The document provides an evaluation of the student's FMP project creating a BMX magazine. It details the influences and research conducted, including photographers Jim Phillips and C.R. Stecyk III as well as magazines like Thrasher. Challenges during production included people canceling photo shoots and poor weather limiting photos. Illustrations were made to fill pages. Post-production involved editing photos to look older and adding doodles to link pages. While not completely achieving the initial vision, the magazine shows the student's style and learning from challenges faced.

1. FMP Evaluation
By louis

2. Throughout this project my research has influenced me in various areas of my magazine, it has helped me build a style from the
influences I chose but has also always been something I can look back on whenever I was stuck for ideas.
Initially I looked at several designers, photographers and artists which helped develop and push my project in a direction which
was more personal. Looking at various artists and photographers such as Jim Phillips and C.R. Stecyk III, were the biggest
influencers towards the topic of my magazine and the photography I initially had in mind. Both figures have had huge influence
towards the skate community and culture over time but also there styles to me personally, therefore I chose to go down the path
of making a BMX magazine giving me a chance to take skills and aspects from both there works and try and adapt my own style
from there own.
Looking at aspects of my work after I have finished my production there are certain elements that I took from these influencers,
the majority of my magazine involves adverts and illustration In particular the styles of Jim Phillips. His raw and alternative
graphics have became the look for Santa Cruz skate, and follows similar but more professional styles then my own.
I wanted to try and involve pictures similar to images of Stecyk, showing riders from the scene not just doing tricks but the whole
lifestyle that comes with the sport. However due to many set backs and people canceling on me the photography used was less so
then I wanted, I managed to collect some on bikes and also various other images of me and people just in there day to day life.
Using the images I collected of people not riding I manipulated the photos into a collage, then using Photoshop I changed the
saturation and adjusted the levels of the images to make them look grey and black and added noise to make them look older.
I was very happy with the outcome of these couple of pages and the punk style it portrayed, however if I could go back and had
more time I would try include more lifestyle photos throughout my magazine.
David Carson and Neville Brody were the designers that I looked at before I had any idea of what my project will become, there
styles and unconventional methods of design really caught my eye as designers. Particularly there work throughout the 90s on
magazines such as “the face”, they would take the conventions of a magazine and work around that, being really experimental
with type and the layouts of a page.
Looking at there work and what they have done was the first big influence towards making a magazine but they made me want to
make a magazine that pushes the conventions, through out the magazine I have several aspects that show big influence from
Brody with my text and type. I spent a lot of time testing out the different layer blending options with text, seeing what each layer
option did with the pieces of type on top of one another and then put this to use through the magazine.
I also took influence from how Brody will often use quite explicit content as a shock factor towards his works, and tried to include
either images or illustration that would give of a similar feel. There are several parts of the magazine with various hand gestures
and images that contain certain explicit content.
Jim Phillip's: eye popping
Graphics
My Own Graphics
Research

3. I also have took a lot of my inspiration when looking through “The End Of Print: The Grafik Design Of
David Carson”, as he did lots of skate and surf magazines throughout his career. Carson's use of
imagery and colour really catches my eye, as he will make a collage out of an article then decide to
just paint over this, placing images where they don’t go and text at angles and shapes that people
would normally just hate.
So in my magazine I have tried to take some influence from this, creating pages with silhouettes
dotted around and text printed over and over as a background.
I also found a piece of design by David Carson where he used an image with a lot of white then
placed it on a white page, this makes the image merge with the page just through the white space.
Therefore I have made an advert for my own magazine which follows a similar look, although on my
own I have adjusted the threshold so the image is just black and white and also added some doodle
like layers to the back drop.
This came out looking really good and due to the image I chose to use and the bike frame the adverts
for, the page also follows a similar punk aesthetic to that of my collage, however I would like to make
something like this using a coloured image and leaving the page completely blank just as Carson has
done.
However if I was to have a chance to improve or make changes I would love to go down more of a
Carson route, looking back now at some of his work after making my project and learning, I believe
his style to be really appealing to me but also quite fitting with the type of magazine I have gone for.
Carson mixing more fine art with his photography where he will mess with an image to a point where
it looks like something completely different, but also will lay text going straight down the page on a
90 degree angle which I haven't really experimented with and it could have really worked in my
magazine.
The only aspect of text where I did follow similar style was on a double page poster, I used the
transform option to skew the text allowing me to line the text up with a sharp edge on the photo
making it look inline and just more aesthetically pleasing and professional.
I also used my research to look at various existing products that I chose based on what i had gathered
from the people and after having more of an idea on what my project was going to be around. The
“Face” magazine was the first product, the face was originally designed by Neville Brody and is where
he began really pushing the constraints of the media back then. The face like my own product often
would make use of shapes within its pages, such as on an article based around the African uprising
he used tribal patterns printed on the back drop of the article.
On my own product I have done exactly this, looking at what the article or magazine is based around
then making basic doodles of related things and fading it into the back grounds. This added life to the
pages but also made up the blank space but also actually allowing me to leave more blank space as a
design positive.
David Carsons work
My own interpretation of style w
and w out backdrop work
The face on the right
and my own on left
An example of work
where I have edited the
photo in a similar way
from Carson's work.

4. The most prominent and biggest influence and inspiration towards the design and style of
my Magazine was from Thrasher Magazine. Thrasher magazine is one of the most influential
and successful magazines in skateboarding, they have formed a style over the years which
has became so clear and is now a staple to the community.
Thrasher has several external influences from music and the culture that follows the skating
community, however this style is very similar to bikers and typically the two cross over with
thrasher actually having various BMX ads and articles over the years. Therefore when
looking at conventions of a magazine for my project there was none better then thrasher,
holding a slightly punky and self made look but still having certain aspects that do pass on
over each issue.
I looked at how they use there images and what seems to frequently occur within this
magazine, with thrasher magazines main focus being on adverts and the photography or
illustrations I chose to do the same only including 2 articles within my project and very little
written aspects since this seems to be what appeals to our audiences.
Thrasher magazine doesn't’t really have a very clear color scheme and particular recurring
style, each issue has a look that spans across the pages typically choosing the colours of the
fonts and other aspects from the main image used on the page or on the cover. Therefore
when I have made my article pages and the adverts I have chose to base the colour scheme
more around the images used rather then having one colours scheme that reoccurs on each
page.
This did work for the pages however I believe if I was to do this project again I would try and
develop a colour scheme that goes on through the most pages, even if it was a border that
was on each page even the adverts. This is due to the fact that I personally think that my
pages don’t really match up massively when all put together as one whole, if I was to have
one thing on each page that just brought it all together even something as small as a
number for each page.
For this project we did our own problem solving, this was trying to find possible issues that
may occur during production and how we would face and fix the problem if it did occur.
This was mainly planning for the project, however I did also experiment with various
typography settings on PS. Using the layer mode options on various fonts, I made shadows
and simple new types that I could bring into the magazine, this turned out to be a huge help
for the project but also I great PS tool I now have for future work.
Thrasher cover April
2005 Geoff Rowley
My final cover
Thrasher Magazine
Vans AD
My own
interpretation on a
Vans AD

5. Planning
Once finishing our research we had an idea for what we want our actual final project to be, therefore we took
the next step and began to plan the project ready for production.
To start the planning this year we took part in problem solving, this required us to create potential issues that
we may face and how we would tackle the issue if it occurred, This meant that we were well prepared for our
production when we started and if an issue came we could face it straight away reducing time wasted.
I did face a couple of the issues that I planned for, as there were multiple times when I planned to go and take
photos but weather and people meant I could not do this exactly as planned. This meant that I had to plan
another day to collect photos but also on one of the days I just made do and took pictures of my younger sister
for an advert, this just meant I still had stuff I could get on with in class.
I made a schedule in my planning for production which allowed me to begin my work with a plan of action, but
also meant when I did face the issue of having no models I could go back to my schedule and make a small
change without causing any other major issues with time.
Having a schedule helps you with your time management a lot being organized and aware of what needs to be
done, I found it very helpful in keeping me aware of what particular aspect of the project needs doing to finish
in time. However I did not finish quite on the time I had planned, therefore in future projects I would make a
more solid plan of action and go back to that each day keeping note of what is done and maybe what is a
priority depending on time.
The part of my planning that I found to be the most helpful through out the project is the font page I made.
Having this page meant that whenever it came to either adding fonts to a advert or writing up an article I could
just look back at this slide for reference, it saved time but also choosing fonts that I think will suit before hand
means I already have a bunch that were generally very well suited for the style of the pages.
This year in planning I found a software that I have never used called adobe colours wheal which was very
useful especially for a project like this, not having a set colours scheme made it harder to choose what colours
to use for the fonts and other aspects, but using this it pics out the primary colours on an image then u just use
them or choose 1 or 2 which is typically how magazines such as the ones I researched do.

6. A big help towards this project from the planning is experimenting
different methods and skills, I had a go at making various cover pages as
an experiment and some different photo editing skills and techniques.
I made various covers for my experiments basing them around various
covers of similar magazines, this allowed me to get an idea of what type
of cover is typically used to sell to my target audience. It also saved time
as I already had an idea of what I wanted my final cover to look like, and
it didn't’t take much trail and error to get there.
I also experimented on various photos to try and find a style that I liked
and would fit my project, mainly using the level adjustment option and
the hue and saturation just to change the colours and edit the shadows
and brightness. When It came to editing the photos I used, I did take
these skills forward however I added noise to most of my pages as I
think it makes everything merge together a bit better.
In my planning I had ago at doing some Hockney joiner with the
cameras, you do this by taking lots of images of one thing moving the
camera ever so slightly each take.
When I did this it ended up working rally well and looked good, but I
didn’t end up using it at all in my magazine as I completely forgot about
it during my production. If I was to do it again or have more time for the
project then I would try and incorporate it into my work, however its
something I know how to do easy enough and can always use it in future
work.
Photo editing experiment
My go at Hockney Joiner
My Cover experiments

7. Production
After completing my project I am happy with certain aspects of the magazine and how they turned out, however there
are are certain elements I really would have liked to have more of.
Firstly as part of my production I planned on going out and collecting various images in various locations, photography
of people riding and doing tricks in various parks and places. However when it came to the days that I planned these
trips and wanted to collect the images certain elements just let me down and I had to make do with whatever I could
get. On several occasions the people I planned on using as models let me down and would cancel on me, and as I only
knew limited people who could actually do stuff in bikes it meant I had to make do with simple pictures of myself just
riding around and trying to create these photos with my friend who also does not BMX.
I also took several images of my younger sister on her BMX and made a ad for a child's range of bikes, as hers is a child
WTP stunt bike.
Doing this actually turned out to be very useful in my production and saved me from having almost nothing, taking
multiple images from various angles of my sister made the advert look more professional and as it was for children
didn't’t require tricks just her riding her bike looking all happy.
Another issue that I faced when it came down to photography was the weather, it kept raining on the times I had free
to go out and take photos making it dangerous but also the images just did’nt look right and weren't super appealing.
On the day I was in college and needed photos however, I just made do with going through my phone and laptop
looking for almost like lifestyle pictures I have taken in the past that I could make correlate with the BMX lifestyle.
Building a collage in a style that i found in a thrasher magazine that inspired me, using pictures from Italy and just
random moments with my friends.
However one side of my production that came out really well and worked with my adverts but also gave me more to do
when I didn't’t have photos, was the illustration I made. As various skate and Bike companies such as Santa Cruz tend
to use cartoons as there selling point, I decided to try and do the same in a couple of my adverts.
Drawing most of the images using a graphics tablet in one day which I find much quicker then scanning in something
hand drawn onto Photoshop.
These pages came out really nicely and I think suit the magazine, they helped me fill in pages but also fit the style so to
me is a big plus side to my production.

8. Post-ProductionThe post production side of my work is where everything comes together, mainly using Photoshop
as the main software of putting it all together and InDesign to finish of the layout.
Since I struggled to collect a lot of decent photos editing them on the mac was more important, it
meant I had to either make the photos look really clean or edit them more to show skill.
For a lot of my images I used a technique I learnt in my experiments, a way of making photos look
slightly older or as if they were taken using a camera with film. Doing this just made the photos
look a bit more interesting, but also doing it continuously through the magazine gave it a
reoccurring theme and style.
Another part of post that I made reoccurring through my magazine as you will notice is drawing
over photos, adding lots of little doodles to various pages throughout. I really like this because my
mag does’nt have a colour scheme however this was something that helps put it all together,
having these similar doodles on many pages links them together and gives my magazine a
contingent theme and also to me looked really cool.
When it came to the post production for my illustrations I enjoyed messing about with the layer
effects, copying the drawing then laying it over one another made it look better and more
professional. Doing this also gave each drawing more of a dirty and edgy style to me and looked a
lot rougher but really matched the look and style that ii believe would fit the genre I wanted.
In the end I am happy with the magazine, it isn't completely what I had in mind. However it still
holds various qualities of what I wanted and shows where I went wrong how I can learn and face
issues that may occur, but also the pages generally look cool and have a style that I identify with
and I hope that the skate and BMX community would also.
Facing so many issues with my friends and the photography was very stressful for me and kept making me worry about the final product, at some points I did
regret choosing a theme that required so much photos when design and illustration really is my stronger point. However after I did use various images I had
already and making do with what I had, I was happy with myself as I felt that I managed to face the issue sensibly and made a product not quite like I wanted
but as close as is could with what i had.