Wonderland
Week 1 – 5th March
This is the first week of our final project. My aim for this week is to annotate the brief and begin to make mood boards and mind map ideas. Once I had gotten my sketchbook this is what I did. The first two pages of my sketchbook consist of an annotated brief. When annotating the brief I highlighted the key points throughout the slides and wrote notes next the them that I believe will be helpful to myself. I also highlighted some key factors that I was unsure on and what I may struggle with.
EVALUATION
What went well this week was that I had a great start to the project. I came to terms with the brief and I am confident that I fully understand what requirements need to be met in order to gain a good grade. I am excited to get into the project more and start to create something that I will be proud of. I feel that what I could of done better this week was to of done a bit more research into what different paths I can go down when doing my project, for example what type of media products I could create like a magazine or music video… This could of then helped me more next week when it comes to doing research as I’d be a step ahead and have a clearer of idea of what to do next.
week 2- 12th march
This week I will begin to further my research by making mood boards and creating mind maps to help myself come up with a more clearer idea of what I am going to do for my project.
Firstly I researched the word ‘ wonderland ‘ to see what came up. As expected many things came up about the film ‘ Alice In Wonderland ‘ along with forests and places. The reason I researched wonderland was to get an idea of what most people associated it with. Many of the things coming up were not surprising as it was the same type of things and thoughts that I had. My next move was to figure what I could make that related to the theme wonderland. I also went onto instagram and typed in the word wonderland to see what pages came up, there was loads. There was two that caught my eye,one was an instagram page for the magazine called ‘ Wonderland ‘ and the other was a page of so called wonderland clothing. i then printed off some images from both pages and annotated them in my sketchbook.

EVALUATION
I am very happy with the progress I have made this week. I have completed more research which has helped to give me ideas for my final project. I mainly targeted my research on magazines as thats what I would like to focus my project on. I am also a lot more confident on what is needed when it comes to completing the pitch. There are many things that are involved in the pitch, including primary research, which I yet have to do.
So I am now confident that I want to make a magazine for my fmp. Depending on time I would also like to make a short promotional video to go along with. What I could of done better this week was be more clearer on the content and purpose of my project.
week 3- 19th march
This week I want to of completed my pitch and feel confident about presenting it next week. I also want to make sure that I keep on top of my research and continue to develop my idea. I want my idea to be completely certain so that I am confident with what the content of magazine will be and have a rough idea of the overall look of my magazine. I have a few ideas of how I would like my magazine to look. I have gained aspiration from the likes of vogue and Elle magazine.


EVALUATION
This week I am pleased with my progress. My aim at the start of the week was to complete my pitch and continue to do research. I have successfully achieved both of these aims. When doing the pitch I had to do research that would help me further the information that needs to be included in the pitch. This included researching the production of a fashion magazine and the codes and conventions of a fashion magazine. Along with this I collected information on certain fashion magazines in order to create a bibliography that would help me throughout the project.
week 4- 26th march
This week I want get my test products done. I want to create a magazine cover that expresses the typography that I will be presenting with my work. I want to make a magazine front cover and a contents page. Just like every week I need to make sure that I keep on top of my research.
EVALUATION
This week I have completed some of my aims that I set at the start of the week. I managed to get the magazine cover test product done but did not complete the contents page. I will get the contents page done in the first week back. Our deadline for our test products is at the end of the first week and I am confident I will have both completed by then. I do not feel that I will run out of time for this as I have done a lot of research into fashion magazine contents pages and already have many ideas of what I will do.

This is my test product, the magazine cover. With this I just wanted to explore using photoshop again and practise improving my skills. I have not used photoshop in a long time and needed to remind myself how to use it. When it comes to making the contents page I will make it in Indesign. I will also need to familiarise myself with using this as well. I am not overly happy with my front cover test product because the colours that I have used blend in with the models’ clothes and make it hard to read them. I am happy with how the change in fonts look as this is relatable to other magazines. From this I can move on and be careful when it comes to using colours for the fonts. I now believe is the right time to start planning when i am going to take my photos and who i am going to get to model in them.
easter holidays
During the easter holidays I am aiming to keep on top of of my research and spend time ensuring that I am up to date on work. This includes making sure that I am happy with my test products and that I have started my textual analysis. This is all to allow me to be ready for the assessment panel which will take place in the second week after being back.
EVALUATION
During the two week period I did manage to get some research done based around themes of magazine covers. I also printed out my test product, put it in my sketchbook and then thoroughly analysed it. In the end i was not completely happy how it turned out. This is evident in my evaluation in my sketchbook. Along with this, due to my magazine being a fashion magazine, I started gathering clothing that I can put together to make an outfit. I took pictures of these and have started to place them in my sketchbook. I still need to create another test product but this will have to wait until I go back to college. This week my original plan was to have hired a camera from college and begin to take some test photos from my project. Before we broke up I did forget to hire a camera out which should not of been much of an issue as I could of taken the test products on my phone. I did not end up doing this which has put my slightly behind on my time schedule. When i get back to college my main priority should be planning my photos along with keeping up with all the research and preparation for the assessment panel.
week 5 – 17th april
This week I will be preparing for the assessment panel that is next Wednesday. For this I need to make sure that I have my test products complete along with a textual analysis and other work that will be presented in my sketchbook. The week before half term I did complete one test product which was a magazine cover. This week I will be making a contents page and completing my textual analysis which I have started. Once these two jobs are done I feel confident that I will be ready for the assessment panel.
Also this week I need to start gathering fonts that I am going to use in my final magazine. For this I will need to keep referring back to existing products to endure that the fonts that I am choosing are appropriate for a fashion magazine. Once i have found these fonts I can then use them in my test products to check that they do relate to the theme and look appropriate.
EVALUATION
This week I have managed to complete the goals that I had set at the beginning of the week. I gathered a few different fonts that i thought were appropriate and that i had liked. I then went on to using some of these fonts in my contents page test product. Below is an image of the fonts that I had picked.

These were the main six fonts that I ended up choosing. As wonder is the name of my magazine I thought displaying them like this would give me a clear idea of how they would look on my magazine. I think i have chose a good variety of fonts as some are bold and some are regular. I also included one italic font that has a posh look. This was due to the fact that many magazines I had looked at have a small bit of information that is written in an italic font to stand out from the rest. Therefore I thought that it would be good for me to include this on my magazine as it shows that i have done research and am now applying it to my work.

Above I have presented my second test product which is a contents page for a magazine. Overall I am happy with its outcome. I did not use my own photo as I wanted to focus on the typography so that when it came to doing my final product I had an idea of how I was going to place all the text. Just like I did with the front cover test product, I used a variety of text fonts in attempt to make the page look more appealing. This is also a common trait within many famous, successful magazines which I noticed when doing my research. In this contents page I used the fonts that I had gathered and was happy with how they looked. For the masthead I used the font Bebas. I really liked how this came out as I feel it immediately grabs attention and is really appropriate for the title. For the word ‘ contents ‘ I used the font called carson. I chose this font as i wanted the font to not be as bold as the title because I did not want them competing for attention. I also used the carson font for the text that I have placed at the bottom in attempt to tie it all together, as well as for the ‘ Features ‘ title. Although I do like how the word Wonder looks on this contents page I believe that It is taking away the importance of the word ‘ Contents ‘. This should be the most important word on the page as it is allowing the reader to know what the page is in order for them to be able to find things. I will keep this in mind when it comes to making my final contents page. When making this I kept referring back contents pages that I had researched. This was so I could compare and ensure that I was meeting the requirements of a contents page. I decided to place the name of the magazine at the top of the page as i believed it was appropriate. I had also seen this on many magazines and thought by putting it on my contents page it meant that I was including conventions of a contents page. This would then let it be more recognisable to others. Again another mistake that I have made is choosing the wrong colours for the writing. Just like last time I have managed to chose a colour for the font that clashes with the main image, making it hard to read when it should be very clear. When it comes to my final project I need to ensure that I do not repeat this mistake. If I had taken some test shots I would of been able to use them for this which would of allowed me to trial out different font types and colours to see which would of fit my theme. Over the next few weeks I need to make sure that I am more prepared and have a more clearer lan of what I am going to do.
I was going to write a textual analysis for one particular magazine cover. Despite this i have decided against this and I will be evaluating and analysing previous media texts continuously throughout my project to deepen my knowledge.
week 6- 23rd april
This week is assessment panel week. I feel I am nearly ready for this. The work I still need to complete is my textual analysis and a bibliography. I did, however, do a small bibliography for my pitch despite this, I need to do a more in depth one with cultural references. Also this week I want to get some production planning done, to allow myself to be prepared for when I take all my pictures for my magazine.
EVALUATION
The assessment panel went really well. I got given plenty of feedback that is going to help me further my project. I am confident on the direction I am going with my research. I am going to do research into fashion designers and fashion photographers. I will then be able to relate this research to my final work showing how my research would have impacted my project. In addition to this i need to do some deconstructions of text to help understand why certain fonts are used and why. Lastly I need to get some shots done in order to be in a comfortable position to say that I know exactly what shots I am looking for. I need to be aware of the time and how long we have got. I do not want any work to be rushed.
At the beginning of the week I stated that I wanted to create a more in depth bibliography, this did not happen. I felt confident with all the work that I had with me already to show at the assessment panel, however I do feel this is something that i should do before the project shows as it helps show that where I got my information from.
All Friday afternoon I spent time in the studio taking some photos. Some of the photos I believe turned out great and I could possibly use these for my final product. Some however, did not turn out so well with the camera being out of focus and the models not being ready for the shot.
week 7- 30th april
This week I am going to get my production planning complete and also get some photographs taken. For the production planning I need to draw up some ideas of what photos I want to take and write about the locations that I want to take them. I have already taken some photos in the studio which I need to print out and then evaluate. In addition to this I want to have taken all the photos that I need for this project. If I do this it will leave me three weeks to complete all the editing which I believe is a good amount of time.
EVALUATION
This week I believe I have successfully achieved all the goals that I set at the beginning of the week. I have taken all my photos that I need for my project and I am happy with how they have turned out. I am confident that I have a big variety of photos to choose from when I come to edit my magazine. I have put all my photos into my sketchbook and evaluated them all. Before taking these photos I also conducted some production planning which is all presented in my sketchbook.

After I had taken some photos I decided to experiment with them. These two photos above show a contents page and a magazine front cover that I put together using my photos and generic conventions of magazine covers and contents pages. While making these I kept referring back to magazines to ensure that I was including everything that is normally included. When making the front cover and contents page I trialled out with different photographs until I was happy. The photo that I have used for the front cover I thought was perfect for a front cover. It allows me to have plenty of opportunities when it comes typography. The background is also more grey than white which meant that I could of used white writing as well, but I did not decide to do this. All the colours that I used for all the information come from what the model is wearing. This is in effort to make the cover look well thought through. Although I have included some generic conventions of a fashion magazine there are multiple things that I could change to improve it. On this cover there, in my opinion, is way to much going on. The writing is overpowering the main image which should be the main interest of the cover. This has then lead on to making it the cover look a bit messy. In addition to this, another reason why I believe it looks messy is down to the formatting. All the texts on the cover should have some sort of form or pattern that they follow where as mine do not. I have almost placed there where ever i thought looked good at the time but i haven’t actually evaluated how they would look to other people. When it comes to making my final project I need to be extra careful with what fonts I use and where i place them.
This also applies to the contents page, it has a green and blue colour theme, this is down to the dress that Caitlin is wearing. I am overall happy with the final outcome of the contents page. With this i believe the formatting is not a major issue. I have placed the texts carefully in line with other texts. This makes it look as though more thought has gone in to it. Despite this, the size of the text on this contents page is defiantly an issue. The information text is far too big. The information text should not big nearly as big as the subheadings as the importance of them both is different.
week 8- 7th may
This week I need to begin to make my final magazine. I am hoping to get most of this completed this week to allow my self time to finish everything and evaluate. If I do these I will be in a very comfortable position and will get everything done in time for the deadline. To ensure that I get my work done to my highest standard I need to be continuously asking for feedback throughout so I can make any appropriate changes.
EVALUATION
My aim for this week was to get a majority of my magazine completed. I did not reach this target. I ended up spending a few lessons fixing up my production log and then some more updating my sketchbook. I did manage to complete my double page spread which I am happy with. It took me a couple attempts to get the look that I was hoping for but I eventually did it and am happy with the results. I also got feedback throughout this process which helped me a lot as it enabled me to notice things that I would not of found myself. Also as my target audience starts from mid teens I was getting feedback from people that were in my target audience range. Below are some pictures that show how I got to the final piece that I was happy with.
I had already had an idea of how I was going to format my double page spread. I knew that I wanted to to keep the pink colour flowing through the magazine. In my sketchbook I had done a few sketches of how I wanted my double page spread to look. While making it i kept my sketchbook close and followed the sketches that I had done. The right side of the page is the page with the main image on then on the left is the page with the small article on. Firstly I tried using the font ‘ Bebas ‘ for the title for the page. This to me did not look right as I thought it looked out of place and not appropriate for the page as it looked almost too formal for something that is meant to be fun and uplifting almost. I then decided to try writing the title in the font Florence. This then worked perfectly. It flowed a lot more nicer and look very appropriate for the page. I believe it looked more appealing. I then stuck with this font, I also made the title green. I did this because I thought it would be a nice subtle way of tying the pages together as the background of the photo is green. Some other text that I included on this page was then made pink, to again, tie in with the colour theme that I had going through. I decided to put the two images in triangles rather than leaving them in their square format. I did this because I thought by doing so it shows my creative skill and makes the page look more interesting and original. I liked how it looked so decided to keep them like that. After doing this I was unsure on how to place the main bulk of text. As you can see i tried placing it above the triangles, this to me, did not look good and made the page look as though it was not based around the same thing. I then went on to changing the shape of the text to fit in the triangles which I really liked. Now it looked like it was all together.
For the right page, I had a clear image in my head of how I wanted it too look. After placing in the main image I placed a pink rectangle on the left of the page and a white box down the bottom. The colour of the rectangle came from the models makeup. I then added in a title and the text. I changed the font style of the title as, like before, the first font I chose did not look appropriate so I went on to change it to something that was appropriate and appealing. As for the text in the box, I decided to leave some of it black and make some of it green. This was in attempt to make it look more original and interesting . I then did this to the text on the other page but with pink instead. This is the final product.

week 9- 14th may
This week is our second to last week of the final project. I still have to make my contents page, advert page and finish off my front cover. I am confident that if I work hard this week I will complete all this. I would then of saved the last week for all evaluation and any changes that are necessary. I have already made a test product for a front cover then a further two test products for a contents page. I already have some ideas of how I want these to look which I believe will make the process faster.
EVALUATION
This week I did manage to complete my magazine. I am overall happy with the outcome. I especially struggled with making my advert page. This was due to the lack of research i did into them. When it came to making it I gathered magazines from around the college and compared them to what I had made. This then lead me on to making multiple changes until I was satisfied. I also created two different advert pages and ask many people which one they thought was best suited for a fashion magazine. I realised that keeping it quite simple came across more appealing to a majority of the people. In addition to this, I also made two front covers. One was in colour and the other contained all the same information except the main image was in black and white. I did this because at first after making the coloured front cover, I thought there was something missing as I was not quite happy enough with it. This then lead me on to making one containing the black and white image so I could compare them. After i did this I ended up sticking with the coloured one, This was down to people giving me feedback. Everyone that I had ask all agreed that the coloured front cover was better.


Below are some images showing the steps I had taken in order to complete the front cover to a standard that I was happy with.
When making my front cover I was quite confident with what fonts I was going too use for certain aspects of the cover. I knew that I was going to use Carson for my masthead as I found out that I particularly liked how it looked when I had made me test product. I had also already picked out my fonts that I wanted to use and was confident that they were appropriate for my front cover and magazine as a whole. When I thought I was happy with how the masthead looked, I realised that on many fashion magazines the masthead is partially hidden by the model in the main image. I then decided to do this show that I was including codes and conventions in my work that I had found out while doing my research. In the images above you can see the steps I took in order to do this. As my main image included the model and the background it was not as simple as just placing some of the letters behind the model as that would make the letters completely disappear. I then came up with the idea of cutting out the models head in order to place it ver the lettering. To do this, in photoshop, I used the quick mask tool to cut out the head and copy and paste it so I had two. I then brought the copied one to the front of all the other layers and placed it back onto the models body. This then allowed some of the letters from the title to be behind the model, making it look more professional.
Also demonstrated above, I did a lot of moving around when it came to the test. I wanted to make sure that I had placed everything in the right place to ensure that the cover looks well put together and neat. I decided to place the date of release and website at the bottom of the page and along side the masthead. These are both in the same font and colour. I decided to place the date along the title due to the fact then when doing my research I notice this was very common throughout many fashion magazines. I feel that on my front cover , the date looks as though its in the right place, along with the website. I decided to include the website as I also noticed that many magazines include their website name. I did not think of including a website until I had done more in depth research and realised its something hat is almost always included. Compared to my test product, I believe my final product looks more put together and I believe this is due to the change in fonts for certain sections. The fonts I used in my test product I have used in final product but in a different way for different parts. I decided to change them from my test product as I think my test product looks as though every part of information on the page is fighting for attention. It all looks very packed and squished together. I feel the way I used fonts in my final front cover look more subtle and allow the more important bits of information to stand out to the rest which is what my aim was.
When making my front cover, advert page and contents page there were changes that I made along the way that I felt were necessary.
With my contents page I already knew how I was going to this, with exception of a few changes. Just like in my test product I used the same photo, along with the two coloured lines, and the same placing of the word ‘ Wonder ‘ and ‘ Contents ‘. On this one I decided to make the word contents slightly bigger than what I did on my test product as I felt it needed to stand out more in order to let the audience know exactly what they are looking at without having to guess. I also decided to place a small black line along the side of the word contents as I believed it added to the importance of the word and again made it stand out even more. By adding this line it also related to the two lines that I used at the top of the page. For the two small subheadings I decided to use the font ‘ Kiona ‘. I used this font because I thought it was very suitable as its clear to read even when made smaller. It also looks nice when compared against the other font used on the page, which is Carson. I was aware that the information that followed these subheadings had to be made smaller due to how my test product looked. This is what i did and I immediately noticed the difference on how it looked more professional and thought through. In attempt to keep a certain look throughout my magazine to link it all together, I repeated what I had done on my double page spread. I left some of the text black and made some of it blue and green. These colours coming from the models dress. By using the green also related the pages together even more. The blue then also being relatable as I used blue on the front cover. For the contents page I did not have to trial out many fonts as I was already quite confident on what I was going to use.
Above I stated that I had struggled when it came to making my advert page. I did not know where to start. Fir my advert page I got inspiration from a vogue magazine that had an advert page that was advertising a perfume. As the top of the bottle is pink, i thought this gave me the perfect opportunity to add in the pink lines. This is repeating what i had done on the right hand side of my double page spread. I decided to this as i thought it added in a simple affect that helped tie it into the rest of the magazine and give the page more colour but in a subtle way that is not overpowering. When it came to choosing the font, I was lucky enough to have gathered fonts that I had used throughout the magazine that were very similar to the fonts used on the perfume bottle. I then had the idea to replicate the writing on the perfume bottle. This was very similar to what they had done in the vogue magazine so I tried it out. I used the fonts ‘ Kiona ‘ and ‘ Florence ‘. This turned out to look good and I think thats what made it looked like a proper adverts page. After moving around the image I decided to place the writing underneath the photo . I decided this as I thought the image should have more importance than the text.
week 10- 21 may
This week the aim is to be in a comfortable position with my work and be confident with it all. I also need to write up my final evaluation which will be evaluating my work in great depth. Another thing that I need to do this week is ensure that I am presenting my work in the best way that I can. For example instead of just publishing my magazine alone, I could place in on a background like a desk to make it look more real. This week I also need to ensure that my sketchbook has all the relevant information in it which is done to my best standards.
Evaluation
This week I managed to get all of my project completed. This included ensuring my sketchbook was complete, writing my final evaluation, making sure my blog had all the necessary information and finding a background to help present my final work. I am glad that this week did not feel rushed and I am glad that I was in a comfortable position for the deadline. The project as a whole has gone really well. I believe I managed my time well which meant that there was no fear of not getting everything done in time. This kept me calm throughout the project and allowed me to put all my focus into the work rather than worrying about not completing it all.
Below are my final products. I will also post them on a separate post, presenting them on a background to give them an overall better and professional look.