Preliminary Task - Evaluation

Whether it's through a slideshow completed on PowerPoint, Picasa Web or through Prezi; I am now required to create an evaluation in a creative way following six simple questions.

Here is my presentation, created on Prezi.com:

In order to understand which stage I'm at in the preliminary task; I've asked a fellow peer to observe and assess my blog considering three fields which are research & planning (20 marks available), construction (60 marks available) and evaluation (20 marks available).
I'll also assess my own work as it will allow me to really think about how I've handled this task and figure out what I'll have to do to get higher marks for the main task.

I have placed screenshots below of all the fields that are filled with blue boxes (this shows the mark made from my peer- Stefanie) and red which shows the mark I've given myself.

Achieve College Magazine

FRONT COVER:

CONTENTS PAGE:

Editing Process

To put a letter or two behind the model I had to search on the internet for the tutorial because I have never done this before.
I found this website very helpful and so I followed the instructions:
http://planetphotoshop.com/placing-text-behind-an-objec.html
This had to be done in Photoshop. The image below is the finished look after the process of putting a few letters behind the model's hair to make it look professional and similar to other existing college magazines.
I opted for the darkest shade of blue as a lot of the respondents prefer this colour to the rest.

This is my plan for the contents page:

Two Important Questions

I found that the previous survey was not exactly useful since it does not help with the front cover by asking general questions such as getting information about my demographic and geographic. Therefore, I created another survey on SurveyMonkey which consists of only two important questions which are:

The screenshots of evidence are all put together within a slideshow that can be seen below. 

As you can see from the screenshots, I have 34 responses and this is the number I am quite satisfied with to go ahead with the process of actually creating the front cover on InDesign after considering their opinions. This is a good value as it helps me to figure out what students are looking to find on a front cover college magazine - it makes this survey fair due to the results received from a fair amount of students.
For the first question, I asked which front cover title the students proffered out of the three provided. There was also an 'Other' button where they could suggest a name. There were three suggestions:

• Improve
• Aspire
• Dream

These are all great ideas. However, 10 respondents and I like the title 'Achieve' more than the others. This word means "to succeed in finishing something or reaching an aim, especially after a lot of work or effort" quoted by Cambridge English Dictionary found on this link:
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/achieve.

I understand that majority of the students like the masthead 'Success' more, but the meaning of success technically means the end of a journey. On the other hand, 'Achieve' is a motivational word which could impact people as it almost tells the students to not give up already on education because there's another level of education to come which they should try to fulfill (college / sixth form). I also feel that it would encourage more people to read the magazine partly because of the title.

Moving on the second question, we can see that the most votes go to the third font which is bold yet simple - perfect for a college magazine as it's not too childish but at the same time it's not too formal.

College magazine photo-shoot

During a time when I was waiting to get enough responses on SurveyMonkey, I decided to plan a photoshoot using an SLR camera. I went ahead with what I was organizing in order to make the most out of my sixth-form time when I don't have a lesson to attend (free periods).
After that, I thought it would be a good idea to create three folders and put a picture which best fits the subject of the folder. Therefore, it is much easier for me to be able to pick out an image for the front cover and also which one I could possibly use for my content's page.

This screenshot is an evidence that I have organized the pictures into three folders for short-listing. 

This screenshot showcases images that are blurred/not focused properly and also those that are not of any use because in order to encourage a target audience to read the magazine; there needs to be some kind of interaction.

This screenshot shows that in this folder I have put together all the images which I think would be useful more for the content page than the front cover.

The slideshow above is put together to show all the images that can easily interact with the audience merely because the model is looking directly into the camera lens. During my research of looking at existing college magazines, I had noticed that if not almost, then every front cover had an image where the model is smiling while looking directly into the camera which is an indication of happiness through facial expression. This lets the target audience feel the same way; it is a persuasive trait as it encourages the audience to get the magazine and read it. This is the main reason why I decided to short-list it up to these seven images as I would like to achieve a finished look that is within the similar standard of existing college magazines.  

Having short-listed the pictures, I was easily able to show seven of those particular images and ask my teacher which one she thought would best suit for my front cover. The sixth picture from the slideshow was the one she chose. The reason being is simply because of the composition and the concept of the image shows that the model is smiling and looking directly into the camera lens. However, I finally decided to go ahead with the post-production for the first picture as it's focused and in good quality. 

Below is the before and after, edited on Pixlr.com and put together for comparison on Picmonkey.com - both are websites which allow for easy and straightforward editing process to happen. 

  Before                                                                                                        After

The process of achieving the finished look:
*First, I cropped the image so that the audience can see the model's facial expression better. The composition now looks a lot similar to the other existing college magazines.
*I then increased the brightness, contrast, and the saturation so that when viewers look at the image; their perspective would be of a positive response as it's no longer dull. Rather, it is vibrant (compared to the original picture) although it consists of only three colors in sight; green, black and blue.

Analyzing results

After receiving 31 results on SurveyMonkey, I thought it was finally time to analyse it and consider the responses I have received.

The slideshow below shows all the screenshots.

I will be using darker shades of blue with black text, possibly along with a dash of orange. This is because most people want a colour scheme consisting of deep, dark colours for the front cover such as navy blue. However, I would like to add a pop of colour as my target audience is mainly college students (this can also help secondary students) and from my perspective I'm sure it wouldn't encourage them to read if it were to be filled with dull colours. I will be publishing it in an unconventional way since most students want a mixture of informal and formal in reference to my survey.