Final product

Unit 3 evaluation

To make my product better I would have looked at more source material, magazines for example to give me some better reference material that I could look back to, to give me design ideas for my product and to give me some inspiration, such as if I looked at magazines targeted at a teenage audience like Kerrang or NME it would have gave me a better idea of how to layout my product and how the content of my product should be. It would have helped also if I had some more in depth knowledge of InDesign as I did not know a lot about it when I first started so I did not know what I could have done to my product to make it appeal better to my audience so I did not know which effect’s would been effective.

The paragraph plan that I had wrote out beforehand helped me a lot when writing my article as it did not allow me to get stuck with what to say as I always knew what I was going to put next and if I didn’t I could just refer to my paragraph plan, another great thing that helped me was getting Mark’s opinion and feedback on my product, as he helped me make my product more attractive and he was able to tell me what would make my product better and more fitting to my target audience, he was critical but that was able to help my product become better.

I have got a few elements in my product that engage my target audience such as the vibrant 3 colour scheme that I have involved on my front page and double page spread, the scheme involves red, black and light grey on the front cover which are colours that do not really catch their eyes but the fact that I have only used a 3 colour scheme keeps it neat and it engages the audience. The main image on my front cover is of a teenager which makes it easy for the audience to relate to, and when they see the teenager on the front of the magazine it will engage the audience and let them know that the magazine is going to involve content that could relate to them.

There are also a few elements in my product that do not work, such as the fact that I have not used ellipses to add pace and energy to product, I could have made product snappy by using these to cut down sentences, this would help the target audience which are teenagers read the product quicker and faster as teenagers to not usually like reading long sentences, I also could have used more slang language to make the product more relatable to the audience and if they see more slang in my product it would engage them and they would want to read on, it also add a humorous effect to the product.

When you compare the product that I have created to a product made by a professional you can see that there is quite a difference, for example when a professional is creating a front cover they know what conventions to follow to create and effective product, but when i was creating my product I had to try different techniques and experiment with different effects and such to see which ones made my product look the best, I probably could have experimented a lot more with different tools on Photoshop, I have used key words such as booze, and imagery on the front cover to make it easy for the audience to follow the genre of the magazine.  

I think my product may have an emotional impact on the audience as it reveals the truth about alcohol and reveals what could happen to them if they continue to binge drink regularly, it could also allow the audience to get an image of their future selves through shock horror elements which could have an emotional effect on the audience, also the breakout box that I have included on my DPS could make them change their mind about going on holiday with the aim to drink a lot as it reveals the truth about doing going on holiday with friends.

With my product I have tried to use elements that are tailored to meet the needs of my target audience such as using some quick explanations and making it an active product by using a colour scheme and imagery that makes an impact. I could make some changes to my product to make it more interesting to my target audience such as using more vibrant colours that are more eye catching to my audience, I could also have used more humour in my product as teenagers love a bit of humour as it adds a bit of personality to the product and make it more relatable to the audience.

If I was to create my product again I would prepare for it a lot more, for example I would take more pictures during my scheduled photo-shoot so that I had more to choose from when choosing which images to use in my product, I would have also tried to gain more knowledge of the software that I used before hand as I spent a lot of time trying to get used to the software and figuring out which tool does what, I also would have liked to edit the image on my front cover more to make it more effective as I would like it to jump out at the audience again if I knew more about the software beforehand I would have known which effects I could use to make the image more effective, I could have also made my product more pacey and add energy to it my trimming down the sentences especially on the front cover.