Creating my Personal Study

Now I have written my Personal Study I need to work out how to present it. As I have stated in previous pages I enjoy the concept of making and creating magazines. Therefore using what I have learnt from my previous magazines I am going to develop a magazine to present my school work in. I know I want my magazine to stand out and be different. I have roughly drawn up a plan of what the pages will look like and the design of the pages. Below are some scans of these plans:



To create a successful magazine one of the first things I need to do is create a colour chart. I have done this in Photoshop as I decided I will use Photoshop to create my magazine. I chose this over InDesign as I know Photoshop well and feel I will be able to create a good magazine through using this. However, there are features on InDesign which would finish the magazine and make it look complete. Therefore I will try to export the pages once finished into InDesign.

Colour Charts


I have chosen to use subdued colours so they are not too overpowering and that way you aren't taken more by the colours and look at the content. Also it will make the pictures stand out more. 

Chart 1 - seems calming with the colours used so attractive as it's not too bright. Also they contrast with the colours within the pictures and themes of Fairy Tales which makes it stand out more. 

Chart 2 - Red evokes a sense of danger and passion and I don't want the colour to alter the meaning of the words and if the writing was in this colour it may look dangerous. 

Chart 3 - this is a weak chart the colours aren't bright and I feel to use orange it would need to stand out and be vibrant.

Chart 4 - this is far too dark the use of grey and black looks boring and plain it's not exciting and makes the whole piece look dark. 

Type Face

Next step is to pick a type face which I will use throughout the whole magazine. I don't want it to be too flamboyant but rather simple and elegant. I want to use the same font for the titles and body but make it look different e.g. title in BOLD and body in normal. Below is a list of fonts which I could use:

ARIAL - this is a basic font, it's one used often with regards to essays and websites. It has two different styles: bold and normal. Therefore it's not ideal.

COMIC SANS MS - this is a childlike font which I dislike because it's too fabricated. I want something more simple and easy to read that won't distract.

ELEPHANT - the way this type face has been structured  makes it difficult to read and looks to me army styled which distracts from the content to be read.

FRANKLIN GOTHIC BOOK - this is very basic which is good however there are only two different styles: regular and italic and I would more rather have a font with different styles. 

MYDRAID PRO - this is my chosen font as it has many different styles varying from bold to italics with a variation of widths. It is very basic like FRANKLIN GOTHIC BOOK and is easy to read therefore it is the one I will use. 

Presenting

In order to present my magazine I have chosen two websites: joomag.com and issuu.com. I prefer issuu.com as I have used it before so know how it works and you can view it on a multitude of platfroms. However there is a cap on the amount of MB you can upload. Whereas joomag.com has no cap on the size of the PDF yet I don't know this website very well so fear I may not be able to use it as well. Also if you use this you can't easily view the magazine on different platforms. I will also use a printing website to get it printed however I will chose this nearer the time. 

Mock-Up


To see if the writing and colour scheme works I need to create a template/mock page. I am doing this through Photoshop. Below is the template.

This is an example of a double page spread. It's based on my plan for my introduction and conclusion pages. I feel the background for the text is too bright so I need to develop my colour chart more so there is a between colour from grey to blue. Also the title is slightly boring I want to try experimenting with this more. Possibly having a dark blue font with a light blue stroke to make it stand out. I therefore need to change these few bits and below is how it looked with these changes. 

Please ignore the faint black line down the middle it's showing the separation in the page. I made the minor changes I discussed earlier but still feel the background to the text is not subdued enough and the title doesn't stand out therefore I am going to change it once more.






This is my final mock up page. Taking on board the notes I made from my previous page I edited it to what I feel is the perfect page. I made a small stroke around the footer so it was more easy to read. I subverted the colours on the title and made the inside lighter and the outside darker so it was clearer and bolder. I adjusted the colour on the background of the font so it wasn't too powerful. However I feel I still can't be certain if this will look effective until I put the work on it and make it look like an actual page.

Introduction page experiment

Taking the words from the Personal Study Draft I am going to produce the Introduction page. I want it to showcase some of my own work therefore I will look back over my own work on Fairy Tales and place some images on this page. I have chosen a illustration and photograph as my contents page will be split between photography and illustration therefore I want to continue showcasing my work across a variety of media platforms. The photos I used may be changed but I feel having them on the page helps me work out if the page looks right or not. 

The main issue with this is that the writing is overlapping between the pages and when it's printed it may not be as visible as I would like. The pictures also look slightly odd and that they don't belong. I chose these images as they are both experimental images and I will use some better and final response photos at the end so that the viewer can see my development. I also removed some of the writing so it blended with all backgrounds and I liked this effect. 


I changed the text so it no longer overlapped but this meant there were only 3 lines on the following page. Therefore I cut the blue background short and placed a picture underneath. This however made my page look empty so I added another picture and made them all slightly smaller. I also added a bevel and emboss FX on them to make them stand out.




Chronological Study - Chapter 1

Page 1 and 2
This work still needs minor changes applied to it. I have made it appear like a timeline as within this chapter I will go through chronologically my artists. I feel the O's in the title need to have the normal colour background behind them as I feel it looks slightly messy and I want people to read my magazine and view it as clean and different. Also the Lotte Reiniger section overlaps onto the next page and once this is printed the writing will be barely visible. I will make these changes then analyse it again. 


I have made the changes I stated above and then have changed a few more things. I moved the Roy Litchenstein photograph so it is more central above the second column. Also I have made the column slimmer and moved it over slightly. Additionally I made the blue box behind the Lotte Reiniger text smaller so it does not overlap. I feel this look better but I have decided in order to get the full feel of the piece and decide any more changes I need to produce the magazine and see how it looks. Therefore I will continue drafting up pages then produce a mock magazine. 

Page 3 and 4
I applied the principles from the above pages to this page when I began making it. In order for the reader to understand this is still part of the page beforehand I removed the title and plan to put the title on the top of each new chapter rather than each page. I feel this page ideal as it clearly shows all the information and it's structured well. I am going to place this into a PDF later so I can see how it looks with the page above and ensure they flow from one another well. 


Chapter 2 - Paris


This is my Paris Chapter page. I have based it on my plan which I made earlier. However there are a few changes which need to be made. The blue background would look better if it was connect together so they looked sleeker. Also there needs to be a bevel and emboss setting on the two pictures on the second page as it doesn't fit in. 


Chapter 3 - Inspirational Artist


There are many changes which need to be made on this page. All images need a bevel and emboss FX on them and the footer is out of alignment. Also the blue background to the next needs to be longer so it overlays onto the following page.

Chapter 4 - My Work


This page needs some more work as do the other pages. The main thing on this page is the photographs, they need to have a bevel and emboss FX over them. 

Conclusion

This page needs to have photographs added to it which I however haven't taken them yet. As in my introduction I used older photographs I will use newer and more developed photographs on the conclusion page. Other than that I feel this page is near completion. 






Testing The Magazine

Now I have made the content pages I need to see if they work properly as a magazine. I have uploaded them to ISSUU.com as this is what I hope to use when creating my Personal Study magazine for real. 



From this mock up I found a few errors which I will need to work on. A main issue is that there is still a dividing line between the pages which needs to be removed and I will use a ruler on Photoshop to divide the pages. Also the end of the text background box are square and sharp. I want to round these edges so they have a smooth finish put the text will still be straight and not bend to the circle. My Inspirational Artist chapter needs the background text boxes to be fixed so that they continue over the pages like the other chapters. I also need to pick some images to add to my conclusion page as there is currently one blank page. Finally I want to try and justify the text so it looks neater. I believe this can be done on InDesign so therefore I will try and experiment with taking the PSD files into this software. 


Edited Pages

After looking at the piece put together I found a few errors which need to be fixed. I have discussed these errors above and now will put them into action. As above I have placed the pages into another magazine format to see if it looks better now with the edits I stated above. I have also added in a temporary 'front cover' page and a contents page which is finished but I need to add a photograph to so there is something in the background. 




I feel now I have made the additional changes the piece is near completion. I still need to add in my bibliography and delete the centre line of the Paris chapter page. Other than that I feel it is complete. Next I just need to work on a front cover and contents page. 

Front Cover

The front cover was very difficult. I knew the kind of thing I wanted to do but I wasn't sure which idea would work best and how to do it. I drew up some thumbnail ideas of what I could do for the front cover (shown on the left). I knew I wanted to encompass the idea of looking into another world and that when you open my personal study your journeying into another world. 



I decided on idea 2 for my front cover. It encompasses everything I wanted for a final piece. The use of a dark slightly blurry key hole then a sharp bright lane through the key hole emulates my feelings on looking through the key hole into another world. Much like people do when they read Fairy Tales as they are reading about another world which they want to see and they want to be with but can't.

I made my front cover (shown on the left) in Photoshop by combing two photographs in one. I took the photograph of the key hole up close which meant it was slightly blurry. However when I put it together I quite liked this as it made it looked more realistic as if I was taking a photograph through a key hole the key hole would be blurry so the part through it was in focus. I like the final result as the key hole shows the darkness and sinister nature of Fairy Tales but is contrasted with the landscape in the key hole. 

Contents Page


I knew I wanted my contents page to look like a follow on from the front cover. As the front cover showed you looking through the key hole the contents page shows the inside of the key hole. I used a photograph of a natural setting but added in photographs which I had taken throughout the course to show the bizarre nature of this idea. 

Final Personal Study

I wanted my personal study to be a magazine and stand out. However, when I looked at publishing websites and found the best way to present my work was in a soft cover photo book which means although it may look like a magazine it is a bit different. Therefore I have also published it online using ISSUU.com and below I have embedded this.

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