January 2018 Overview

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Wednesday 3rd January

Aim: 
Look into creating your own independent institution.
Begin to create a first front cover draft.

I have created my own institution which would suit my magazine. It is specific to London - the region in which my magazine is based as well as the theme. The aim for this institution is to work alongside Talent orientated companies to help showcase new, upcoming talents to hopefully in the future expand across the country.

I also have begun to develop a first draft for my front cover. I happy with the outcome however, I am unsure on whether the colour scheme is too dark. I am looking to create further drafts with different colour schemes to then showcase within an interview and focus group to gain feedback.

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Saturday 6th January

Aims: 

Complete first front cover drafts

Create a list of questions for an interview discussing these drafts

I have created two different front cover drafts with very small, minute edits such as with/without a barcode. I have also created questions for my interview which will take place on Tuesday with a girl that fits within my target audience range.

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Tuesday 9th January

Aims: 
Hold an interview with a target audience member to discuss your initial ideas.
Complete your first Contents Page.

The interview went well and I was able to gain feedback on my first two drafts. I only gave the first two drafts which had the darker background as this was my initial draft and I wanted to gain feedback on whether it looked good in case I reverted to this draft as my final product.

My contents page has been completed with two drafts with different dominant images which I will aim to gain feedback on in my upcoming focus group. Overall, I am happy with the outcome of these drafts.

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Thursday 11th January
Aim: 
Develop your front cover ideas using the pointers from the interview by creating another draft
Have two drafts of your contents page ready to include in the focus group and gain feedback on the comparison.

The feedback from my interview gave me more inspiration about what I could include in my magazine or in the case of the barcode, remove conventions. As a result I have completed a further two drafts which I am much happier with as they are of a lighter colour scheme and are more unique with the use of different shatter techniques on the dominant image.

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Monday 15th January

Aim: 

Hold a focus group.

With the four drafts which I have now created I held a focus group with four members of my potential audience. The overall feedback was very positive with a unanimous decision that the final draft which I created was the best and most appealing.

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Tuesday 16th January
Aim:

Using the feedback from the focus group create your final designs for the first two pages of your magazine.
Create your double page spread ready for feedback in second focus group.

There were a few minor touches I wanted to improve on my cover for it to be completed such as slight adjustments to the position of some of the text. After this was done, I was very happy with the outcome of my final front cover.

My next task was to create my double page spread. I already had a clear, solid outcome in mind for this page and therefore, developing it was fairly simple. The article was focused on a media makeup artist and was written in the form of an embedded interview which would allow the reader to gain more information about the reader. I also included a pull quote to draw the reader in further on initial glance. I do have two different drafts of this double page spread, one with the quote and one without as I am currently unsure on which I prefer.

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Friday 19th January

Aim: 

Hold a similar focus group as of Monday with the same people to discuss your double page spread.
Create your billboard.

As previously mentioned I was unsure on whether I liked the double page spread with the pull quote so this was the main aim of this focus group. It was discussed whether it looked good with or without by the majority agreed that the pull-quote drew the reader in from the offset and gained their interest to read the whole article. They also really like the layout of the page by having one page purely a dominant image to showcase the artist's work.

My next aim was to create my billboard for my magazine. The idea for the colour scheme from this came from the shattered effect used on my front cover. I used a splatter effect of colour to cover the background so that a house style was created through my products. As well as the use of layer my image to create a similar stuttered effect however, I ensured only one of the images was clear and the ones behind were more transparent so it was clearer for the audience. I also have incorporated my masthead within the heading to create simplicity and fluidity to the billboard.

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Wednesday 24th January

Aim:
Upload your final versions of all pages of your magazine.
Upload your billboard.


All my print products have now been created and uploaded to my blog with the next aim focusing on the digital product - the website.