Evaluation

Evaluation


Our brief was to design two double page spreads for a fictional magazine called Photography Now, I automatically knew that my target audience was going to be people who are interested in Photography. I fell my final pieces met the needs of the brief in every aspect, I used single large images across both of my double page spreads, I did this so that the main thing on the page at all times would be the photography and not the text. I achieved this by choosing the right font and point size this allowed for the image to have its full impact on the page. I don't feel that my final pieces fail to meet the brief in any way as I have carefully researched and developed my ideas into getting the best possible outcomes.


The strengths of my visual communication are that the images are very large so it should draw a person who is interested in photography towards it. The composition of my piece helps to make my visual communication stronger also, I have put the text on the left side of both spreads. The reason I did this is because the natural way we read is left to right and in this case with my double page spreads when this is done the first thing that is seen is my images making it the most dominant thing on the page. Again I am  very confident  in my outcome so I dont believe that the visual communication of my spreads are negative in any way shape or form.


In all honesty I dont think my piece can be misread in anyway as the images are the clearest thing on the page and the text is very minimal this is ideal for a person who is interested in photography as they are not going to be interested in type but the image itself. The images used also go with my environment with there will be no mis-understood messages.
I think I could have developed the placement of images more and perhaps used more than 1 image on a page, but i had my idea and i went with it and tried to further develop it.


I think my time keeping has been the best ever on this project, i've given myself plenty of time to get everything done and avoided the rush which is always good. I drew conclusions from my research by simply taking the positives and negatives from a research image and then concluding what I gained and what I did not gain from it. Taking the positives and negatives really helped me to evaluate my work and massively helped me to develop my ideas.


I used experimentation by playing around with the placement of everything on my double page spreads, I then said what i liked and disliked about and and tried to further develop the idea into getting a final outcome. I quite enjoyed this project, I personally think i enjoyed this project because magazine spreads are something im really interested in and something im keen on doing in the future. I work best when I have no distractions this allows me to get my head down and do loads of work with the occasional work.


Areas that inspired me was the research, I was really astonished by some of the current work that is out there in the magazine industry, this inspired me to try and create something as good as what i had seen or take ideas from them to help generate my final outcome. The area I only found difficult was some of the annotations as I was not completely sure what to write, but I found a way to overcome this, I managed a method that I am going to use in the future.

Indesign use

Interactive Indesign


This is a part of indesign I never knew existed, here you can do animation and even do presentations, I found that this is quite like powerpoint but more professional.

1. To begin with I created a simple circle and placed it on the page, then using the pencil tool created a wave which connected to the circle i had to begin with.

2. Once I done step 1 I then selected both the circle and wave line and clicked the small arrow symbol with the circle in the middle of it which is found bottom right of the tab left of the bin symbol.

3. This is how your circle and wave line should look when both have been selected and have been created to a motion path.

 4.This is where you can preview the animation you have done on a small scale.

 5. I then decided that I was going to add a word appearing from the left side of the page.

6. With this tab You can change the preset of how you want your word to appear on the page for example, fly in from left or fly in from right. You can also change the duration in which it takes for your word to appear on the page and even increase how many times it appears on the page.

7. The important part is to get both the circle and the wave line and the piece of text to appear and work at the same time, you simply go on to the Timing tab select both oval and bounce and click the symbol at the bottom right of the tab which says play together. This will then play both of the animations at the same time.

Slideshow 

1. To create a slide show you simply place all the images you want to appear in your show and select every image. Then you click on object states and click create new state which is located at the bottom right of the tab.

2. To create buttons so that you are able to switch backwards and forwards between pages you simply make a shape in which you want your button to be, once selected you go on to the buttons tab and click the plus sign which is located under actions then the tab above will appear. Choosing only those under the SWF only to go backwards or forwards you choose go to next state or go to previous state this enables you to go back or forward from slides.

Lastly the same as the animation you can preview what you have just made, here you can text out your buttons to see if they work appropriately if not you are able to make changes before saving your final document.

Baseline Grid

1. Baseline grid is a method is which you get text to align with each other in a neater way, once you put up grids you are able to see this.

2. To make your text align you start by opening your paragraph tab and click align to baseline grid which is located at the bottom right of the page.

3. Once step 2 is done this is the effect you will have, clearly you do not want the leading so large so you want your text to be closer together.

4. To change the leading you click indesign which is located at the top left of the whole page, then you click preferences. Once this is open you will find it says increment every, you will see under your point size it will say leading and a number, this number is 1.5x the amount of the point size which in my case is 14.4 as my point size is 12. 

5. once this is changed you will see that the text will set perfectly on the light giving a much neater effect.

Baseline grid is something I used with my text to give it a much neater effect, the changes are not major but I found every small detail add up into making an overall neat image.

My double page spread

Final photography pieces

After carefully analysing my photography I chose the ones that looked most appealing and ones that would look good on a double page spread. I found composition to be a major factor in choosing which photos would look best - arranging the images on the page can be very difficult as cropping or taking certain parts out of an image may help to get the best possible outcome on the page. These images in my opinion would all work well on a double page spread and they each have areas of space where some text can fit in. Something I can consider is manipulating my images in order for them to help me fit text more easily, or over the image. An example of image manipulation, could be to take an area in which text would not be suitable - however I would then change the brightness or the contrast to make it work with the image properly. 

Magazine Text - Spread 1

This was my first project in which photography was so heavily involved - I don’t consider myself to be a photography nerd so to speak but I really enjoyed finding the beauty in a view and being able to capture the moment to share. I chose my environment as the beach - my family had planned a trip to Eastbourne so I saw this as a perfect opportunity to start taking photo’s. Although my environment is fairly simple I didn’t want a typical view of a beach with just sand and sea! While taking photos I found that different light intensity’s effected different parts of the image which lead to some interesting shots. Composition was also an important role into taking any good photo which would make it work well on a double page spread. 

What I like about this photo that I have used on my double page spread is the contrast between the weather and the brightness of the building - which makes it stand out more. The pebbles also stand out to me in this picture due to the warm brown colours, against the cold grey background. When I took this image it was on an early morning at around 8:00am; and as it was cloudy not much light was shining through, consequently I believe this had a bigger impact on the image. As the pier was long I wanted to capture the last half of it as I thought this would improve the composition on the page and leave more space for the visual of the sea. Overall in my opinion Eastbourne was (and still is) a great place to take some amazing photo’s - Jamie O’reilly.

This was a typeface I found on Dafont.com which I think works really well with my double page spread. Natural Beauty is the main heading which will be used on my first project. I wanted a main header that would give a light introduction to the page which then draws the reader to read the other part of text. The text works well as its light and sits on the page nicely and doesn't distract the reader from the image. It makes the image just as dominant and as if the text wasn't even there .

Here is some thumbnail sketches of double page spread placements. These are based from the research of double page spreads. This gives me guidance for ideas and helps to experiment with ideas into getting the best possible outcomes.

Here is where I started to put my thumbnail sketches into indesign. After finding the typeface I was going to use for my header, it made things slightly easier as all I had to do was play around with the placement of it. I then used test text into deciding where this was going to go without it over running the image. I also had to consider the the readability and legibility of the text - taking the background into consideration.

Double page spread 1

After choosing the right placement of the image which is going to be used in my first double page spread I had to decide where the text was going to go. I first thought it was good idea to have the text running over both pages, but what I didn't take into consideration is that the text would not be readable as it would run through the crease in the centre of the page. A way to overcome this would be to leave a gap either side of the crease by about 1-2cm as this will allow the text to still be readable and run either side of the page.

Again further developing this idea with the header, I made the text slightly bigger in hopes of making the text more readable, I made it all aligned, neat, crisp and within the bleed marks. Having the text arranged this way still makes the image the main feature on the page as I had planned. The text being white is very visible on the page and matches with the colour of the pier which also adds to the neat finish of the page.

To overcome the problem of type being to close to the centre of the page is to have 2 paragraphs on each side of the page. As the type can not over run the image I wasn't able to have the text all on one side so using this method would prevent this.

This was another layout I experimented with. After making the point size smaller and choosing the right font I was able to fit the text on one of the pages. The font I chose was 'Gill Sans light' - reason for this again is so that the text didn't overtake the image in any way. If I had chosen a font where the text was bolder than a light I felt this would make the text to dominant on the page so choosing a light font would be suitable. The text is readable at lowest point size of 7 so I went with an 8 which leaves the text still highly readable but also subtle on the page.

After some thought I decided not to have " Natural Beauty " as the main header for this page because on the page is the pier and this would have been man made. I wanted both my pages to connect and run along side each other so I decided to go with the same typeface which I found on DaFont.com but use the header Eastbourne instead. Using this header with this font works really well as its light and it sits on the page without over running the image - even at its large scale. Also having Eastbourne as the main header gives the reader knowledge of where the image was taken and makes them more inclined to read the following text.

With the text I wrote for my double page spread I placed it over the 2 pages and for some reason I didn't really like it, main reason being - I thought it did not work on the page as well as it could have. I then gave the text a drop cap to see if it made the text look any better on the page and I still don't think it did so I decided not to go with this idea.

I decided to make some small changes to this piece in order to further develop it, I thought that the eastbourne header should not be overlapping the second page as when the pages are folded the readability would be a problem. I also thought that the text on the second page would be better in 2 columns rather than 2 rows as this is most common when I compared my work with my research.

This is my header Eastbourne which appears on my final piece, in order to make this successful I had to play around with the font and the font size, after finding a suitable font I needed to make the size appropriate to follow. The final point size I went with was 132 this is a slight change from what is was before as it needed to fit on just the left page. How I change the font and point size are as follows.

1. Highlight the piece of text that you wish to change ( Point size or font)

2. After finding the tab shown above you simple click each section and choose your preferred point size and font. 

Here is where my text that appears on the second page was changed, again I had to find the suitable font and point size and these are the screen shots in showing how I did this. The method is shown above.

While using grids in Indesign I found them very useful, they allowed me to see if everything was in line with each other and that the spacing between text was correct. Here I also used the baseline grid on my text do make it more aligned, this method is shown in my " Indesign use" blog.

 I think the text works really well along side the header Eastbourne and is in the perfect place on the page as none of the text is over the main parts of the image. Having the text this way gives the image a lot of breathing space allowing the detail of the image to stand out. I decided to take the header Eastbourne down a few point sizes so that the text didn't overlap the second page. I also changed the text on the right side of the page into 2 columns rather than rows as I believe this has a better and greater effect.

To further and lastly develop my page I cropped the top part of the image out, I did this because I think it makes it work even better with the other page. On my second double page spread the image is covering 2/3 of the page so to make this page flow I thought giving the same rough  design would achieve this. Overall I think this is another improvement to my page and I honestly don't believe this can be improves in anyway, I am very happy with my design.

Magazine text spread 2

This image was taken at Eastbourne along the coast, and the area is better known as Beachy Head. This image again was taken on the same day as the image on my first double page spread at around 8:00am. I read an article on the internet about photography and it said that in some cases photographic images have the best outcome when taken at sunrise and sunset - when the sun is at its lowest - I think this shows in my image.The article also said to never just take one image, but to capture as many as I can get because I may get a better result from the next photo - I took about 6-7 images, analysed each one, and chose the one that had the best composition.

Although the image is very simple it has a massive effect when placed on the page and I think it works very well. Similar to the first image the weather was rather muggy and no light was shining through, however this again then made the cliff side and the lighthouse stand out more and have a bigger impact on the image. Even though the lighthouse is quite small, I believe that it brings the photo together rather than it being big and taking over the image.

Im sure that anyone would agree that this view is simply stunning, and for this reason, I chose to put it into my double page spread. For those who simply love the views around the coast of England I highly recommend going to Eastbourne as there is a lot of scenery and people can take some amazing photographs. My image really captures my enviroment with a slight twist. I didnt want just a sand and sea photo -  but to view the other beauties that lie around a coastal area - Jamie O’Reilly. 

This was an idea that came first to mind. I decided to have the image covering 3 quarters of the double page spread allowing space for text and a header. I really like the composition of the image especially with the lighthouse in the distance on the second page, this small detail really gives the image some depth and gives the reader, in my opinion, more interest. Underneath " Beauty " is where I would have my text about the image, this would fit in perfectly and would give the overall piece a neat and crisp quality.

I started to play around with the placement on the page and moved the " Natural Beauty " across, but forgot this would be for a magazine so the heading would be right in the centre of the crease and would make it unreadable. I added " Scenery at its best " with the site it was from which was www.tripadvisor.com, - reason I did this was because when my family first planned the trip to Eastbourne my dad used the site to look up reviews. Bearing the target audience in mind (which is photographers), I still believe this fits in with the audience as the scenery from review is very good. People then who read this magazine however may want to visit here and in my text i'm implying that they do.

Here I was trying to make the text look better on the page so I took part of the image that ran on the second page off - but by simply taking this part of the image off it massively decreased the overall effect of the image not making it stand out as much. So i drew the conclusion that the other part of the image needed to show in order for the double page spread to have its full effect.

This is a close-up of the header natural beauty along with scenery at its best, in my opinion I think it sits very nicely on the page and at the same time does not overlay the image enough to take any interest away from the main image.

With the text I had created for my second double page spread I decided to try centering the text and the header which meant the header natural beauty would not being overlaying the page. I think the effect is not as great as having the main header overlay the image.

This is the final layout template I decided to go with, after experimenting with various page layouts and taking my research into consideration I think this spread allows the image to flourish through but at the same time allows text to be followed and read easily in a neat concise way.

This screen shot shows where I changed the point size in order to make the header have the best possible outcome, again the method in how to change the font and point size is shown above.

Here I was using the grids, this came in very useful when I wanted to finalise my piece. Using grids enabled me to check the alignment of everything this proved a massive help into making my piece look more professional. 

This is where I used the baseline grid to make my text more aligned this is something I will now always use in future projects ( Method shown in Indesign use blog)

After developing my initial peice taking ideas and inspiration from my research I believe thats what made my final spread so successful. I think my work has a professional finish and is to a high standard now that I have compared it to my research. Research has played a major role in my piece and has massively help guide me into getting my final outcome. Only negative I have about my piece which will be an opinion is that the header Natural Beauty goes over the image slightly. In my own personal opinion I dont think it effects the image in any way.

I also tried to make both my double page spreads link with each other as they both involved photography from the same place, so I used the same Header font and Point sizes within each piece, I think i have achieved this as they both have similarities but to at extent where it is not cliche.

Here I  further changed and developed my idea, in order to make the pages flow better I needed to make the second page more simple so I took away the " Natural Beauty " header.
This massively simplified the page and made it look more minimalist. In the process I think the image also stands out more. Overall I think this page looks better and works well with the spread in front.