Will's evaluation

Will Storey evaluation for unit 3

On completion of this task I think the group all worked well on the what’s on magazine called Around You. We all decided to have an equal input into the ideas and the making of the project in order to make a great magazine and get the best grade possible. At times, I found it difficult to work in a team and got very frustrated because we disagreed on many aspects, such as font type, size, layout, colours etc. We all had our own ideas and wanted to use them. Some members of the group are quite strong characters and so putting forward my views was very difficult at times. Things improved as time went by and as we all got on with our pages. I thought that I worked well independently however it was always useful to exchange ideas and look at the work of the others.

At the beginning of the project the group put all our ideas together and came up with a list of the content of the pages we would include in the ‘Around You’ magazine. I feel the group did this quite well as we were able to come up with the pages and who would do that page. We all have very different interests and so it was obvious who would do what page. As soon as we had decided who was doing what we got to work on it straight away. And although will had a few hic-ups along the way I feel we worked well.

We did really well at meeting the deadlines as we devised a production schedule in the beginning and regular reference was made to this. I always got on with the project within lesson time and sometimes outside of the lessons. Although I thought I had finished the pages a few weeks before the deadline, after asking others for their opinion of my pages, I still had a little work to do on improving them in order to reach the best standard possible. I feel we did very well using the resources and getting pictures together to use in the different pages of the magazine.

I feel the time management of the team was very good as we always got on with the task in hand which we were doing well and never got to distracted by other things going on around us. We never spent too long on each page and always made sure everyone got a look in and be able to put forward their views on making the page better.

I think my organisational skills could have been a little better because I did forget the photos I needed for the scout page but I remembered them in the end. Organisation of folders and work on the computer could have been improved as I have a tendency to save things to my memory stick and then lose it or forget to bring it in. Organising work in the correct folders in my area needs improvement and I need to delete items that are no longer required. My communication skills were very good as I always participated in group discussions and put my ideas forward. I also tried to listen to everything that was said by others within the group.   Within the group meetings I feel I got a say as to the direction of the magazine and that my comments on the groups performance were taken on board.

In comparison with the more professional work the magazine is not really up there with them. I think to get to a professional standard we would need longer on it and a lot more practice on the magazines. This was the first time for me designing a magazine other than the cover, which I did in unit 2. So because of this I had to look closely at another what’s on. When I looked at the sample I found they used a white background instead of a colour one like I did. I feel the colour I used made the page a bit more interesting, exciting to look at. However with the white space in the sample magazine it dose make the type easier to read. Other differences in the layout include the fact that I have crammed all my text into a small box without leaving space around the edge. The alignment of some of the graphics was less than perfectly placed, as a couple of the boxes of colour were not lined up and therefore looked unprofessional. But overall I feel I did a very good effect in the pages I did for ‘Around You’ and although I could have done a better job with the layout.

The images that I used in some of the pages I got from Google images, but the images on the scout page are my own images from home. I realise that if I was making the magazine for real I would have to get permission to use the images for the film or use the ones provided in a media press pack. I inserted my own film description to each film. I included the age certification rating with each of the film listings.

The magazine meets with the original plan in some respects these being; each member of the team completed the pages as we had planned with the exception of the kid’s page. We kept to the categories that we had originally planned as we felt these were interesting and provided more than enough content. We did not keep the colour scheme for each page as we decided to use different background colours to help each bit stand out. We kept to the planned typeface and size of text for the headings and body text as we felt that this was easy to read.

The techniques that I used to create my magazine pages are using a range of colours from the colour palette. This was used to differentiate the articles to help the reader follow the text and to see clearly the divide between items. We tried to use the colours that blended together but that also enabled the font to be seen. Throughout the magazine we decided to stick to the same font type, as it is important to make the magazine pages flow and look consistent. We researched typefaces by looking for a clean and easy to read font and after looking for a font we decided upon Ariel as this looked professional and fit for the purpose. We also devised a grid containing vertical lines as we felt that this would be helpful to each member of the group to help with the layout of the pages and keep them consistent.  

The only thing that we planned to include but failed to accomplish was the kid’s page and this, I think, was due to a lack of time. The kid’s page would have made a nice addition to the magazine and been of interest to young children. We would have to manage our time more effectively in future projects to ensure that everything is completed.