First draft of DPS

This was the first draft of my DPS i got the idea for my layout from  the cosmopolitan February 2013 edition with the main large image and the rest which was heavy based text but I then decided this was too much for my target audience as they are 16-19 and are known for having a short attention span.

I designed the layout so i had the main title the kicker to kick start the article the main image behind to keep the reader interested and make the article visually appealing and the beginning of the first point. The right hand side of my double page spread I continued with my top tips Having the number for each tip enlarged and the title of the tip and all of this was in green. In the right hand corner was going to be my break out box with the tips on Mindfulness a new way of relaxing. The bottom box was also going to hold some extra information for the readers to enjoy.
I felt that this version of my double page spread lacked colour and creativity. So I decided to do some alterations

Actual DPS

The first alteration I felt necessary was to shorten my article as i felt there was too much text for my target audience. Therefore i took away one of the points and the break out boxes although i found these an important feature to an article I couldn't fit everything in and still make it appropriate for my target audience. I then decided it was very dull and did not show all of my creativity skills and my skills in InDesign so I added green boxes to add colour but also to show off my skills on InDesign as it was a task to show what we have learnt through out the year, it also added colour and character to the DPS in order to make it visually pleasing for my target audience as they have a short attention span being so young. I added more photos as I felt both photos reflected the article well and brightened it up making it look outgoing and fun to read. There are a few things I would change about my final DPS the text at the bottom is not aligned and it look a bit childish with the combination of colour and font but I felt that more vibrant colours would work better for the double page spread as it was not to be as glamorous as the front cover an the connotations for the colours such as green red and black seemed to fit the purpose of my article well (connotations of my colours are in my yellow folder).

 First draft of front cover

This was the first draft of my front cover I chose this long shot photo and chose what type of font I wanted to use for the name of my magazine and my main head and sell lines. In this draft I decided on the colour scheme I wanted to use and put in a splash box to make my main sell line 5 top tips more visible. I tried to fit the text around the main image and have the model in the foreground of the magazine name. I then noticed that most of the magazines nowadays have medium long shots which make the magazine more appealing and it is easier to fill the gaps with sell lines around the model so I then tried to enlarge this image but this also didn't work as it lost the glamor effect so I went back to the drawing board and look for a new photo to edit and use for my front cover. 

Actual front cover

This is my final product I chose a different photo that still has the glamor and independent woman look but  is a medium long shot. I added text above the name of the magazine to give it a more professional look. I changed the colours around to give it a more balanced look. I used more suttle and lighter colours for the main front cover as I felt it suited the glamorous look I was going for and the connotations(in the back of my yellow folder) suited this. I felt that this photo was better for my front cover as it is more relatabe to the younger target audience and easier to aspire to be like and see a window to future self were as the other one Toni the model was wearing sunglasses and therefore made her less relatable. I feel this photo gives off a fun loving, independent vibe which is what the 16-19 female target audience is looking for in a magasine front cover.

I then had to change the 5 top tip to 4 seen as I shortened my article. I added a bar code and a get excited although I'm not 100% happy with this part of my magazine front cover as I feel it looks unprofessional but there was no other way I could put it on front of the photo without it been lost. Once again there are many thing I would change about my front cover if i were to do it again I would make "Your life, Your times" smaller as I feel it is too big for its purpose. I would change the font of "Get Excited" as the white boxes behind it ruins the professional look of the magasine front cover. I would work more on text wrapping the writing around the main image and be more consistent with the use of fonts.                                                                                                                                                                         

This is the first version of my front cover. Here are just the basics playing around with the main colours of the title and trying to find the right font and size for your life your time. I also done a lot of editing on the photo its self I had to position her on front of the title and  brighten up the background.

Here i decided to use the colour of the dress as my main colour as it is important that the colour of the models clothes is reflected in the magazine. I decided on my fonts and the size of "You life Your times". 

Here i started to put in all my other sell lines and a bar code i designed an email address for above the bar code "www.balance.com". I arranged and rearranged the font and size of the font to try and find the perfect position for everything. I am still undecided whether to leave my font the mustard colour or turn it to turquoise green so therefore I will save and re-save this so that i can try out different looks and still have this version.

Here is my version of font only in turquoise i find it a bit too much and I am considering putting it back to mustard I also re arranged the writing and the sell lines in order to have more space to play around with .



Seen as I was unfortunately on a family berievement break in Ireland I didn't manage to get the christmas card done but to make up for this i did download and use many types of fonts in order to create my Front cover.

My photoshooting

My photoshooting went well and I enjoyed trying out all the different techniques that I had learnt throughout the year. I tried a variety of things in order to achieve what i wanted for my photos these are some examples of the photos i took.





This was an "action shot" I wanted to capture her jumping but unfortunately I didn't think of catching the wall in the back ground. I used this image in my DPS and just cropped the background out and it worked well.

Example of wrongly positioned photo with the the other backgrounds in the top left hand corner

School girl photo

For the stressed tip of the article

Dont Over Do IT!! tip in article

Originally I wanted to capture and image that reflected each point therefore I have given some example of the photos i took in order to capture them.

example of bad lighting and unfocused image

This was one of the first images I took I hadnt set the camera up correctly hence the blurred and poor lighted image.

testing of the fan

main photo This was taken when we had finally sorted all the elements such as lighting the position of the fan and the camera settings once we got this all sorted we were off to take as many photos as we wanted an play around with things such as positioning bringing in props such as the glasses and had bag and the diffrent views such as tilt upwards, medium long shots etc.

Magasine pront cover image in photoshop

After

Before

This is the photo i have chosen for my magaisne front cover. i chose it as i feel it has a light, happy but glamerious feel to it. Although the photo was not perfect i put i into photoshop and began editing. The first thing i had to edit was the reflection on her sunglasses this involved using the cloning and the healing brush . I clicked alt chose a certain colour from another part of the glasses and began to fill in the white reflection. This took a long time as it entails getting the right combination to make it look as if it wasn't edited. The second thing i began editing was the piece of the dress which is sticking out on her chest. This looks very unprofessional this once again entailed the same uses of the clone and healing brush and entailed getting the right skin tone and shading.

progress of DPS

Step 1 : 

So far i have been working on the positioning of my article on my on my double page spread. Seen as i haven't taken my photos yet i am trying to position it so that the photos will fit nicely. My article is a how too magazine and is divided into 5 steps i have to leave gaps in between each step for emphasis.

Step 2:

Now that i have pasted my article into my DSP its time to add some character i have played around with the fonts sizes and colour of the text trying to emphasise the most important things in the magazine with pink. Once i have my photos taken the layout may change but up until now this is how i have laid out my text.

My article first draft and examples of 1st, 2nd and 3rd person narrative

Article first draft

Are you between the ages of 16-18? Are you finding it hard to juggle life? Is becoming independent in the big bad world daunting? Well you’re not the only one.

 As education gets tougher the pressure been put upon us is increasing. College requirements are becoming more difficult to meet and with the cost of college and university raising it is becoming more important that every decision you make from now on is the right one. I bet this isn’t the only problem on your mind your becoming more independent and your social life is beginning to blossom, you want to enjoy it while you can. Your starting to see your life as you know it is about to change course and you’re in charge. But how can you be expected to juggle all these factors alone when you have been dependant on people your whole life? Well here are a few tips to juggling all these new factors in order to help you to embrace and enjoy your independence rather than fear it.

Up until now you have been living the life of a child. Your parents have probably told you when to go to bed, forced you to get up every morning, decided if you’re sick enough to stay off school and have never let you stay out late on a weeknight.  Not only this, you have been in a dependant learning system were your home work has been checked, your attendance has been closely monitored and you have had a set timetable of when you should be were. Everything has been planned out for you every day of your life so far. Now your exams are over and you have entered an independent learning system. You have been looking forward to this for as long as you can remember! No uniforms shorter days and you are in control.

Tip 1: Get as much advice as you can.

You now have to choose a set of subjects or a specific course that you will be bound to for the next 2-3 years. After a few weeks of this newly found freedom you begin to realise that it isn’t as easy as it looks.

There is loads of help available to you when choosing your new path. They may not always be handed to you on a platter but make the effort to find out as much as you can before deciding on what courses you take. Don’t just go for what sounds good or the classes your friends are taking. If you enjoy your courses it is half the battle. 73% of students feel they did not get enough help and advice before choosing their courses and admitted that this resulted in them withdrawing in their first year. Seen as the tuition fees for university increased to a wooping £9000 per year in 2012 this would be a very expensive price to pay for been lazy and not bothering to not get the right information.

Tip 2: Stay focused and organised.

Once you have chosen your courses you get your timetable and you’re off! You soon realise you have “Frees” , later starts on a morning and shorter lessons. Excellent !! lies in, shorter days and a more flexible timetable, but don’t let this fool you!  You may have less lesson time but the work outside of class has doubled and sometimes even tripled and it is easy to fall behind.

Been organised is the key to success trust me!!  Make a plan of your week, set weekly goals and stick to them ensure you know when all your assignments are due and start as soon as possible DON’T LEAVE IT TILL THE NIGHT BEFORE ITS DUE TO START. This leads to the quality of the work been poor and your grades will suffer and it will lead.

Step 3: Don’t overdo it!

I know as well as the next person how addictive social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram can be. I find myself easily sitting for an hour or more just scrolling through my news feed checking what’s new and what my friends are up to but it is important you know when enough is enough. It has been proven that excessive use of social networking can leave you withdrawing yourself from society and real interaction. Especially young people have feel the need to build up a profile and are fixated on the likes and comments they get and they believe it will give them status but this isn’t always entirely true. Over use of these sites is proven to lead to an increase in anxiety and depression as people are no longer able to concentrate without taking out their phones. They are losing the ability to interact with people face to face. It can lead to people becoming compulsive as they feel the need to constantly check for new comments and events happening and the more time you spend breaking between work to check your Facebook the less likely you are to concentrate on what you are doing therefore a half an hour assignment can take up to 4 hours and still not be done.

Moreover it has been proven in a recent study that most students experience lack of sleep due to sitting up till the early hours on Facebook and are consuming more caffeine and energy drink in order to stay awake during the day. This combined with the constant partying seems to me like a recipe for disaster as 73% of students admit to missing lessons the next day due to hangover or tiredness. This will reflect in your grades and will cause you to fall behind.

Tip 4: Do some research and shop around

So you have started a new college or university and you have a lot more free time once your organised you might as well enjoy it with the new friends you have made right? We all enjoy a few drinks and a laugh with friends but going out certainly hurts our bank account if we overdo it. Based on a recent questionnaire done on both male and female it turns out that the average student goes out 2-4 times a week. With an average night out lasting 6 hours and 20 minutes this makes an average of 19 hours of partying a week. The average cost of a night out varying from £16-£50 sometimes more which gives an average of around £2457 spent on nights out a year and girls this isn’t including the new outfit. This is obviously hard to fund as a student even if you have a part time job.

Whether you are still in the same town or in a new city look around for good deals most places have student nights out which will allow you to go out and enjoy yourself and not break the bank. And ladies when it comes to out fits shop in places where you get student discount you can still look good when you pay less try and mix and match by wearing shoes you already have but buy a new dress or wear that dress you bought last month and add a stylish jacket and a nice chunky necklace. You don’t always have to spend a lot to look your best.

Tip 4 on our check list FIND A JOB!!

You have two options either stay living at home or to move out, you want to go on nights out and buy new clothes this isn’t too much to ask is it? But how are you going to fund this new lifestyle all on your own? Hmm this leads up to tip 2 you need a job!

 It’s important to earn your own money it gives you some extra pennies you can spend on yourself 60% of student’s work while in further education. 65% still live at home but have to give a contribution to their parents either weekly or monthly, 35% live in a WG with friends or a flat mate. The cost of living can be expensive but be careful 75% of students admit they have bitten off more than they can chew when starting a new job. It has been recommended that whilst in education a student should work a maximum of 8-10 hours a week anything over that will start to affect all other aspects of your life such as sleep and keeping on top of assignments.

So in order to achieve a balanced life between partying working and a successful education keep focused and organised don’t forget to give yourself some free time if you put your phone away whilst doing assignments you will get it done faster and will have more free time. Last but not least get a job but try not to overdo it!  8-10 hours a week will give you a steady wage and won’t take away from all the other aspects of your life. Now get planning and let your new stress free life begin.

Break out box

How to keep your cool in times of stress!!

Mindfulness! Sound familiar? This is a new method been used by millions of people all over the world to reduce stress and anxiety. Do you ever feel like you can no longer cope? Do you feel like what you need to achieve and what your life is demanding off you is impossible? well don’t worry because we all go through this stage and I wish I could tell you that it will be over soon and it’s a one-time thing but unfortunately it’s a feeling we have to get used to because we experience this many times in our life but it’s how we deal with these stages that count. Mindfulness is a mediation which focuses on changing our ways of thinking and teaching us how to enjoy what going on right now, in this moment rather than constantly focusing on the past or the future. It helps you think clearly it takes away that scattered, over whelmed feeling of not been able to cope it helps you concentrate and this will help you get more done. Mindfulness is a way of thinking you can use this method of relaxation no matter where you are it doesn’t involve lying down or listening to strange music it can be done any were at any time.

For more information go to : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk7IBwuhXWM&list=PLD798655BCCA55ADF