Looking At Previous Student's Work

Analysing Previous Student Work

Name of Magazine	Strengths	Weaknesses	Grade I awarded and reason
Unsigned	·         Stuck to a consistent colour scheme of red and, black and white ·         Good ratio of images and text to keep the reader engaged ·         Photographs are good quality and fit in with the genre of the magazine well	·         Grammatical/spelling errors throughout – makes the magazine appear unprofessional ·         Too many fonts used throughout which does not look aesthetically pleasing	C – followed magazine conventions however more effort could have been put in to make the magazine more informative and appear more professional
Behind Closed Doors	·         Consistent colour scheme which link well to the genre of the magazine ·         Used a variety of live gig photos and artists ·         Followed typical magazine conventions on the front cover and contents page.	·         Far too many fonts used throughout the magazine in a variety of places and colours, makes the magazine look very unorganised and unprofessional ·         Too many images used in the double page spread and not enough text to make a good balance ·         Lighting is very poor on a lot of the images again making the magazine appear unprofessional	D – Overall this magazine appeared too messy and unprofessional due to there being too many fonts/images, images constantly repeated throughout and didn’t follow magazine conventions well on the double page spread
Strobe	·         Bright, eye catching main image which contrasts well with the background and masthead ·         Consistent colour scheme of white, blue and black ·         Professional looking contents page	·         Grammatical errors throughout interview – looks unprofessional ·         Text is a bit hard to read on the main cover, could have used a different font/colour to ensure it stands out more ·         Not enough variety – There are only 2 people in the whole magazine ·         Shadow not edited out on contents page image	C -  More effort could have been put in to the double page spread to ensure it looked like a proper magazine for example changing the font and proof reading the interview to correct any errors. Text should be moved around to look more organised

What have I learned from looking at last year’s student work?

I have learnt that it is important to ensure that every aspect of the magazine looks good to make the overall magazine look as good as possible. When there is too much text on a page it can make it look boring and potentially make the reader bored, however when there are too many images on the page it can make the magazine appear unprofessional and messy. It is important that there is a good balance of text and images. I have also learnt that even if the content of the magazine is not that impressive, keeping to a good consistent colour scheme and nice fonts can still improve the overall look of the magazine drastically. I have also learnt that good images are one of the key aspects to make the magazine look as good as possible.

How will I apply this to my own work?

I have learnt that to ensure that my magazine looks as professional and aesthetically pleasing as possible I have to stick to a consistent colour scheme, keep the fonts to a minimum, ensure that there is a good ratio of text and images, always proof read to ensure that the magazine is grammatically correct and that there are no spelling mistakes that may mark me down and be space efficient to make sure that everything is set out nicely.