Monitoring

According to my schedule, this week I was supposed to be creating my Iphone App. This week I am not doing that, as I am working on my two magazine articles. I haven't started work on my Iphone App yet however this is okay because next week in my schedule I am down to start my magazine cover and articles, which I am doing this week. So I am not to schedule however I am still on track, the two weeks have just been swopped round so what I planned to do next week I will be doing next instead, and it will all be finished at the same time still. Last week I was off college and spent the time editing my magazine inside and outside, changing the layout of it as I wasn't happy with it, and I have showed this in the past two previous posts. I have done more changes to the front cover by adding effects to the images such as a cut out effect making them look slightly cartoonsih. I may decide to remove this later as at the minute I'm not too convinced by this. I haven't had to use any contigency as of yet as I am not behind, but I am a little messed up with my schedule as I am not doing the same things planned to do but still on track. I don't think the fact I'm not matching my schedule is too bad because its not putting me behind. This week in Photoshop I think I have learned some new skills, such as working alongside another image like the magazine cover for inspiriation. It gave me some ideas for my product and helped me quite a bit. I also learned the use of the cut out filter and the poster edges filter to make my models appear cartoon-ish. I hope that my client would be happy of my progress so far, I am on track and I don't think any problems have occured so far that he needs to be concered about. I am not worried that I won't be able to finish my products by Friday 11th, as I hope to have my articles wrote this week, and then have my Iphone App started by this Friday if not over the weekend.

I also did some research into other magazines this week, and found one that matches my colour scheme. I think the colour scheme of the red, gold looking colours and the blacks works well for this magazine, and so has made me realise that the colours I am using here will in fact work and do go together.

Inside Magazine

I also had a play around with the inside of the magazine to try and improve that slightly, seeing as I have made changes. I changed the image of the nurse to be a full stood up image as I think this makes it appear more professional looking than a plain circle, and I also added some extra text around the title at the top to fill it up a bit more.

Front Cover

i don't have much work to do on my products as I feel I have enough time without using this week. I have however decided to play around with my front cover and I have changed it slightly. I wasn't really happy with the images and thought that the students should be at the front, with it being a magazine for students. I worked alongside the magazine 'reveal' to help me create a better front cover and used a few ideas from there. i think it does look a lot better than before, but there are still things that need to be done to it such as when I have finished writing the article adding more sell lines. 

Inside Magazine

All this is now in in design, so the layout of the magazine is completed for now . The next task is to write the articles , and then I may play around with the layout if needed afterwards. Once I have wrote the article I will be changing the front cover anyhow to write more sell lines on the front. I am happy with the progress of the magazine so far however.

Inside Magazine

I started the inside of the magazine today, creating the background in photoshop then I will transfer the background over to in design with the photos pasted in separately. This is all I have so far, the background , the title and an image of the school nurse, there is still lots of work to be done with this.

Magazine Continued

I did more work to the magazine front cover today, and its finished for now until the article is completed. I felt it was best to add more sell lines to the front cover, so once the article is finished I will add more onto the front cover so I will be going back to it. Today I added the text on the poster, including the title, sell lines and heading. I also played around with the models adding a red border behind them, and also making the overall poster seem slightly lighter as the colours seemed a bit too grim before.

Magazine So Far

I started creating my magazine front cover last night, and this is what I've come up with so far. It has the school nurse on, three students next to her and a strip for the title, and also the free bit at the top. This is just a rough one so far and still needs lots of work, but I think its coming along nicely so far now that I have the basics on the cover.



Monitoring

According to my schedule, this week, commencing the 14th Febuary, this week I was meant to sort through my images at the start of the week then begin creating the leaflet half way through the week. This was the start of my product creation, so I am ahead because not only have I completed the leaflet that I was meant to start this week, the poster is also completed. I will however most likely be coming back to these to make some improvements too, most importantly the leaflet as thats the one I feel could do with some more work. Last week I created the poster, which didn't turn out exactly as planned. When I started making the poster I realised it was really simple, and quite plain. I felt it didn't really show any decent technical skills, therefore had a chat with others and decided to change the look of my poster slightly. After playing around with the poster a bit, I decided that instead of having two people stood there , to have the student closer up with a 'fan t shirt' of the school nurse, and I also changed the title from 'the school nurse' to 'locking away your problems' as I felt this would be more catching and interesting. I also added in a nurse badge and a stethoscope to my nurse. So my actions didn't really go according to plan as I've had to change my poster, but by the end of the week I was happy with what I had created so nothing is lost and its all sorted now. I haven't had to use any extra time in doing this as I realised last week I am a week ahead anyways, and I didn't loose any time by changing my idea.

I think I developed a few more skills from doing this, its made me realise that sometimes idea's don't always work for the best and that there are other options. I am really happy I changed my idea round and seeing it on photoshop made me realise what else I could do with the poster that I didn't think of when using paper. I learned how to play around with the smudge tool this week, for my model's hair. I found this really useful mixed together with the eraser tool to make my model's hair blend into the background more. I also experimented with adding a stethoscope and a nurses badge to my model.

I think the client would be happy with the new poster idea, as I feel its more creative and interesting that the previous poster would have been, so I hope he agrees it would be for the best. I am happy with my choice to change it, and I also am happy with the progress so far. This week I intend to start making my magazine front cover, and then start the inside of the magazine next week if not the later end of this week.

Poster

I got feedback on the poster and we agreed it looked fairly plain. I changed it around slightly and this is what I've got so far. I moved the male model to be larger, so he's more central, and also placed a red strip in the background to make the background split up a bit more, to make it seem less plain. I haven't done anything more to it but I will be adding to it over the next few days, but I am happier with how this is looking than I was with the previous version.

Poster

I started creating the poster today, so far I have the title and two people on the poster. I also added the lock over my model's mouth and removed his mouth. The key I made for the leaflet has also been added over the key my model was holding so its larger. 
However I am not too happy with it, I feel it looks fairly plain. I am going to speak to my others and find out what they think, and I may change this around as at the moment I think it looks quite boring and there isn't much too it at all. But this may change once I add more text and the logo's.

Photoshoot

My second and final photoshoot is now complete, giving me all the photos I need to continue on with production. I am really happy that I am now done with the photoshoots as now I should be able to get on with the products with no issues. I took around 80 photos, just in case some went wrong, which they did as in some people had their eyes shut, or my friend was being silly and messing around posing which I cannot use. Here are all the photos that I took and a photo log with description of some of the photos taken.

Monitoring

Like said in my previous post, this week I intended to have my second photoshoot, which was supposed to be of the school nurse. This has been swopped around due to the fact I couldn't have the first photoshoot until this week of my friends. This does mean I am still on task, as when I checked my schedule I realised I wasn't even meant to start editing the items until next week and I have actually completed the leaflet, so I do actually have a week extra to spend on my products or contigency if needed. So I haven't actually been meeting the plan in the sense that my photoshoots are backwards and I am a week ahead, but this isn't a bad thing and doesn't affect the plan really as I am ahead which is great. Today I am doing my second and final photoshoot, with my friends as models for students. Once this has been completed, after checking through the photos, I can start work on the poster. Tonight I will go through the photos, deleting the ones I won't use and creating a photoshoot log. Tomorow I will start creating the poster, working solely on the poster this week, hopefully finishing by Friday, if not by Monday. Last week, I managed to do my photoshoot on the Tuesday, sort through the photos on Wedensday creating my photoshoot log of the photos, and spending the thursday to sunday creating my leaflet, so I feel this was a successful week and got everything completed I hoped to complete.

So far everything has gone really smoothly. My first photoshoot went great and got done really quickly, as did the creation of the leaflet which only took me 4 days to produce. I now have one of my products out the way which is great, and hopefully I can go back to it later to edit anything I want to perfect last minute. I haven't had to use any contigency planning as of yet, and If I do I have a week to take into account as I wasn't even expected to start creating anything until next week, and now I have one completed.

My previous posts contain my finished leaflet , so I don't need to show that again. The leaflet is definately the most simple of the four products, as all it took was some text with effects such as a stroke and drop shadow, an image of a key in the middle which was done by taking an image of a key and adding gradients to it to get rid of any marks on the key, and also adding text with effects such as bevel and emboss. In the inside of the leaflet a bit of writing was needed but all this will be explained more in depth in the magazine therefore I didn't want to write too much in here. I wrote the text on the inside of the leaflet in a day, and also on the inside of the leaflet was an image of the school nurse. This had beene edited to remove the marks on the table she was leaning against, and also used selective colour in photoshop to change the colors of the image a little.

I hope that the client would be happy with my progress so far, I am definately on track and at the moment have no issues with what I have done so far or that I will have any issues to come , unless something went wrong with my photoshoot today I will be on track to create the next three items in my product. So as lonh as today goes well I know I will have no issues over the next few weeks to create my products.

Finishing Leaflet

I decided to spend today finishing off the inside of the leaflet, so that this week I can concentrate on creating the poster. Its now all finished , like I said with the front cover, I may change bits later but for the minute I am happy with how it looks and will come back to it later for any last minute edits if I have time. I had another look at my schedule to see if I am still on track and realized I am actually a week ahead. This week I was down for my photo shoot but wasn't planning to create my poster until next week, and the leaflet the week after that. Now the leaflet is done and the poster should be done this week, but it means I can spend an extra week on the poster/magazine/website if needed. So this helps a lot as it means I can relax a little and not feel too rushed to complete things, as I have an extra week if needed. I will try and not use the week so that I am still spending the allocated time on each item, but know that its there if I need more time on something.

Leaflet Creation

I wanted to finish the front oy my leaflet, by adding the key in the middle. I used a camera to take a photo of my own key, then edited this in photoshop. I added gradients and colour to the key to make it look more like a vector than an actual image. I then used this on the front cover, adding text on the key of the times the school nurse is in college. I would also add the location but the client doesn't want that incase the location changes. I am now finished with the front cover of the leaflet and will hopefully finish the inside the leaflet over the weekend , or at most, by monday.

This shows the original photograph of the key and how i edited it, with gradients and colour blocks to remove the text on the key.

 I may change the front cover later on if there's bits I want to edit, but at the minute this is my front cover for the leaflet completed.



Leaflet Creation

When I got home from college I decided to continue with the leaflet, by adding the text to the front of it. I just added the title and then two lines of text, nothing more. But now this front cover is almost finished, just need an image of a key in the middle. I may use a vector to create this rather than take an image however, I haven't decided yet. I needed to download the font BABY ESKIMO KISSES in order to create the text on the front of this leaflet. 

I then added the text by writing it out in Baby Eskimo Kisses, then filling each letter with a red color. I added a gradient stroke and a drop shadow to this also. I then wrote text underneath that in Calibri, in black, which was embossed and had a drop shadow. 

Photoshoot & Leaflet Creation

Yesterday I had my first photoshoot, it went really well and I got all the photos I needed. Here are all the photos;

With these completed I can now start work on my leaflet. So far I have designed the base for the front of the leaflet, and the inside of the leaflet. The base is the lock shape. I also edited one of the image's from my photoshoot to include on the right hand side of the leaflet. Today I will hopefully move on to adding text onto the leaflet.