Evaluation: Question 1

Website: Final Draft

http://sophiebartram1234.wix.com/alamodee

Evaluation: Question 4

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

When creating my product, I used a much wider range of technologies and software for A2 than I did for AS to ensure that my skills would grow. I used a program called Photoshop where I created my magazine and billboard. Although I used this program for my foundation portfolio at AS level, my skills have further progressed throughout A2 due to the fact I've been using more tools on Photoshop this year, and I've created more things in Photoshop. For AS, I only knew how to use a few of the tools, however, this year I've learned how to use the clone stamp tool as I've had to use it throughout my A2 to make my pictures look more professional. Overall, with Photoshop, my skills have developed and I've learnt more from using it. I used it in AS, but my skills clearly developed more throughout the advanced portfolio in A2. 

To take my images for my product, I used this Fujifilm camera. I did use this camera last year, however, this year I improved on my camera skills by changing the background and location of my images. I barely knew how to use this camera throughout my foundation portfolio, but this year when using this camera, I was able to experiment with images more since I got used to it. Getting used to the camera just allowed me to experiment more with images, it allowed me to take more images and look back on the images I had taken. This camera helped me a lot with my advanced portfolio as it takes pictures with more high definition so that the picture quality wasn't too bad. 

For my foundation portfolio last year, I never used WIX as we didn't need to create a website then. However, this year WIX has been one of the main online tools I have used. At the beginning of using it, I had no idea what to do and how to use it. However, over the duration of A2, I have gained many skills in using WIX and I now know how to navigate the website and how to create a website of my own. I did find it very hard to use, and sometimes it is still a little complicated to navigate, but in my spare time I learned how to use the website so that it would help me avoid any complications through the production of my website. I have definitely gained more skills over the course of A2, and I think that's partly because I've tried new software's so I've broadened my skills and my knowledge on different software. 

Last year for my foundation portfolio I rarely included my smart phone as a part of my research and planning. This year however, I've used my IPhone quite a lot. I've accessed blogger from my IPhone, I've taken photos of audience/teacher feedback from my phone and uploaded it into blogger and I've used my IPhone to conduct audience research. This technology has been a very good role in my research and planning as it helped me get posts onto my blog very fast and has been a good tool to get pictures onto blogger. Since I barely used my smartphone last year, I thought it would be a good idea to use it this year so that I have a range of different technologies to help me throughout the duration of A2, instead of the same old technologies I used in AS.

I have used a range of other software for conducting my research and planning such as Prezi, Powtoon and Slideshare. I did use this in my foundation portfolio last year, however, since last year was the first year of using them, I didn't really know how to use them very well. This year, my skills have grown since I've been using them a lot more, so now I understand how to use them. I've used them a lot throughout my research and planning as I think they're very good website's to use to conduct my research and planning. I also know how to use them, so I can just quickly go on to them, create something, and then embed it to my blog.

Social media has been incorporated into my research and planning throughout my advanced portfolio. I did this because I wanted to widen the range of website's I used on my blog so that I could improve from AS. For A2 I have used Facebook to interact with my model's and people my age to find out what teenagers are currently into. It was a quick and easy way to find out these answers, and I could use my smartphone to do this. I used Pinterest to combine a few images of my desirable target audience and incorporated it onto my blog. Again, I could use this from my smartphone so it was very easy to use. Last year, I didn't really use social media all that much, but since I wanted to widen the range of website's I used, I thought it would be a good idea to use social
media since it's heavily used in this generation. 

Evaluation: Question 3

I have picked 4 teenage girls that would be my ideal viewer of my product. I think they would be interested in my product for many reasons. The first being that my product is very modern and up to date with the latest fashions and trends. Each of these girls are very modern so they would be attracted to be product because of that. Secondly, they would be interested in my product because of the colour scheme and genre. These four girls are all very 'girly' and are interested fashion. The colour pink relates to fashion massively so they like how the colours and the genre work well together. They all shop at very stylish places such as River Island, Topshop and New Look and I've included some of those shops in my product so straight away that would make them interested in my product. 

Evaluation: Question 2

Front Cover: Final Draft

Contents page: Final Draft

Double Page Spread: Final Draft

Billboard: Final Draft

I had a one-to-one with my teacher on the text in my double-page spread article and she has given me some constructive criticism which I am going to take on board and improve. Listed below are the aspects of my magazine I can possibly improve on or change. 

1. Spelling - On some words, I have misspelled, or missed a few letters out. Improving this will improve the overall mark of my magazine.

2. Layout - The teacher noticed I haven't put my columns in a conventional vertical way. Instead I have put them horizontal. That would all be well and find, however, I haven't included a clear bold banner which separates the two sides of text so the reader will automatically read vertically instead of horizontally. I understand this doesn't follow the conventions of a regional magazine, so I will change my columns so they can be read vertically so that it follows those conventions. If I follow this, it will be more easier to understand and have a similar resemblance to a typical regional magazine which is what I'm aiming for. 

3. Wording - For some words I have used international terms instead of Regional terms e.g. 'Drugstore', instead of using this word, Helen has suggested I use 'Pharmacies' to make it sound more Northern. 

4. Centre - The centre of my magazine isn't strong enough to withhold a higher mark. Helen suggested I make it bolder or move it to the top of the double page spread. I will take this constructive criticism on board and play around with my magazine to make the improved suggestions she recommended to give me a higher mark.

Production process: Front cover

A few previous posts ago I said that I would be making changes to my magazine front cover to improve marks. As you can see, a whole lot of changes have been made which I will name below and state why I made those changes.

1. Masthead - With some constructive criticism from Helen and my classmates, I learned that my masthead wasn't strong enough, and didn't stand out very much. I added a banner to make it stand out more. I took inspiration from InStyle magazine as they have a banner highlighting their masthead and I thought this was a really effective way to show emphasis on the masthead. I then changed the masthead text colour to white so that it would stand out. I'm happy with the way it turned out as it makes my magazine look more professional and stronger. 

2. Background - Helen pointed out that I should see what my front cover looked like with a white background, and it turned out much better than the grey background in the beginning. It just makes all of the cover lines on the page stand out, and again makes my front cover appear stronger and more professional. 

3. Cover lines - I changed some cover lines to match with my contents page, and I also added more cover lines in and changed it around a little. I did this to add more variety and to take up empty space which make my magazine look unprofessional. I looked at other regional magazines and international magazines and saw that they used all the space they had on their front cover, and had a variety of cover lines so I thought it would make my magazine look professional doing this. 

Production process: Double-page spread

This was my double page spread when I first started. As you can see, I've
added the image I edited. 

As you can see, I've added a strap line and a pull quote. I did this in the

because a regional magazine is supposed to be unconventional, so I added

both of these in the middle to follow that theme. However, I did get

inspiration from a professional magazine, but it's quite rare to see this type

of layout in a magazine and I really liked the idea. 

I then added text to my double-page spread, and as you can see it's
starting to form and appear like an actual double-page spread. 

This is the final product. I added a few little features to make the magazine
more professional. I added a banner across the top with 'Kate Ashcroft'
and a page number. I really like my finalized double-page spread as I've
encorporated colours that appeal to my audience type. 

Front Cover: Production process

The first step I added a few pieces of text and the
masthead.

I then added some cover lines around the cover exactly
like the one pictured here. 

This is my finished first draft of my front cover. 

From looking and reviewing my front cover, I can see some changes that I need to make to improve my product. Below are the changed I will be making to my front cover to get a better outcome.

1. I will be changing the colours of my magazine to fit in with my contents page as the colours on my contents page are burgundy and pink. If I change the colours on my front cover it will make it look more professional as it will follow a house-style and avoid looking unprofessional. 

2. I will be changing the background of my front cover. The background now looks a little unprofessional which is not what I'm going for. I want it to appear professionally done rather than appear like a 18 year old students done it. I will change the colour of the background to white so that it looks like the image was taken in front of a professional white backdrop. This will hopefully improve my overall front cover. 

3. I will be changing some of the cover line's fonts and articles because when I change the colours and background I will obviously need to alter them also so they fit in with my house-style.