MAGAZINE DESIGN

EVALUATIONBy Liam Belch

INITIAL RESEARCH

For my Initial Research I created and handed out a Questionnaire on Fashion magazines. More people answered Yes for Reading interviews so I thought it would be good for me to include an interview in my Magazine. I also found out that a lot of people Research Fashion on the internet, in Seeing the popularity of this I decided to make my magazine a Special Fashion issue and focus mostly on that for the front Cover and Interview.

PRODUCT RESEARCH

For my product Research I contrasted and compared two Front covers from the magazines Vanity Fair And Harper’s Bazaar. And then I compared and contrasted Two contents pages from Vogue And Vibe Magazine. From my Research I decided it was best to use a Certain type of alluring Cover line, one that gives just the right amount of information to Draw the reader in, and I Chose a simple and Striking Contents page much similar to the Vibe magazine one that I compared.

LOGO DESIGN

For my Logo Design I used a mixture of Text and wingdings, I thought it looked great for a fashion magazine because it is it as though the Scissors are going along a cutting line for cloth. The Name Vague is a pun on Vogue (the magazine and Phrase) and also a jab at the magazine itself, The contents page for my magazine is Rather Vague and gives little to no information so I feel that this name fits well and I believe the little information is justified by this.

IMAGE EDITING

The Final images I chose for the Front cover and Double page spread are these. I believe they work well together as they are both contrasting but still as striking. The Article is called Removing the mask which I created from seeing the image of Emily pulling off her mask. The actual photograph for this was accidental as Emily was pulling off a mask that was uncomfortable I was able to capture This unusual and Natural pose and then I Added some colour and posterized the image to Create this pop art sort of look. The double page Spread is Very Vogue sort of material with a black feather fan and Gold opera mask I felt that the double of this worked well and created a very sort of Artistic image in black and white that I believe would not look out of place on a Fancy advertisement for a designer clothes range.

MAGAZINE COVER

The magazine cover is mostly a pure white with the splash of colour from the picture. As you Can tell from the other picture when placed onto the magazine it lost some of its lustrous colour and was stretched slightly. The Cover lines are a Facetious joke aimed at the Snobby people who would read such a ‘’high class’’ Fashion Magazine. The bits of French thrown in help to create the Fancy sort of look as French is often perceived to be a Sophisticated language.

CONTENTS PAGE

As Explained earlier The Contents page is a reflection on the name Vague and also Takes a Further jab at pretention just like the cover lines. I Chose this Striking image because I believe the Shining Red lips over black and white Really stand out and the multiple different depths of field create a strange and varies look. The Feathers on top look close up but other parts seem slightly blurred. I used the Inspiration from Vibe magazine For the Actual CONTENTS and used the rest of the text in white to make it readable because of the dark background.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

For my double page spread The Crisp Darkness of black and white and grey stand out very well I think. After some of the Questions I placed a quote in Bold italic so people would be able to distinguish them from questions and answers just like a real magazine would. I ran out of space towards the end so I decided I would place the Two edits of the front cover picture along with the title of the article itself. While this blocks out some of the background picture I believe it works well. I also managed to shape the Text around the logo on the picture to make it stand out and to also keep the text readable and distinguishable.

PEER GROUP FEEDBACK

For my Peer Group Feedback I Created a Questionnaire and handed it out to people I did not know to keep the results unbiased and True. My Results Were mostly positive but some people saw some room for improvement, but I believe there is always room to do better because nothing can be perfect. I offered also a Few lines to write their thoughts on how to improve and I have Typed up a Written answer Below

‘’Overall I think its good But the Double page Spread needs bit more and the Contents page has barely anything on it.’’

STRENGTHS OF THE PROJECT

I Think that The photo-shoot for the magazine went extremely Well and I was able to Get every picture I wanted with no mishaps whatsoever. I Thoroughly Enjoyed editing the images and I believe I have created a wide range of striking images using both colour and Darkness and Varied Styles. The Cover lines Were really fun to make and I think that they Remain somewhat subtle and not too insulting at the same time which can often be a hard thing to balance.

WEAKNESSES OF THE PROJECT

The most obvious Weakness I can think of is that I ran out of Space In the Article at the end, I think this is due to the fact that I Answered the Questions for the Article with no detail or depth at first leaving only a small paragraph where as later Questions had larger paragraphs. The colour loss and Stretch on the Front cover annoyed me, I'm not sure what happened about the colour but the Stretch was necessary because the original image wouldn’t fit comfortable among the text and would have looked too awkward and thick