Draft on final evaluation

Final Evaluation

I think that in a way it relates to other rock magazines. Since it is a rock magazine it does not relate to hip hop, techno or other types of magazines. I tried and hope succeeded in creating a rock magazine that does not have all the ‘in-your-face’ writing and graphics but a magazine that has a taste of elegance. Layering my magazine front cover, keeping the contents page simple but elective and creating an interesting double page spread.

I used simple design techniques on all of my music magazine pages. Although I did layer my front cover to what you would first see, second and then thirdly. I thought of some catchy words and sentences and put them onto my front cover, added some funky fonts and I had my front cover. On the contents page I had one image which I thought might look good alone and it did. Then I added some text and picked out a good font. Finally on my double page spread I had the idea of having one big picture of an amp and then having a interview. I followed my plan and it worked out well. Coming to language I would have to say that I used appropriate language suitable for probably all ages. Since I tried to do a more elegant but at the same time rock magazine my language should be formal. Instead of using lots of images I used one image per page and tried to turn them into outstanding images.

I approached the task thinking that I needed to create a formal, elegant but at the same time a rock magazine. The equipment the school offered was more then enough. All I used was Photoshop and XARA. I borrowed a camera of a friend making sure that the pictures were good quality images. Also I didn’t want to use many pictures so I tried to create images that would stand out.

The biggest problem I had was on my double page spread. XARA wouldn’t allow me to put the picture right in the corner. Because when I changed it into a JPG the picture would go up by a bit and so would the text. I had to download a different program so it would work. It took me a while to find that program. Also I had some problems with my contents page because I couldn’t get the picture from Photoshop onto XARA. What then happened was that I decided to just do it at home because there I would have XARA and Photoshop on one computer because in school we don’t. Also, it took me two week to get the pictures I needed because the guy I needed for the front cover and the other ones was not in Shanghai at that time.


I had to wait for two weeks for a friend to come back to Shanghai so I could get the pictures. Because he played the guitar he had all the accessories I needed. Once he got back I got straight to business. Getting the pictures took some time because the camera I planed on using was broken and his camera was being used by his dad who was in Beijing. After about two days of waiting my camera was repaired and I could use it again. Since I only used one picture of a person, it wasn’t hard getting him to pose; but then I had to pose for his magazine.

Since my friend’s house was under renovation we couldn’t find a good spot to take the pictures. We then decided to bring all the guitars and amps to my house. This took a while because on that day it was raining so it was hard to get a cab. Since the only props I used were a guitar and an amp it wasn’t that hard to move things around. I didn’t use any costumes in my photograph because I just told my friend to put on something that would make him look like a rock and roll star. I think that the picture did turn out rather well even though I waited a long time for them.

I didn’t do a draft drawing of my magazine. I had an idea in my head and did it as I went along. I knew what pictures I was going to take so I took them and edited them. I didn’t find it that important to do a draft because it wouldn’t have changed anything. Since I had my draft in my head it worked out good. A draft might had helped a bit but in the end all turned out good I am happy.

Since I wasted two weeks waiting for the pictures I could have been done way earlier. Everything went quite quickly once I had the pictures. While I was waiting for the pictures I decided to do the questions on my teacher’s blog. Also I started with my text on the front cover which then helped me a lot. Once I got the pictures it was no problem finishing it because I had all the text ready.

Some things did extend my creative control. For instance I did not know that I could change the guitar on my contents page to how it looks now. It took me a while to figure this out on paint.net but then it was fun. I tried different things out and in the end that’s the won I chose. I tried different fonts out to finally come up with one that would suit my idea and also look good. Audience feedback confirmed that they liked what I did with the guitar and how I chose my different fonts.

I did have some problems with the technology limiting my creative control. For example it was really hard getting the picture of the amp onto XARA. Because I edited the picture on Photoshop XARA had some problems excepting it the way I wanted it. It copied the whole page so when I put the picture in the bottom left of the page there would be a huge white box next and under the amp. After fumbling around for about one day I figured it out. However explaining this would be impossible fore me.

Well my ideas slowly developed over a few days. Even though I did not do a draft layout it still turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Also my questionnaire did give me a draft idea of what I wanted to put in my music magazine. Also when the project started my taste in music changed to rock so I decided to do it on rock. The anchorage text just came to me. Since I didn’t have the pictures in the first two weeks I had to do something so I did the anchorage text. Once I had the pictures it was easy to put in the text layout.

Audience feedback confirmed that they liked the contents of my rock magazine. At the same time they also surprised me because I was expecting them to want something different. Not rock and roll instead I thought they would want techno or house, but they did not so I felt relieved. I realized that teenagers like to go back in time listening to good old rock and roll. I think this gives them a sense of reality in a way that allows them to fell good and free. Also they all liked the idea of coming up with a new rock and roll star Josh Pride. They started laughing when I told them my ideas but in the end they were surprised to see how rather well it all turned out.

I believe that I have represented rock music pretty well in my music magazine. Readers enjoyed reading through my magazine, however I did not expect this since I thought that teenagers might like hip hop or techno more than rock. Through this magazine I realized that rock just can’t be erased or deleted. It will continue being one of the best music styles in the world.
I belief that the sense of reality I have created is that rock and roll doesn’t just come to you, you have to find it to be it. On my front cover you can obviously see that the magazine is about rock and roll, this means that I excluded other music styles like techno or house. On my double page spread you can see an interview that i made up, because we were not allowed to use actual stars, I made up a new rock and roll star. My magazine that I have created does not exclude anyone. However I also do not think that a five year old would read a rock and roll magazine so I would have to say that it is for teenagers up to the late thirties.

Christopher Zerwes