What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing of the product? (6/7)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing of the product? 

In order to create my magazine I have used both InDesign and Photoshop.

Once I had finished my planning, I used a 50mm, 1.8f Prime Lens on a SLR camera and did a photo shoot on location. The location I used had a graffiti background on the walls; therefore the depth of field lens was very useful to ensure that the focus was put on my model, Jade rather than solely on the background. The digital camera allowed me to take as many images as the memory card could store (which is much more than a film camera) and I was also able to instantly view each photograph as I took it.

Once I uploaded the photographs onto my computer using a USB card reader, I chose the images that I wanted to use in my magazine and opened them in Photoshop then used the ‘action’ tool to add the ‘cool photo’ effect on my chosen images. This effect enhances the colours in the photographs and makes them look more effective due to the several colours from the graffiti. In addition the effect adds a slightly yellow hue on top of the images, giving them an authentic feel. I decided to add the effect on all of the images in order to give my magazine a sense of continuity.

Following this, I created a blank InDesign document and added a front cover, contents page and 3 double page spreads. Using the ‘master page’ tool I added the date and website to the bottom of all of the double page spreads and started the layout of each page. Using the ‘master page’ tool made it much easier for me to ensure that the date and website are in the exact same position on each page, which would have been time consuming if I was to do it manually.

First I decided to place the text into the document using the ‘File-Place’ action as I had already written my article. Next I used the text wrap tool to wrap the text around my images once I placed them onto the double page spreads. I used the border and drop shadow tools to add a white border around each image to ensure that they all stand out.

Once the images and text had all been placed onto the double page spread, I decided to add in my pull quotes. To do this, I wrote the quote out and used the ‘justify’ tool to ensure that the words were equally spread out. I them made the key work in the quote bigger and changed the colour to a bluey-green colour that I created using the colour swatch tool. I them used the line tool to add a line above the quote and held down Ctrl and Alt in order to replicate the line and place it below the quote. The text wrap tool helped me to wrap the text around the pull quote easily. I used another tool to make the first letter of the article bigger and added a box of the same bluey-green colour around the first letter to make it stand out. I then went back to the ‘master page’ and added ‘Jade McClune’ to the top left side of the double page spreads. I then added page numbers to each page using the text tool.

For the first of my double page spreads I used the opacity tool to make the box around the introduction opaque so that you can see the photograph behind it and the italics tool to make the quote slanted. Moreover, on the last page of my double page spread I added a black box at the end of the article and used the text tool to make ‘The Base Verdict’ the same font as my masthead (Capture It). I then print-screened the BBC Maida Vale logo that says ‘BBC introducing,’ and placed it onto the page. Using the border tool I put the bluey-green border around it.

On the final page I placed a full bleed photograph of Jade then used the box tool to place three red boxes in which I used the text tool to write Jade’s reviews of other artists. I used the border tool to create a white dotted border around the box and changed the colour of the key phrases in the text from black to white to highlight them.

For the contents page I used the place tool to add images onto the pages and also added small boxes of text. I used the text wrap tool to wrap the text and page numbers around the image that they related to. Using the line tool I separated different parts of the page, such as the cover story and the regular features. I used the shape tool to add a round button on top of one of the images and added a drop shadow to make it look more effective.

For the front cover I placed in a photograph of Jade from a studio shoot after using the blur tool on Photoshop to remove some imperfections and the colour range tool to remove the background. I then used the text tool to add in my masthead: BASE in the Capture It font. I increased the size so it takes up the majority of the width then added other sell lines in another font, making the descriptions in grey and the main titles in both grey and the bluey-green shade (using the colour swatch tool). I then placed in the barcode as well as using the text tool to write the slogan, issue number, prices and date.

In my opinion InDesign has made it much easier for me to create this magazine as the text wrap tool comes in use very often and makes it much easier to create an article that looks realistic. The professional look has definitely been achieved by using the same software that is used to make real magazines. Also I liked using the actions tool on Photoshop to add effects to the images as it adds many layers of effects to create interesting photographs in the click of a button.