The document provides an evaluation of the author's magazine design project. It summarizes the research conducted, planning process, production timeline, and an analysis of the technical and aesthetic qualities of the final design. For the research, the author analyzed cover designs and layouts of different magazines to understand conventions. Weaknesses included not deeply examining text elements. Planning involved experimenting with prototype covers. Weak planning included a lack of color experimentation. Production was managed well over three days. The final design incorporated researched conventions while utilizing an appealing color palette and imagery to engage the target teenage audience.

1. Evaluation
Kyran

2. Research
• For my research I initially looked at three different types of magazines, I looked at a music
magazine, a children’s magazine and a magazine intended for adults. For each magazine I
analysed it’s front cover and double page spread, mainly the masthead, images and use of
colour in relation to it’s audience. The children’s magazine I looked at, ‘W Kids’, has a very
prominent masthead, having a stylised graphic lettering for the ‘W’, it being the traditional
‘WWE’ logo font, it being bevelled and jagged – this connotes a thin feeling of danger as the
franchise carries the pretence of what you’re seeing is real. The magazine uses bright
attention catching colours to attract its target audience of young children, the main colours
being red, yellow and blue. These are common colours for children’s products, likely due to
how they’re ‘basic’ primary colours. I feel the research was a strength because it got me to
grips with the conventions of a music magazine, like the type of images and how they’re shot
- for example the most common shot type used in music magazines is a medium, to medium
close-up, shot; this is something I ultimately ended up using on my final product.

3. Research
• A weakness of my research would be that I focused less on the ‘sell lines’ and general text on
both the front cover and double page, I mainly just analysed the masthead, image and the
use of colour; ignoring the other elements of print based marketing like ‘sell lines’ and text
format. I would’ve done this better by researching the use of text on the magazines, so that I
had a better knowledge of how to present text in a way that’s aesthetic and looks good; this
ultimately would’ve made production easier at the start because I likely would’ve had a
better idea of what I was doing.

4. Planning
• My planning mainly consisted of analysing other established magazines and making
‘experiment’ magazines, that being magazines I mocked up as a draft, using outsourced
images. I created ‘prototype’ experiment front covers and double page spreads, I didn’t use
any of my own images for them as they were intended as just something that would give me
a rough idea of what my final product might look like. My planning helped me produce my
final product as it gave me a basic guideline and checklist to follow in my production, with a
majority of the elements in my final product being originally developed in my planning.
Experiment Final Product

5. Planning
• A weakness of my planning would be that, with my experiments, I neglected to add much
colour, instead opting to create them using black and white images. This was because I made
the experiments with images I took from the internet; I picked the images based more off the
criteria of image quality and how good they looked. I also picked black and white images
because I had not yet figured out a colour palette that I was going to use, so I didn’t want my
experiments to dictate which colours I was going to use. If I was to have done something
better, I would’ve started experimenting with colour sooner, so that I would know what
colours I wanted and how I was going to apply them. This would’ve effected the planning, as
it would result in a more focused piece of work, perhaps including more complex text designs
as I would’ve spent more time experimenting with them.

6. Time Management
• I would say I managed my time pretty well, despite having a bit of a late start with
production, I finished producing everything I needed too in the week and ended up with
work I am proud of. On the first day of production I mostly just got the front cover image set
up in Photoshop and made sure it looked professional, fixing any colour correction issues
using the ‘Blending Options’ tool. I also added the masthead and edited it to be behind the
model’s head after I finished designing it, again using the ‘Blending Options’ tool. The third
day was when I got a major chunk of work done, mainly the colour design and some of the
‘sell lines’ and text formatting, this basically resulted in my front cover being complete and I
only had ‘finishing touches’ left to do.
• With additional time I can’t say much would’ve changed, the main design would not have
changed but perhaps the colours would’ve on the front cover, maybe changing them to be
more of a blue and red design, similar to the double page as I like the separation. In
conclusion, I think my time management ended up being on point, and with extra time
wouldn’t have ended up much different, as I’m pretty proud of what I have produced in the
time given.

7. Technical Qualities
Similarities:
• Boxes around the text
• Medium close-up shot
• Masthead behind the head
• Band name in large text
• Quotes
Differences:
• Colour palette
• Masthead design
• ‘Kerrang’ has a skyline

8. Technical Qualities
Similarities
‘Boxes around the text’
• I chose this design choice because it easily distinguishes the text from the rest of the cover,
especially my cover, as there’s a lot going on with it due to all the colours – having a simple white
box seemingly really cuts through the other colours.
‘Medium close-up shot’
• As I’ve said a fair few times at this point, most magazines tend to use a medium to medium close-
up shot for their front cover, likely because it’s the best way to keep focus on whoever’s in the
shot but is a good way to fit a lot of things in the shot without losing focus.
‘Masthead Behind the Text’
• Something I found that was most common amongst magazines, is that a very large majority of
them position their masthead behind the head of the person on the cover. To add authenticity to
my work, I did the same; I think it looks decent and didn’t take too long. I was able to edit this
feature in by duplicating the base layer and used the ‘Polygonal Lasso’ tool to cut just over my
model’s head. I then used the ‘Reveal All’ button to complete the edit, making the text appear
behind the head.

9. Technical Qualities
Differences
‘Colour Palette’
• I chose this particular colour palette because I wanted something that signifies a divide, similar to
black and white, but after my experiments I realised I didn’t want a black and white cover, so I
decided on the next best option; which was blue and red.
‘Kerrang has a skyline’
• A skyline is a ‘masthead cover line’, another advertisable element that sits above the masthead.
Unlike the ‘Kerrang’ example, my front cover doesn’t have one because I knew I wanted to design
my masthead to be behind my model’s head and I didn’t want something to potentially obstruct
it.
‘Masthead Design’
• The masthead on ‘Kerrang’ is often a red/white design and features a prominent border around
the text, this particular issue however has a green masthead due to it being a one-time St
Patrick’s Day special. My masthead is somewhat reminiscent of the original ‘Kerrang’ masthead,
with it being red, except it doesn’t have the border that is seen on most issues, due to me not
liking how it looks.

10. Aesthetic Qualities
I feel my work does look good, it has something creative going on and I really like how my double
page looks. It also has a lot of conventions carried over from my research of other magazines,
like the photography and text. If I could improve my work I would make the colour palette be
more consistent on my front cover, as I prefer how the colours look on my double page image. I
would improve it by colouring the face in a more divisive way, down the middle and then colour
the face either red or blue exclusively for each side by using the ‘Colour Balance’ tool in
Photoshop.
A strength of my work’s appearance would be it’s colour palette, I would say it gives my work a
distinctive look and makes it less drab to look at. This is important because the original image
was quite flat and boring, by colouring my work it makes it more interesting and stimulating.
A weakness of my work’s appearance would be that some people might dislike
how it looks, most people might find it quite bright and garish, which is fair
enough. However, this is a potential weakness as it could hypothetically restrict
the success of the issue.

11. Audience Appeal
My target audience is teenagers, aged 12-20, one of the ways I have appealed to my target
audience is my use of someone in that age bracket on the cover. Audiences tend to relate more
to a product if they see themselves accurately represented on it, so this is an easy way to appeal
to my target audience.
Another part of my target audience are music fans, so one of the ways my product appeals to this
demographic is the representation of ‘famous musicians’ in my product, I parenthesise because
the person in the images in my product isn’t actually a famous musician. Famous people often
cause consumers to buy a product they’re associated with, as people tend to buy any media
related to the celebrity that they like.

12. Audience Appeal
‘Sell Lines’ appeal to fans of whoever is advertised. Fans
often want to buy products featuring a celebrity they like.
Image takes up most of cover, appeals to fans of the
‘musician’.
Person being presented is in the same age bracket as my
target audience. Audiences tend to relate more to a
product if they see themselves accurately presented in it.
Image again takes up a lot of room ,
appealing to fans.
Easy to read presentation, appeals to
audiences who may not have the best
attention or who may not enjoy reading
that much.