2017). Hello Neighbour Review. Available: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2017/12/12/hello-neighbor-review.
Last accessed 20th December 2017.
