Evaluation

Evaluation

• 1.
  Evaluation Samuel Johnson
• 2.
  Research My research includedthe gathering of many tech based articles and imagery, from existing magazines such as ‘WIRED’ and ‘What HI*FI?’ of which allowed me to find out the aesthetic design trends of each and to why consumers find such elements enticing. This in turn helped in the experimental phase of my own design and worked greatly towards the implementation of attractive aspects in said layout, of which I wouldn’t have been aware of if the required research hadn’t been carried out. Furthermore, the in depth analysis I carried out for each existing design, may have taken up more of my time, but it supported me when trying to figure out what worked and how it worked, such as the contrast in sizing between imagery and text when trying to attract potential buyers, which I put to effect when testing out each of my experimental designs. However, an aspect which I didn’t like about my research, of which I take fault for was the lack of content on the ‘Research analysis’ slide which was fairly baron of any constructive text, with it not really having a great amount of influence on my final magazine design apart from one feature, being the vibrant colourway.
• 3.
  Planning For my planningstage I created a solid mind map, which gave a brief overview on 3 possible magazine topics, including ‘tech’, ‘sport’ and ‘gaming’. I chose these particular categories because I show an actual interest in their production, whereas if I chose a typical magazine based topic, like fashion or cars my enthusiasm in which I had to create this product would of drastically diminished, therefore negatively effecting the quality of the product. This strategy allowed me to crunch down on my array of preferences and decide on a final topic, based upon the possible sub categories I could speak upon for each, with tech coming out on top due to said possibilities. From there I broke down these possible ideas and explained a variety of methods in which they could be implemented into my magazine and to what effect each would have. This allowed me to explore the idea to a greater effect and forced me to be more open minded about the design choices, as to make the creation more visually appealing, which ultimately improved the overall quality of the magazine, both visually and informatively. Next I had to create a mood board, which through imagery would give a visual insight into how I wanted my own creation to look. My collection consisted of simple tech based images, of which influenced my design choices and they gave me perspective on what worked and what didn’t. In particular, all of the apple advertisements splayed around the canvas showed me the effectiveness of simplicity in design to what I thought previously. The mixture of complexity and simplicity is key when presenting anything, crucially one must know the fundamentals of what they’re trying to present, but do it in a user friendly manner as to not scare off their cliental and through my own magazine, I tried to embody that message based off of my mood board findings. Therefore I do believe my mood board was a great strength towards the creation of my magazine and arguably more so crucial than other aspects of my planning, seeing as I’m more of a visual learner rather than one who takes a great deal away from writing up possible ideas.
• 4.
  Time Management I trulybelieve I managed my time well for this project. I gave myself more than enough time to get everything completed and up to a decent enough standard and even left myself with more than a week to write up this evaluation, leaving me with little to no stress for the remaining time I have left to upload the entirety of this project to blogger. My time was managed using the blank schedule available to us on the ‘initial plans’ PowerPoint slide, which set out a 5 week period in which to complete this project, giving us a basis of which to work from and build up our plans from there. After setting out which items were to be worked on for each week, I was able to actually specify exactly what needed doing on the righthand side of the document, this in turn gave me a far better structured plan, that constantly reminded me of what needed to be done and when, of which I followed to almost an exact T; this in succession lead to the vast quantity of time I have left to complete this particular evaluation document, showing the effectiveness of the schedule. However, I say ‘to almost an exact T’ because not everything in the specified column was followed letter by letter, with quite a few elements being altered during the production phase, which was inevitable at some point, but ultimately shows the flaw in my planning. With there being no proof of backup analysis or planning, one could say the plan wasn’t 100% effective, yet I believe in almost every aspect the plan did help otherwise I know I wouldn’t be in the position that I’m in now; being so far ahead of what I thought possible, even with a plan.
• 5.
  Technical Qualities I choseto recreate this ad within my magazine as to better enhance the realism of the product and if anything this is the page which shares the most obvious similarities to an existing product, whereas other features of the magazine are more unique. The arrows below display the similarities between my recreation and the original design, with nearly every element of the original being implemented into my own design using both my own assets of which I gathered using my camera and secondary assets which were transferred over via internet resources. With my favourite feature of the recreation being the photo of the ‘Nintendo switch’ in centre frame, which was captured using a light box as to enhance the vibrancy of the already vivid colour scheme, as to match alongside the almost cartoonish arrangement presented in the original; which ‘Nintendo’ are generally known for. Apart from these similarities, a few minor differences are present in my design, including the obvious contrast in colour scheme. With my design having a mixture of both blues and reds evenly separated on either half of the screen, of which I believe better suits the colour scheme of the device in question and overall better engages me as an external viewer, despite mine being a copy rather than the original. System logo Slogan Image of product Compatible products Age rating Company logo
• 6.
  Aesthetic Qualities In theend I think my product came out looking visually appealing and near enough what I was hoping for based off my layout plans. The colours were engaging, the photos and images were crisp and suited the clean, simple design I was going for and the surrounding text didn’t take away from the imagery, but rather worked alongside it in harmony throughout each page of the magazine. Despite this harmonic coexistence, the way in which both the text and imagery overlap one another just works so well and is truly aesthetically pleasing to the eye. However, at the same time nothing massively obscures the surrounding elements, giving off this sense of limitless boundaries within the canvas, with there only being the centrepiece product within frame, floating tranquilly inside a transfixing coalesce of fulgid colours; which in turn appeases to my simplistic design choices. On top of this, I believe the recreation of the advertisement within my magazine works to great effect. I’ve managed to capture the vibrant, playful visual aesthetics of which ‘Nintendo’ themselves try to convey through their own work and apart from a few minor features I think it looks close enough to the original, plus I’m massively proud of the ‘Nintendo switch’ in the centre seeing as I took the photo myself and managed to keep it looking orderly, rather than something that had clearly been implemented into a computer rendered background. Lastly, the front cover works in engaging me as an external consumer. The variety of colours which are displayed from top to bottom ceaselessly entice me and along with the bold text of ‘CANNY’ titling the product and the countless sub headlines splayed around the page, these elements alone are enough to peak my interests. Yet, the main pulling factor for many will be the images of spiralling ‘MacBook’s’ which give off an air of class due to ’apples’ consistent slick design choices and high profile in the world of tech, of which will also appeal to my target audience of millennials who are drawn in by such elements in the modern world.
• 7.
  Audience Appeal I believeI’ve captured the attention of my target audience (16-20) through my work and due to the fact I chose an age bracket within my own realms of understanding, I think that massively supported me in my efforts. Furthermore, the fact that I chose products which were somewhat affordable for students my age (seeing as they’re in my possession), gives readers assurance when reading the reviews about each product and keeps them mentally engaged throughout, because they’re aware the items at hand are for their consumption as ‘Avant-guard amateurs’ (the caption sub lining the head title). On top of that, the fact that I gave real world examples of use for each product further exemplifies my positive outlook on the products I reviewed, of which my audience of a similar age can resonate with, due to the similar scenarios each of us find ourselves in. Added to that, the simplistic design layout of the entire magazine will likely associate with the preferences of modern day millennials. With more and more marketing teams adopting this trend in style as to connect with such an influential demographic, whom of which are so crucial to the success of contemporary and lucrative businesses alike. Finally, alongside that element is the matter of concise, clear information. I’ve been certain to include information which perfectly lays out the 6 core features of each product, leaving the more in-depth personal analysis for the back page. This was a thought out design choice, which I believed would better accommodate itself with my target audience, seeing as millennials like myself want the information instantaneously, right there in-front of them. They don’t want to scour through endless lines of text, otherwise that leads to a lack of interest in the product, therefore I believe this matter of presenting key information works towards the goal of appealing to my target audience better than just having a solid 700 word wall of text; which would also diminish the clean style of the magazine.