Section 10: Evaluation

The Project

To kick-start my project I considered a wide range of clients I could potentially work with and different artefacts I could produce. I took into consideration various factors such as the relevance to my university degree, existing client relationships and my current multimedia skills.

I eventually decided to work alone on the project, to create a magazine aimed at the blogging community. I have a keen interest and knowledge of the blogging industry and believed I could combine this with my graphic design skills to create a new product.

As well as having an interest in the blogging industry I also had a lot of contacts, having been a blogger myself for over three years. I chose to collaborate with a range of bloggers to produce content for the magazine, and thought that my connection with the community would mean that I could easily find people to work with.

I aimed to complete a full first month’s issue of the magazine, around 50-80 pages long, covering topics such as beauty, fashion, health and blogging advice.

Process

I had a clear vision for the magazine from quite early on in the project. As the blogging industry is strongly dominated by young, female entrepreneurs I intended the magazine to focus on celebrating "girl power", featuring regular articles on inspirational women in the industry and encouraging positive female relationships. As well as being entertained by interesting articles, I wanted the audience to go away feeling empowered, inspired and motivated by the magazine. My target audience is young females aged 15-27 who were either bloggers themselves or regular readers of blogs.

In terms of design I wanted a very distinct house style that combined expressive, illustrations with geometric fonts and minimalist layouts.

Before producing the magazine, I researched existing publications aimed at my target audience, experimented with house styles and developed a clear direction for my publication.

I considered a lot of different names before deciding on Blogette. The name combines the subject of blogging with the “ette” implying a female audience and providing opportunity to create an engaged fan base for the magazine, which could be referred to as “blogettes”.  

From this point I created a logo, a list of articles and collaborators and recruited collaborators.

Once I had responses I conducted interviews online via email and Twitter chats, both of which had their merits. I found that conducting interviews via Twitter chats allowed for more honest answers and gave the interviewee freedom to lead the interview in a natural direction. Email interviews gave the interviewee time to consider their answers and provide a more detailed response. I believe I used the correct method for each person.  When writing the introductions to interviews, and the other articles I focused on using a chatty, “down-to-earth” tone of voice that worked well in both the light-hearted and serious articles.

After overcoming a few problems with recruiting models, I conducted a photo shoot for the autumn look book, in early January. The photos featured vintage outfits, with autumnal colours and details, set against interesting brickwork and textures. The photographs ended up being a key strength in the magazine and showcased my skills well.

To create the magazine spreads, I used the Blurb Adobe InDesign plugin. Although I later decided not to print with Blurb, I continued to use the plugin as it was already set up to accommodate a magazine layout and I liked the unusual dimensions (22x28cm).

I developed a house style early on in the production of the magazine, which I instilled across every spread. I spent a lot of time experimenting, and trying to get the layout right for each page. I experimented with everything from colours (of the text, background, accents, washi tapes etc.), to the title fonts, body text size, text alignment, and the positioning of elements (images, texts, embellishments) and adverts.

Overall I think the pages are visually dynamic, expressing individuality whilst following a distinct house style and working well as a whole publication. I opted to print the magazine on 150gsm silk paper, with a 300gsm silk cover and perfect binding. The outcome is professional looking as I anticipated it would be.

After printing the magazine I conducted a survey, encouraging audience feedback, which has helped me evaluate the artefact effectively.

Merits and Problems

Creating a brand new magazine was an ambitious project and so I implemented project management skills at the beginning of the project, making a very detailed Gantt chart and work schedule as a starting point, in order to keep on top of the workload.

I contacted bloggers as soon as possible and made quick decisions regarding slow responses in order to keep the project moving. I believe I showed particular strength in this area, especially when overcoming a last minute cancellation with the photo shoot. I was good at judging when an article was no longer working (such as the Pixiwoo interview) and when to persevere with an idea such as the look book.

In my opinion, the most notable merit of the project and artefact is the look book photography. I have received quite a lot of positive feedback about it from both my peers and target audience. I think the images are striking and capture Leigh’s personality, as well as conveying the autumnal theme clearly.

I moved into production of the magazine quickly, conducting most of my interviews in the same week and writing the rest of the articles shortly after. By January I had completed all of the content for the magazine, which I was proud of, as there was a lot of content to create. Being organised early on in the project helped, as towards the middle there were issues.

Unfortunately an on-going illness significantly impacted the progress of the project, which was quite difficult to rectify later on. I realized I wasn’t going to have a lot of time to test the artefact or rectify any mistakes, which proved to be problematic as there are mistakes in the print.

Another problem area was the illustrations. I had a lot to take on and didn’t make enough time for learning watercolour skills, which would have been beneficial. The majority worked well in the magazine but the front cover wasn’t of the same quality and resulted in a last minute change of idea that, on reflection, wasn’t as strong which was reflected in my audience feedback.

The survey responses highlighted that the front cover didn't reflect the same energy as the artistic pages in the magazine and also that it didn't provide enough information about who Corrie is or what the magazine entails.

The rest of the feedback was largely positive. Bloggers seem to enjoy the overall look and idea of the magazine, and were very impressed with the design elements. The key comments were that it looked professional, creative and that the articles were uplifting.

Improvements

I have learned a lot of lessons from this unit both in regards to project management and magazine production. Firstly I realized that I need to be more open to working with others. I approached this project very independently from the start, choosing not to work for a client, writing the majority of the articles myself and creating all of the illustrations.

As I was being assessed on project management it was difficult knowing how much outside help was appropriate, however in a real life situation setting up a team to work on the magazine would be a much better idea than approaching it alone.

Due to the structure of the project, testing/reviewing wasn’t conducted until much later on but in hindsight, it would’ve been better to get feedback earlier so that I could’ve made improvements before printing. Furthermore I needed to create more of a contingency plan and leave more time for rectifying mistakes.

On reflection I also would recruit an illustrator to produce the front cover, as this was a key weakness with the magazine.

Conclusion

Overall I believe this has been a successful project and I have created a product, which has been well received by  my target audience. I think that I approached the project with ambition, organising my time well and managing multiple aspects of the project at once.

Although I suffered from problems during the middle of the project, I believe I recovered it well and still managed to produce a completed artefact that, with improvements to the cover and a few tweaks, has potential to be a real publication.