2. Designer research
In my initial research I looked at various graphic
designers and researched what techniques and
styles they use. The most interesting one of these I
thought was Peter Saville. I really enjoyed reading
about his work and looking at his designs. I think
that during this research the area I struggled the
most with was finding enough information on each
of the designers, I think I should of used alternative
sources than just the internet. I think trying to find
sources like books, magazine reviews and any
informative videos would have been beneficial as I
think I would of found more to write about.
3. I think I presented my work fairly
well I tried to use relevant images
to better explain what I was
talking about. I think showcasing
each designers work with their
profile really shows what they’re
about. I tried to include a brief
summary and history on the
designers.
Overall I found this section fairly
simple and interesting, I felt I got
a good bit of information to help
me in my project and found
some inspirational work and
design ideas.
4. Research
During my research I looked at various
magazines and analysed different sections.
The structure I used was starting off with a
brief introduction to the magazine and then
analysing a front cover, contents page and
double page spread. I picked magazines that i
thought would most benefit the one I wanted
to create. I think I analysed these magazines
fairly well and I found out a lot of information
to help with my production. I think the most
useful area was definitely looking at Mixmag I
really like the design and referenced it in my
own production. I covered a decent amount
of information however I think I could of
wrote more about the methods used in the
magazine and thought further in to how the
design works and what was effective.
5. If I was to do this section again I would of
further looked in to production techniques
that might have been beneficial to my work
as I think this would of helped a lot in the
making of my magazine. I also think that
doing more research in to who the target
market is would have been beneficial as I
struggled to find demographics that were
specific to men's fashion magazines as there
isn’t that many.
6. Problem Solving
Problem solving I found
the easiest section in the
pre production of my FMP.
When I first began this
section I was not 100%
sure on what to do so I
took longer than I should
of to get going with the
work. Shortly after
beginning I then asked for
help and got the task
explained to me.
7. I began by listing various practical and
theoretical problems I might face during
production. A lot of these came from the photo
taking aspect of the project. I then began to
explore in to some of these issues and see what
potential solutions or preparations could be
done to fix or avoid them. I think I did this fairly
well although I struggled to find enough to write
about them as most of them were fairly quick
fixes. If I was to do this again I would like to
explore more potential issues and solutions in
preparation for production.
8. To further prepare for production I also did some photo
editing within Photoshop and showed a side by side
comparison. I did this to experiment in the software and
see what potential issues may arrive when doing the real
thing. I think this benefited me as it gave me an idea of
what I could and could not achieve. Next time I would
want to experiment further with online tutorials and not
just using basic Photoshop skills as I think this would give
me more variation and new skills in production. I also
experimented with article writing, I tried to make it as
much like an article I would use in my work. I think I did
this fairly well it gave me a brief practice of what I should
write and how I should write it.
9. Planning
in this section I looked at planning out my magazine. I looked at areas
like health and safety and what equipment I would need. I also created
font and colour sheets to refer to in my production. To begin with I
looked at my locations easingwold and york I think I give good
reasoning as to why these two locations would be effective. I think I
covered all I needed to in this section I mentioned the risks and some
potential shot ideas. I also thought that creating a small picture board
would be an effective way to show the locations somewhat.
I think that in certain areas of this powerpoint I did struggle to find
enough to write about as my project needed next to no materials or
extra equipment. If I was to do this again I would of planned in some
props that could of made for more interesting shots. I think that
thinking outside the box using props for colour co ordinated shots
could of really improved my final work.
10. I created a font and colour sheet to directly compare what
worked and what didn’t. I think that I did fairly well with this. I
think it would have been interesting to have further gone in to
the idea of comparing vibrancy and dullness in the basic
colour wheel and what colours compare to eachother using
this. I think this would have improved my work in production
as i could of directly used it when designing my pages and
hopefully made them more visually appealing.
I tried to create a varied selection of Fonts to test out however
looking through I realised that only the simple ones were
effective that’s why I stuck with fonts like Helvetica.
11. During the final section of this powerpoint I
drafted up a brief magazine plan and project
plan. I think that both of these were vital in
making my magazine especially the magazine
plan as I was constantly referencing it to make
my magazine. Next time I will definitely make
this plan more detailed because this will help
me to keep on track with my work.
13. My initial steps during
production was my
photo taking. I found
this a fairly simple task
however different to my
planning I decided to
shoot only in
easingwold although
urban backdrops may
have been more
effective I thought that
my local town had some
cool spots that I could
get the photos I need. I
shot all the photos in
raw so I could get a
better quality shot and
they would be easier to
edit. My theme when
taking the images was a
to have a striking center
piece and an effective
backdrop.
14. These photos took very little editing when
preparing them for the magazine. The
brightness was turned up a fair bit and small
changes to sharpness and contrast was all that
was needed after. I think I did a good job taking
these images I definitely could of used more
however I think the ones I did get were really
good quality and were useful in my magazine.
One of the images I actually used for my front
cover and I thought that it was actually very
effective.
15. This is my front cover design for my magazine I
think I did a really good job here I wanted to
create the cover in the style of Proper magazine.
I really like the clean look and I think minimal
text is most effective on the front page. I think
that if I had cluttered up the magazine with
small article headings and titles it would of
looked a lot messier and less appealing there for
I stuck with less is better. I referenced back to
my colour style sheet and thought what colour
text would pop and I really like how the pink
stands out against the white/grey sky. I also
thought the text matches the flowers nicely. The
positioning of the issue number is on the top
left to make it symmetrical as there is a branch
in the top right. I did this because symmetry is
more appealing to the viewer again going for
this minimal look. The title then in the middle of
this matches everything up nicely. I chose to put
the magazine in a smaller font and align it. I
honestly would not change anything about this
page I think it looks really good and the
simplicity is very effective.
16. I would say that these are my least
favourite pages I created in my
magazine although there are some
aspects of these designs I like I think
that these are the weakest ones. For
example in the top right air max day
image I started off with the top image
and added a filter on it, the middle
section was the bit I actually really
liked. I used various cutting techniques
and colour changes to achieve this
effect. I tried to keep the colour
scheme the same throughout the
image and I feel it worked well on this
middle section. The problem I ran in to
was that if I tried to resize the image to
fill the bottom section the content of
the image looked stretched and wrong.
So I tried to keep the colour scheme
going on the bottom section using the
colour picker and shapes. I think that
looks okay but nowhere near up to the
standard I would of liked.
17. Secondly the contents page, I think the basic design of this was okay I
think the images could do with some shuffling but I like how the colour
from the Virgil Abloh image flows in to the text section. What I really
dislike about this page is the way the text is positioned I think it looks
really unprofessional, if I was to redo it I would of used Adobe Indesign
to make the text in to a more complex design with different shapes
and columns. I think this would greatly improve the appearance of this
page.
The North Face page I feel serves its purpose as it is the add on to a
different page for a double page spread. It leaves a lot of room for a
text article which is good however I do think that it is a bit too simple
and a dull design in comparison to the rest of magazine. If I was to
change it I would of used red glowing highlights similar to the other
page unfortunately I ran out of time.
Finally the Carhartt page I think the design for this is interesting I think
it could work however by adding a second page, carrying on the theme
and using similar images I could of made a really cool ladybird, polka
dot effect. This would definitely greatly improved the design as I could
have had small columns of text between. Unfortunately I ran out of
time so I think this is definitely something to consider in future.
18.
19. These pages are definitely my favourite ones that I produced.
During my production I wanted to base every page and the
brand or company I was showing and I felt like all of these
designs really reflected each businesses unique style.
TooHotLimited is a second hand online boutique that deals in
used and vintage streetwear. I wanted to create an advert that
really reflected them so I went on to their website and found
a shot from one of their promos that I really liked. I think went
on to use an overlay on the image to give it an older more
retro look, I really like the colours and the way the people
were positioned in the shot. I then added the TooHot logo on
the left. I think the black and white really stands out from the
faded backdrop. Finally I took the company's slogan off the
website, their own merchandise uses this and so I though
including it would be an effective promotion for the company.
I tried to position this so that each line was on each layer of
tower block. Overall I think this created a really cool and
professional looking effect.
20. OFF-WHITE is a high end streetwear brand often using crazy
colours on their designers, one of their signature looks is lime
and orange tipped shoelaces. I therefore decided that this
double page spread should be done in those colours. I firstly
chose my colours and applied various gradients to the the
backdrop of each page. I then added the text and logos in
contrasting colours. Finally I chose my first image and added a
filter to make it blend to the page more and upped the
brightness to match the gradients on the highlights. The final
step was cutting out and image of legs and feet with the
companys product on. I did this attached it to the top of the
page and then added a sketch effect to it. I think that this
looked very effective and showed off the two most famous
things about the company, the designer and his product.
21. Next is Oi Polloi a Manchester based independent
boutique selling lot’s of different brands. The shop
is extremely popular and sells casual slightly hipster
products, always trying to stay on top of the latest
trends. I think the hipsterish vibe of the shop really
affected my design of this double page spread. I
thought the wooden floor background would be
effective to match the images of the shop. I made a
small section of images along the bottom to show
the inside of the shop and a large image in the top
right. I added an effect to make this image sort of
retro looking. Finally I found the logo changed the
colours and enlarged the birds next to it. Although
simple I find this page effective I think it has a
consistent theme that accurately represents the
shop.
22. Lastly my favourite piece in the production Acne Studios. This double
page spread I thought was really effective and I really liked the design.
Acne Studios is a high fashion brand, a runway company. To start with
a chose the background image and split it across the two pages. I then
added the logo in. instead of just having the logo straight across I
decided to make it on two levels and I wanted to explore this theme of
having both pages flow but being slightly different. I followed this by
turning the brightness down a small amount on the second page I
think this effect looks really good across the two. Next I added my two
images in from the company's look book however I thought they
looked like they had just been thrown in and didn't fit with the piece
itself so I explored what changes could be made to the background. I
settled on the two pink boxes as they made the image look smoother
and attached the look book photos to the design. I settled on the
colour pink to match the center image. My final step was to add a
highlighter effect to the images, I think this looks really nice as it makes
the images almost drawn on. Overall I think it is professional looking
and I enjoyed designing the piece.
23.
24. Conclusion
Overall I think I have done fairly well in the making
of my magazine. There is a lot of areas that I would
potentially change if I had more time but I do think
there are some solid designs aswell. I am proud of
my ideas but some were harder to actually produce
than others and I found timekeeping a challenge
throughout production. Further referencing my
previous timetables and schedules would have
been beneficial throughout the project. I have
enjoyed the project and although this is its finished
state I think given more time I could keep up
consistent quality throughout instead of having
some areas a higher level than others.
