Final Product: Front Cover (main task)

Final Product: Beauty Page (main task)

Final Product: Fashion Double Page Spread (main task)

Final Product: Billboard (ancillary)

Final Product: Website (ancillary)

http://evelop809.wix.com/dollupmag

Achieved Today

In todays lesson I completed all of my evaluation questions and had them assessed by my teacher who gave me a few areas to alter which I did do. I am going to continue going through my work with her over the next few lessons to ensure that it is as good as it can be an to make sure that I can get the highest grade I possibly can. 

Evaluation: Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In this Prezi I have attempted to tackle the first evaluation question on my A2 Media coursework. In addition to this I have also previously compared my work to existing products which I feel allows for easier comparison between my product and the existing products to see how I may have kept with, developed or subverted typical forms and conventions of each product. There is one for each page of my regional fashion magazine (cover, beauty page and double page spread), billboard and website.  

Evaluation: Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

For this question I have used flickr to annotate my work to help show some areas of each product I feel specifically target this question. 

Throughout my work having a consistent theme and keeping the overall look of my products similar was something I was very careful. Not only would this create more professional looking products but will also make them work better as a whole in attracting audience members. The theme that is noticeably present in all of my media products is the country clothing trend and I have kept this by having the model wear the same clothes in virtually all of the pictures. This combines my products in being identifiable as one product and although this is not necessarily typical of the genre it may appeal to the audience. 

Some smaller things I tried to keep consistent throughout my work include things such as using the same font whenever the name of the magazine was used (excluding in chunks of text) and also keeping the same colour scheme throughout the entirety of my work - however, I did change colour scheme slightly on my website as this is not seasonal but will be used throughout the year and black and white were still featured in my work. 

By keeping the colour scheme and fonts the same this combines my products, meaning that the audience can easily see that they're from the same company even if they are not familiar with any of the products. In addition to using the same font and colours I also used similar images through the entirety of my products to tie them together, I also featured my magazine on my website and the website URL on the magazine cover and the billboard. 

I think the overall combination of my main products and ancillary tasks are very effective. I have made sure to feature elements of each product in the others to make them identifiable as from the same company. I also feel that I have consistently kept the genre and this will increase appeal from the audience. There is also a number of other ways in which I have attempted to increase the appeal to the audience including through the types of products I used on my beauty page and the clothes that the model is wearing. 

Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

This is a short video on the types of girls that will be in my target audience and a brief description of the types of things they're interested in. I also did a target audience interview earlier in the year that gave me my initial ideas. 

  And some of the reasons they may be interested in my products. 
And here is some feedback I have gotten from my peers and friends on their opinions of my work which would tell me whether they would purchase the product in question or if there was anything they would prefer to be present. 

By gathering audience feedback I have learnt exactly what to put in so as to best appeal to my target audience by conducting a survey on what they looked for in a magazine and an interview to find out what they were interested in in general. I learnt that I needed to add in elements of both beauty and makeup as my target audience was most interested in products that covered both areas, but did not entirely dedicate themselves to those two areas, i.e. they liked articles on hobbies, relationships and general goings on as well. I also received feedback on my finished product to tell me how accurately I had perceived their likes and dislikes. 

Throughout the design process of my products I also received regular feedback from my tutor which led to me making alterations to my second page and double page spread at several points. I also made alterations to my billboard on suggestion from my tutor. 
(Specific changes on recommendation from my tutor were made 9th January to my second page, 15th January to my fourth page and billboard)
I also received suggestions for alterations from another tutor after standardisation to make changes to my cover, double page spread and second page.  

By receiving this feedback I have been able to improve the overall standard of my work to the best that I think it can be. 

Evaluation: Question 4

What have you learnt about technologies from constructing this product?

Today's Lesson Aims

Today I plan on getting my evaluation questions complied and to have them looked at by my tutor as I am unsure that I have done them entirely correct.

Achieved Today

Today I continued on with my evaluation questions and I have almost completed question 4 and have to add a few more bits onto question 3 but I think that I am nearing completing them. I did not get feedback from my tutor on them but I spoke to her and I will get feedback on the completed set of evaluation questions next lesson. 

Today's Lesson

Today I am going to continue working on my evaluation questions, I am also hoping to get feedback on the first two as I am a bit unsure if I have done them in the way that the exam board is looking for. 

Peer Feedback On My Completed Products.

This peer feedback has given me further insight into my work and there are a few things that I have learned from gathering it. Due to this feedback being taken in after I had started my evaluation process I did not make any of the changed suggested to me, but none of these suggestions were major things that I think could put an audience member off buying my product. 

One thing that was touched upon by a few people was the lack of colour variation in my website, which I agree could be more colorful, however, such weskits as Elle and  Vogue use mainly black and white as it is very classic and so that is why I kept to black and white after experimenting with some different colours throughout. 

Another area touched on a couple of times was how a few of my images looked unprofessional (the loungewear ones) and were scruffily laid out. I do agree that the loungewear ones looked slightly casual and this was an intended effect as t makes it look more relaxed in my opinion, however, I can see how this may put some people off and so in retrospect if I were to do it again I would probably make these images appear more professional like the other images I took. The presentation of my images was also questioned by a couple of people but after playing around with my double page spread images for some time I settled on the way they are as having them regimented makes the page look too boxy and existing products actually adopt the same format that I have used. 

Time Management Update

Over the last couple of weeks I have been very happy with the progress that I have made. My evaluation questions are essentially complete, with only a few more touches needing to be made which should be able to be done over the next week and so I will be done with a week or so to spare before the final deadline of the end of March. Although this is a lot later than my initial personal deadline of the end of January this was probably unrealistic as we only had one lesson a week in college where we were able to focus on coursework which did of course slow things down. I think had I pressured myself too much to stick to this shorter deadline my work would have been of a lesser quality and as it is now I am very happy with the quality and outcome and so the extra time spent on it was definitely worth it. 

Today's Lesson

Today I continued working on my evaluation questions, I finished my Prezi for the first question and have done annotations on flickr images of my products to help answer my second. Alongside the flickr annotations I have written out a small essay answer the question more directly than what is on my annotations. 

Time Management Update

I have not been the most productive this month as I have completed my products and I am now taking my time completing my evaluation questions in the best way I can think possible. This month I have also compared my products to existing products which is something I had completely forgotten was necessary to my work and my first evaluation question. Although I am now slightly behind where I would like to be I do not think it will take long to complete my evaluation questions from where I am now. 

Front Cover Alterations

Having recently received feedback on my main product during standardisation and some of the things that were highlighted I could improve were:

• that the masthead could be stronger
• try out a 3rd colour to make it 'pop' 
• it was difficult to identify the main sell line (main article)
• unclear what the audience was with combinations of 'omg', doll up' and a sophisticated looking model
• that it is the 'party issue' but doesn't look very partyesque

It was also suggested I link back more to it being a regional magazine

I have taken all of these messages on board but there are some areas I chose not to change, some areas I tried out but did not change and others I changed accordingly.

With my cover I attempted to regionalise it a bit more by adding in the 'Northampton Edition' under the title which can sometimes be seen on newspapers, although uncommon on magazines. I don't think the edition of this disrupts the look too much and I do agree that it could have been more regional originally.

I also tried out a third colour (here you can see that I experimented with blue as it's quite a wintery colour but I also tried several others from my colour scheme plan. However, I didn't feel that any of these colours worked particularly well and so I decided that I would stick with the two font colour for my cover, but I have altered some of the 'internal' pages slightly. 

As for the masthead and sell line, my inspirational texts such as Glamour and Cosmopolitan have fairly flat mastheads and I think by adding a 'deeper' look it makes it look tacky and so I did not incorporate it. As for the comment on not being able to determine the sell line, most magazines do not highlight it in particular but instead just make it in a larger font as I have done with my 'Winter Trends' article. Another thing that was touched upon was the fact my model is hiding part of the masthead and so people may find t hard to read and so not know what it is, however, I am creating this product in the view that it is an already established product (I have labelled it issue 132) and so people will already know about it and know what it is. 

My target audience, as I have previously established, is females aged between 15-25, however, I can see why some may not think this as the model does look quite sophisticated and serious. With this said I am keeping in mind my target audience as members from my target region (the East Midlands) often dress this way themselves around this age and so despite looking as if it is aimed at older women it will actually be hitting my target audience quite well.  

'The Party Issue' article has been removed as I think it is too late to take more pictures to make it look more like a party, instead I have changed it to an article about relationships which I think connects more to my target audience anyway and I think will make it more obvious I am aiming at a younger generation. 

Double Page Spread Alterations

I also received feedback on my double page spread:

• try a 3rd colour
• 'where the items are from' could be more conventional 
• sell line/strap line could maybe have more significance
• there seems to be conflict between what is the main sell (winter trends or cozy country winter)

I agree that the 'where the items are from' label was a bit formal so I made it more colloquial by changing it to 'where's it from?!'. I also added in a third colour to help differentiate between what is the main sell (the trends) and 'cozy country winter' which is what I called the trend. 

The strap/sell line, however, I feel already has significance. In the second image I have screenshotted what the page looks like without it and I think it is quite bare without it. Also, many of my inspirational texts highlight fashion and beauty pages in this way and so can be seen to be a commonly used convention.

Second Page Alterations

One of the suggestions I got to make on my second page was perhaps remove the '.' from the numbers. Here I have tried this to see how it would look (leaving a few with the '.' to compare) and I don't think it is a change that I will be keeping, I think that the '.' makes it look a little more polished and so I will keep it that way.

Another thing that was suggested was to add in reasons the products are on there (i.e. to sell them more). In my original layout of my beauty page this was my intention but the way I had presented it made it look boxy and untidy and so I removed it, with the current layout I don't have room for this description. However, I have linked a few back to the makeup the model is wearing which may sell the products slightly which also gives the image some anchorage. 

Other than that I have just made small changes, having changed the colour of the 'deal alert' font to pink to make it stand out and changing 'where to get' to 'where to buy'.

Suggested Alterations

My work was recently submitted for standardisation by another tutor at the college and from this I have received feedback on areas that could be improved in my main product. Having looked at the feedback I already know there are some things that won't work or that I don't think will look like but I will try all suggestions out to see if they improve my product. 

This Lesson

This lesson I have continued with my evaluation questions and I have also done a comparison between some of my work and existing products. 

As part of my evaluation I am analysing my work and seeing if it is conventional or subversive of typical codes and conventions of the product. I am then going to do a fuller analysis in a Prezi or slideshow to make my work more media rich.

Comparing My Work To Existing Products: Website

My website is also notably more simplistic in design than the existing product. Glamour have very little white space while my home page has just one scrolling gallery of images, along with feature articles further down the page and contact information at the bottom.

Glamour was one of the magazines I took most inspiration from as I think their style (but a more condensed version) would fit perfectly for what I had in mind for my product. 

Other pages resemble the style of Glamour more than my home page, however, I am especially please with how my 'beauty' page turned out, although it has more of a blog layout than Glamour but I think it looks very professional. 

Although I took inspiration from this and other texts I mainly kept to the template that was on Wix when I was making my website, with only really taking inspiration for the content rather than the style. 

Comparing My Work To Existing Products: Billboard

Here I am comparing my billboard ancillary task product with an existing one. 

Most magazines don't tend to advertise on billboards so it was quite hard to find existing products to compare mine to as most magazines find other ways of promoting themselves (on TV, by word of mouth, coming free with other products etc.) and the product I actually took inspiration from for my magazine billboard was a Wildfox billboard which I recreated here.

For the purpose of an accurate comparison, however, I looked at an existing magazine billboard. This Vogue billboard was one of the few magazine-featuring ones I could find, and there are really very few similarities between that and my own product. This is probably due to the fact that the Vogue billboard is specifically plugging one issue, being an already household name the don't need to be simplistic for people to remember the name of their product, but need to be outstanding for people to remember the issue that they are selling and what it's for (in this case the their Cindy Crawford issue)

~

Similarities between the two include the name of the magazine and the model from that issue being on the billboard, which would give the audience member something to look out for in shops. 

The existing product, like mine also has the name of the website on the left hand side.

However, that is about where the similarities stop. 

My billboard is fairly simple, with hardly any writing on it so as to get the message across as easily as possible for the short time period people will likely be viewing it (at the sides of roads, on buses etc.). 

I also did not feature my actual magazine in the shot, unlike Vogue (which would allow the audience to know what they were exactly looking for). Instead I chose an image similar but with enough difference so as my product stood out compared with my other products.

As well as these points I also added in the tagline of the magazine into my billboard which is usually seen with clothing brands but as you can see here is less used in magazine promotion. 

Comparing My Work To Existing Products: Beauty Page (second page)

I have previously compared my work to existing products but since then I have made some significant alterations to my beauty page and so I have decided to compare my updated work to an existing product. I also compared my front cover and fashion double page spread but they've stayed nearly exactly the same so I don't think they require comparison again.

As you can see I have made quite a lot of changes since the last time I compared my product to an existing one.
My brief is still the same, to produce a regional fashion magazine and I have decided to add a beauty element to think is my second page.
Although these products may not focus on the same time of year they still look very similar in their layouts and it is easy to tell that both of these are beauty features from magazines due to their content. 

Similarities between my product and the existing product include the use of a number code to tell you about the product instead of having a lot of text boxes like I had previously which broke the page up quite badly. The products are listed in an orderly format down the side of my page and through the centre of the existing product which makes them similar. They both also feature what is effectively a whole face of makeup.

~

However, there are quite a lot of differences which help my product stand out from others that are similar. My page includes beauty products outside of makeup but this may be more due to my product focusing on how to keep your skin healthy over winter (which is when my product is focusing on).

The existing product also has a lot more text than mine does, however, I think the article on the existing product is more of a main article and that might be why there is more writing that goes into more detail on looks etc.

Another key difference is my use of a picture of a model sporting a look which my features products can create, however, despite this being absent on the existing product I have chosen to compare mine to it is a common feature on many beauty pages so I have just mixed elements from different existing products.

Probably the final significant difference in my work compared to the existing product is my use of a sort of background (the lipstick smudges and kisses), while the existing product is relatively plain. However, this could be because of the difference in seasons that the articles are set; usually articles set in summer and spring are lighter and have a lot more empty pace to give the element of freshness and light while articles focusing on autumn and winter are darker and tend to be fuller to reflect the darker nights and make the page feel cozier. 

I got the idea to put the background on my work from a product that was featured in spring/summer (my original comparison showed the existing product I took the idea from) but these products were lighter in colour than the ones I used and the colour difference I chose was because of the difference is season and to fit in with trends and the overall colour scheme of my work.

Today's Lesson

Today I am going to continue to work on my evaluation questions and I will also compare my work to an existing product. 

This Lesson

This lesson I have started on my evaluation questions. For my first question I have begun by analysing my work and seeing whether I have kept to or subverted from the typical codes and conventions of existing products of the fashion/regional genre. I am doing this with 9 sections of my work (the four pages of my main task, my billboard and the four pages of my website). After I have finished analysing I will put the images into a Prezi or slideshow of some sort and do a more in-depth answer to the question as well. 

Today's Lesson

Last lesson I received feedback from my tutor who said that as it is she can't see any further changed that could be made to my work so this lesson I am going to be starting to look at the evaluation questions and hopefully getting some of them done. 

Time Management Update

In my time management post back in October I had planned to have everything completed by the end of January as that was the rough deadline that my tutor had given me, however, I have not quite stuck to that but I had completed all of my products well before this and was just receiving small bits of feedback from my tutor in order to get the highest possible grade. 
Now, at the start of February, I only have my evaluation questions to do and posting of my final products before the final deadline at the end of March. 

Feedback

Today I got feedback on my work (my main task, billboard and website) from my tutor and I was told that as it is she doesn't think there anything else that she can see that needs changing so now I am going to focus on my evaluation and making sure that I am totally happy with my product.

Website Pages

Home Page

Fashion Page

Beauty Page

The Magazine

Website Problem!

I went onto my website to make some more alterations and to check the look of it all together and my 'beauty' page was coming up as an error 404, despite trying closing, opening and re-logging-into Wix. In the end I've just had to redo the page which didn't take much time but was quite annoying. 

Today's Lesson

Today I am going to keep making alterations to my website as there are still some things my teacher suggested I alter that I haven't got around to doing yet. As well as this we are having feedback sessions with her so I will giver her the last alterations I did on y work to her for her to see if there are any other little changes that need to be done to my main task and billboard. 

Website Alterations

This lesson I received feedback on my website and I made some small alterations on my work based on the feedback that I got. I changed the format of the text on quite a few areas of my work, added in a subscription note and added in the prices and where to buy the products featured in my beauty page. As well as this I got some more seasonal pictures, having taken a couple of them from the photographer  that I know who has previously photographed my model for her own work and that I gained consent from to use her images. 

Today's Lesson

In today's lesson I want to get feedback on my website so I can get feedback on it to get the highest mark possible on it, I will also get my tutor to check the small alterations I have made to my main task and billboard. 

Time Management Update

Since my last time management post at the start of the month I have caught up with my original time scale somewhat. I am now nearing completion on my products, with only a few more alterations to be made to my website and then I can move onto my evaluation questions which I think will probably be started in late January/early February now.  

Comparing Changes - Double Page Spread

My double page spread required the least amount of alterations. On my third page all that I needed to do was move the clothing list slightly to the left as when you look at the fist image it is very close to the fourth page while there is a lot of empty space to the left of it. In the second image this has been changed and it seems much more centralised.
The fourth page as well only a slight alteration with the addition of a caption which I think helps break up the solid block of pictures. I think overall the feedback has led to a much stronger product and I will now use this as my final piece, after talking it through with my teacher to check there is no other areas that i could improve upon.

Comparing Changes - Second Page

In my feedback from my teacher on my second page it was noted that there appeared to be a lot of 'dead space' and so I filled this with a deal alert for the region I am focusing on. I also made the 'where to get' title larger and easier to see and highlighted the product names in a different colour from the rest of the text so it s easier to pick them out for the audience.

I think overall the feedback has led to a much stronger product and I will now use this as my final piece, after talking it through with my teacher to check there is no other areas that i could improve upon.

Comparing Changes - Billboard

It was mentioned in my chat with my teacher that my model's face was slightly blurry in the original piece of work which was quite distracting and made the work look a bit less professional. I took this criticism on board and used Smart Sharpen on Photoshop to sharpen the image (as you can see in the bottom picture). This has worked well to combat the blurry face and improves the overall look of the work. I also removed the 'Doll Up Magazine' logo at the bottom to give a more simplistic look. 

I think overall the feedback has led to a much stronger product and I will now use this as my final piece, after talking it through with my teacher to check there is no other areas that i could improve upon.

This Lesson

This lesson I have made a fair amount of progress in nearing my final products. I have made the alterations suggested to me by my teacher's feedback last week to three pages of my main product and by billboard ancillary task so I have achieved what I wanted to get done this lesson. Next week I plan on submitting these bits of work again for some final feedback, but I primarily want feedback on my website as this is the one area that I haven't had any on yet and I am feeling least confident about. 

Changes to my Billboard

It was mentioned to me by my teacher that my model's face was slightly blurry in the billboard I presented to her before so I have used Smart Sharpen on Photoshop to sharpen the image and I think this has worked well on sharpening her facial features slightly. 

My teacher also mentioned it may be worth removing the magazine name at the bottom to make it even more simplistic and I have done this and I think I may keep it this way as the website name tells us it is a magazine and if they don't get it from the term 'mag' in the url then the element of enigma may intrigue them to further research it. 

One last thing that was mentioned to me when I received feedback on my billboard was that it's not clear that the model is sitting on the horse, although I know this because I have seen the other pictures where she is in a similar position, and the full image this is from. She suggested that I might want to remove the horse, and I did consider this, however, a lot of billboards use enigma to intrigue the audience and I think that this could be one of the elements that acts as an enigma for my work. 

Changes to my Fourth Page

The feedback from my teacher mentioned that this page looked a little bare, especially as it has the focus image of my dole page spread on it. To fix this she suggested that I add in some sort of caption to my work, and that's what I have done here. As well as adding the caption in I have also added a small piece of text in the top left hand corner which tells the audience who the photographer and model were for these photos. 

Model Tag

 

It was suggested to me that I add in a tag line of the model's name and maybe a reference to the fact this is a beauty page, however, I wasn't sure whether it really added anything to the page. Here you can see a comparison between with and without this tagline.

Personally I prefer it without the tagline as I think it makes it look cleaner and more professional, however, I do think it would be best and the most professional if I credited the model so I'm going try out a few ways which I could do this and see what I like the most and what I think looks the best with my page. 

Today's Lesson

In today's lesson I am going to continue making changes to my work based on the feedback I have received from my teacher in order to gain the highest grade possible. 

Changes to my Second Page

It was suggested to my by my teacher that I change the layout of the product list to look more like a currently existing one which she found on the internet, this existing one aligned the text to the left and has the product names highlighted in a different color to make it easier for the audience to identify them. I thought this was a good idea and so I have added it into my work. It was also mentioned that the title of the "where to get" section was quite small which I agree with so I have made that larger and I will edit the font when I am on my edition of Photoshop to a desired font, as I have some that aren't available on the college version, to make it stand out more than it does at the moment. 

It was also suggested to me by my teacher that I might add a tag box to indicate who my model is, maybe with a little caption. I have done this as you can see here but I'm not sure that I like the effect it has and I think it makes it look a little messy and cluttered in that area of the page so I'm not sure that I'm going to keep this alteration.

The last thing that was mentioned to me about my work was that there seems to be a lot of 'dead space' just under the picture but before the product list, and I agree with this. One thought I have had about this but not done yet is to move up the products and at the bottom of the page have a small list of regional offers on some of the products in the list and or other products I think my readers will be interested in. 

This Lesson

This lesson I received feedback on my altered work, where my teacher made a few comments on little bits that I could change from each page, as well as my billboard. I didn't get feedback on my website but I intend to in next Thursday's lesson after I have made a couple of extra changes to it because I wasn't happy with it the way it was today. A couple of the changes she suggested she didn't know if I'd want to do for definite but I will try them out to see if I think they improve the overall aesthetic of my work.

Visual Record of Updates to My Work

Here I have kept a visual diary of changes that I have made to my work, these include picking and altering my website, changes that I have made to my main task and billboard, along with blogposts I have made on time management and feedback that led to the changes that I have made. 

Billboard alterations

I received feedback on my final decision of my billboard from friends and all of them mentioned that the white writing on a light green background was quite hard to see on a computer scene (how my final product will be presented) and so I took this on board and added an outline to the writing that had been placed on top of colors that made it hard to read. When printed this change is very obvious and I think it would be easy enough to read without the outline if it were a real billboard, however, on the computer the outline makes a huge difference and makes it much easier to read. 
In addition to adding an outline I have also changed the size of the small name tag in the corner as I thought it being so big was quite distracting. 

Aims For This Lesson

My aims for this lesson are to print off my main task and hand it in to the teacher for feedback and also make alterations to my billboard that need to be down and print that off and hand it in for feedback. I also want to sit with the teacher and get feedback on my website as I feel that I am about done with it. 

Getting Along With Wix

As part of my AS coursework last year one of my tasks was to create a website, much like this year. However, last year I was on a different exam board and they take all coursework in physical form and so I used Adobe Dream Weaver so as it was able to be transported to the examiner on a disk. This year however, I am having to use Wix which works very differently and I was a bit worried about using a new program. 

However, I was surprised at how easy it is to use, Dream Weaver has required a lot of time and effort to create even the template for my work, whereas Wix has pre-made templates ready at my disposal. Although it was a little fiddly to begin with getting used to a new program it has been very easy to use and I think I have gotten on very well with it and hopefully have created a good piece of work with it. 

Time Management Update

I had aimed to have all of my main task and both ancillaries completed by the end of the christmas holidays, with some leeway on my ancillary tasks to be completed in the early part of the next term. I have so far kept up with this time line and have completed my main task and website ancillary I think but I just need to get some feedback from my tutor on it and I need to make a couple of minor alterations to my billboard that were suggested to me by friends.