Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Front Cover

I picked which photo to use as my cover, I picked this photo as it was a medium close up where James was looking clearly at the camera.In todays lesson I moved my main cover line text and aligned it to the right, this was to make it neater. I also took to full stop of the title as it was drawing too much attention and it wasn’t needed. Finally I made my positioning statement from 36pt to 18pt as it was way to big previously. I did all this work in Photoshop using the text tool and the move tool to reposition the layers and the text tool to minimize the size of some of my text.

This is the Move ToolI have learnt how to use this through using photo shop throughout my production. The tool is used to move layers around.

This is the Text ToolThis tool is used to make text boxes for my cover lines but also to re-size text and change the colour and font. I have used this tool to resize my cover lines and change the colour of some to make them stand out more. This tool is effective as it makes my work more aesthetically pleasing for the reader so more people may buy it.

In todays lesson I changed my model to add more 'movement' to my picture as the previous picture looks quite staged, I also moved the "Issue" and "Date" text above the title and changed it from 36pt to 18pt as it was too big before!I also added another cover line so my cover didn't look to sparse and I also made my barcode a tad smaller. And changed the text from red to white so it could be seen better.

In todays lesson I changed my picture as my previous picture looked too staged, I made my cover lines smaller as the text was too big, I changed it from 36pt to 30pt. I added at bevel to the title to add more dimension to my cover and I also added a circle to put ‘competition’ text in next lesson.

This is the Shape ToolI used this to add a circle to my cover to add “competitions” on my cover. I have decided to do this as I believe it will make my cover more interesting

Rubber/Eraser ToolThis is what I used to rub out the text.

This is the Zoom ToolI used this for precision of rubbing out my text with the eraser/rubber tool. Without this my Title wouldn’t have been as smoothly cut out as it is.

In this lesson I changed the colour of my coverlines back to red because when they were white they didn’t stand out from my background. I also brightened the picture using photoshop as it was quite dull before. And finally, I added a banner along the bottom of my cover, I chose a light red to fit in with my colour scheme and added band names which my questionnaire results suggested I did.

This is how I brightened my main image in Photoshop. I selected the layers and went to:Image > Adjustments > Brightness/ContrastFrom there I adjusted the slider on brightness to where I wanted it, to make the picture brighter and the colours slightly more sharper.

I used the shape tool to create my banner along the bottom of my magazine to add extra teasing content. I did this to follow the codes and conventions of a music magazine and also to add more content to my cover in a creative way as previously my cover was quite bare.

To change the colour of my banner I double clicked on the layer and selected a colour for my banner. I chose red as it went well with my colour scheme.

I changed the colour of the banner at the bottom to a bright red as previously it looked very washed out and didn’t stand out. I also changed the font of “Exclusive Interview” on my coverlines to make it prominent and stand out from the rest because it is an important feature.

I used this to change the fonts on my front cover of my magazine. I changed to font of the words “Exclusive Interview” I did this to break the continuity on my page. To select my text I looked through the drop down menu at the top left of the Photoshop page using the Text Tool and selected which font I wanted.

I chose “Bernard MT Condensed” as it was bold and stood out however it also looked professional and fitted with the style of my magazine which is indie but professional.

In this lesson I added more headlines around my model as it looked a bit bare. I think this is effective as it looks busier and like there is more going on in my piece of work. I did this by using the Text tool in Photoshop to add more text boxes then I used the Move Tool to reposition my coverlines.

I used the colour box to change the colour of my banner, due to the fact my page looked “too red” therefore I made it a Navy Blue colour to contrast well but also to fit with the mise-en-scene of my page and my model has the dark blue colour in his shirt.I did this by double clicking on the banner layer and selecting the colour with the Eyedropper Tool.

This is the Eyedropper ToolI used this tool to keep continuity with my cover by keeping the same colours contained in the cover. I used the eyedropper tool to select a navy blue colour from my models shirt to place into my banner. This is effective as any other colour may have looked wrong and wouldn’t have fit with the mise-en-scene of my page.

Contents Page

In this lesson I decided to change all my pictures and retake them as they were not very good quality. I wanted to put the title and ‘contents’ in the centre to make my page symmetrical. I have included a picture of James Bridge as the quality is better an he is relevant to my magazine as he is interviewed on my double page spread.

In this lesson I trial and errored some pictures for my cover and decided of the Jake Bugg picture, I also moved all my text closer together and made the “On the cover” text stand out more to draw the readers attention to it, incase they want to specifically read something on the cover.

In this lesson I finalised the pictures that I would use for my contents page. I also centralised the title of my magazine and the word “Contents” to make my contents page equal on both sides.

In this lesson I cahnged my text colour from blue to red as red fits with my colour scheme better and fits in with the house design of my magazine whereas blue doesn’t. I also made my pictures smaller and added more features on my cover to fill the space. I added a box around the text “on the cover” so it could be easily navigated to for the reader.

Double Page Spread

Today I arranged my text into 3 clear columns and took out one of my pictures as the colours didn’t really go with the rest of the page. I also tilted the title to add more dynamics to the page and draw the readers attention

In this lesson, firstly I picked out spaces where I was going to put my quotes, then I decided on my quotes so I put them into my text by copying and pasting them from my interview. Finally I deleted one of my images, leaving just one as it looked to busy. I added slight splashes of colour to match my house design.

Looking back over my work today I decided the bottom quote wasn’t necessary so I deleted it, then I dragged my picture over the whole page as it wasn’t covering any text and it looked more proffessional.

Finally I added a title and standfirst, the title was a play on words with the artists name and I tried to add the same splashes of colour to keep continuity.