Evaluation

I'm going to Evaluate my Front cover and Contents page and clarify what I could have improved on and my opinions.

My Front Page:
I enjoyed making the front page of my magazine. I found it easier than the contents page because of the amount of research I did. I really enjoyed doing the photo shoot with my friend for it and laying out the text around the photo. I didn't actually edit my photo which I should have done using Photo shop, so that is something I need to remember to do for my music magazine because i think it may have made my page a little too dark. And I also didn't directly link my image to any of the text, like they do in other magazines. I advertised the Cornwall trip next to it and didn't connect it. I made my Cover and contents using Windows Publisher because I found using Adobe InDesign CS3 really difficult and Publisher is a really familiar program. I will try to use InDesign for my music magazine and practice on it. I didn't use very many images on my cover, I noticed; the magazines I researched I found to both have seven and I only used 3. I think I could have put some next to the advertisements at the bottom to attract people to the sports more. I used Photoshop to edit the 'Agony Aunt' image and I don't think I did it very well. I used the lasso tool to cut around the image and paste it on the page and didn't do it as smoothly as could be done. I think also that I should have used less black around that area, or bordered the speech bubble in one of the colors in my scheme. The last thing I noticed I could have done, was to put the date, price and bar code on my magazine. I didn't think about it when I was creating my cover, but it is something that HAS to be on it. I pretty much kept to the plan of my magazine and didn't change much at the last minute. I was pleased with the result of it but felt that I could have done better.

Contents Page:
I didn't enjoy making my Contents page as much as I did the front page. I found it harder, not having researched contents pages as much as the the covers. I liked the design idea that I had but I don't think it worked as well as I wanted it too. I found it difficult trying to line up the articles to the same angle as the notepad image. I also used Microsoft Publisher to create this page, for the same reasons as with the cover. I liked the idea of using a handwriting type font on this page, fitting in with the school pad theme. I didn't edit my image using any programs as I should have; I think I could have made it a bit brighter and not so dull. I chose orange font for the titles of my articles fitting in with the color scheme of the cover and also kind of matching the background of the notepad image. Something else I think I could have improved on I think was filling up the page a bit more; adding a few more articles which I think would have increased its professional look. With the 'Cornwall' image I added over the top of the notepad, I wanted the white labels to again help with the school child look. I wanted it to look like it had been stuck down using labels as would be in a real notepad. i think it worked to a certain extent but it didn't look extremely realistic - especially with the image not being at the correct angle. I was pleased to a certain degree with my contents page but I definitely think I could have done better and that it was a learning experience for my music magazine.