Evaluation

My Media A2 coursework task was to design and create a local newspaper, along with two ancillary tasks. I chose to design and create a poster advertising my local newspaper and also a website for my local newspaper. For this I had to use all of my own photography and article content. Throughout this process I recorded my progress on this blog, to demonstrate my ability to not only analyse other works, but also to show my understanding of how to put things together and how to do the appropriate planning for a project.

Main Task - Two Pages of a Local Newspaper

The research segment of my task was very important and necessary. I made perfectly sure that I understood the conventions of local newspapers before I could begin designing, and also allowed me to understand more about the making process too. I researched newspapers very thoroughly, and gained an insight into them, and also sparked ideas for my own newspaper. It allowed me to define that target audience that my paper would be aimed at, which is of course the local people. I think defining this target audience made it much more clear how to write my articles, because obviously the local places mentioned in the articles would not be something new to them, so more local terminology could be used, which shows understanding of audience. Some of my research is shown below:



These links show posts from my planning, presenting my development and challenge of the forms and conventions of real media products:

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/existing-newspaper-analysis-page-two.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/01/existing-newspaper-analysis.html

From this research I focused on creating a choice of design work for my two pages of the newspaper to analyse and decide which I thought was best and most appropriate. I tested out what I liked about each design and then pushed it all into one final design. I think this process allowed me to analyse my own work and to see what worked well and what did not. This process is shown below, as well as some audience feedback, to decide on key features of my project:





These links from y planning blog (shown below), present how I properly planned out my design and carefully considered how to present every aspect of my task:

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-draft-newspaper-designs.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/03/final-front-page-design.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/first-draft-newspaper-second-page.html

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/newspaper-page-two-final-design.html

After doing this I looked at many different local newspaper articles, to understand more so what types of articles are conventional and appropriate, and from this I decided whether I wanted to follow or break the convention. I tried to follow more closely to the conventions as I thought this was a very defining figure of a local newspaper. So I drafted some articles, and then redrafted so I could alter any mistakes.

After doing this, I knew I had to pair some of these articles with some interesting images, so I used my digital camera to take images to match the articles. I took a lot of pictures that I didn't use, as I wanted a large variety of images so I had the best chance of using the most appropriate choice. I had to take into account the composition of the images as well. Some of my image choices are shown below, including some that I did not decide to use:





I used photoshop to create the separate components of the newspaper, so that it would be much easier to set things out in Adobe InDesign. After doing this, I had finished the two pages of my local newspaper. One of my paper component designs are shown below:



What I like about my newspaper, is that I think the structure and layout of it, makes it very clear and easy to read. I think that the use of colour and attractive images made it very eye-catching and look more interesting. I liked my use of using a constant theme throughout the newspaper, so it wasn't mixed with too many different colours or different fonts to make it look confusing. My original layout design is shown below, and then my final page:



I think that however, I could have added a lot more content into the articles. I think if I had done this, I could have shown more so my greater understanding of the article writing section of the newspaper industry. I also feel that i could have perhaps, used a few more images, just to catch the eye more. I feel the second page is a bit too bare, and a few more pictures may have made it look much more interesting.

Ancillary Task One - Local Newspaper Poster Advertisement

For this task I had to create a poster to advertise my local newspaper as being new. I decided to use Adobe Photoshop for this, as I think this editing program would allow me to create a ore sophisticated and professional look to my poster. I once again used my own photo, to create an iconic image of the local area that the newspaper was aimed at, and then used some editing to create a wave effect, before adding bright text to finish my poster.
The link below shows my prgression in creating my poster, along with approproate images:

http://katherineholmesa2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/2010/04/ancillary-task-one-poster.html

This is my poster:



I think my poster looks very professional, as it uses the same theme as my newspaper, which I think conveys its solidarity and also presents the newspaper nicely. I think that the use of colour makes the poster very eye-catching, which is the purpose behind the advertisement. I also like the simple font used, because I think it presents the paper as being quite modern. However, I think that I could have perhaps added slightly ore information, not too much to clutter the poster, but perhaps a small slogan to sell the image more.

Ancillary Task Two - Two Pages of a Local Newspaper Website

To do this task I firstly research a few local newspaper websites to understand the basic conventions of a local newspaper website. In doing this I think it allowed me to better understand how to design one and also gave me a few ideas, by taking what I liked from the web pages and designing mine similarly. After doing this, I designed my own layouts and chose which I thought was most suited, then plotted it out in Adobe Dreamweaver. This allowed me to use images to import into dreamweaver to make up my website, aside from the links. I then created my two pages, and imported all the images into their correct place, then managed to link the two pages together.

I like that I still used the same theme throughout all my pieces of work, which I think neatly joins them together, and it is also what you find with most real local newspapers. I like the white background as it makes the rest of the website very clear. I think my website is very simple and easy to use, which I think makes it a good piece of design.

However I do think that I could have used more images and devices to make the website pages look less bland.

In conclusion, throughout this task, I have learnt to use my research, design and practical skills and also to improve them to a more professional standard. It allowed me to explore into greater detail this genre of media (newspapers), and helped me understand them more.

I believe I have completed this task to a good standard, and took into serious consideration the conventions of local newspapers, which I believe allowed me to create a more realistic piece. I think I could improve on my editing however, as I think some of the editing isn't as cleanly done as I would like.

After this I asked a few people to give me audience feedback on my work, their comments are shown below:

Emily Habermel - "I think her work has shown a good range of different design features, and I like that she has used a constant theme throughout her work, however I think she could have included more images throughout her website, as it looks a bit too blank."

What I learned from this comment is that it was good that i kept a constant colour theme, which presented all my separate task as a whole, but I should have used more images, to make my website look more full.

Matt Wills - "What I like about her work most of all is her newspaper, because I think it is a very full looking page with bright eye-catching features, however I think a greater range of fonts would have made it look more interesting."

From this comment I have found that perhaps a greater range of fonts would have been more appealing, as it might have made me newspaper stand out more.

Ancillary Task Two - Website

For my second ancillary task I chose to make a two page website with two working links, the links, linking each page to the other. For this task I chose to work in the Adobe program Dreamweaver.

"A professional-level software program product of Adobe Systems, Inc. (formerly of Macromedia) for use in designing, building and maintaining Internet websites." - writerswebsiteplanner.com

However, before I was able to begin the practical part of creating my website, I had to decide which two pages of a website that I wished to create. To help me understand other local newspaper websites, I decided to look and analyse a few. As shown below:

The Southend Times



I liked the use of their logo at the top of the page, I think that by using this, it attracts a lot of attention to exactly what the website is all about. I think the use of the side navigation bar, is a little out of the way, and perhaps has too many links for a local newspaper, which makes it far to complicated. I think a simpler navigation bar would be more appropriate. I think that the white background works very well, as it is not distracting and also makes reading very easy, which is very important for a local newspaper website. I think it has an overall clean look, however it does appear quite amateur due to the lack of a particular universal theme to hold it all together, such as a colour or font.

Liverpool Echo



I think that this homepage is slightly too cluttered. It caused the eye to dart around the page frantically, attempting to settle on everything, which makes it overall very hard to read, which is the main basis of a local newspaper website. However, I do like the navigation bar, being much more simple, and better situated below the masthead, which makes it easy to find and also attracts enough attention to it, without taking away from the main body of the page. The use of pictures helps the page look full, however, I think less pictures would be better, so not to look too cluttered.

After taking away this information from both sites, I decided to design a few possibilities for my own website homepage. My designs are shown below:

Website Homepage Layout One:



I think this layout is very straight forward and easy to understand, as it is very vertical, much like a newspaper. However, by putting the navigation bar to the side, it takes up a lot of space which could be used for better content.



I think this layout is much more appropriate for the local newspaper, as it is set out very clearly and leaves a lot of space for main content, which is the basis of the website, and therefore needs a lot of space.

So I chose to use layout two.

After this I decided to use some unused article ideas that I hadn't used from my newspaper task, and use them on the website, which gave me a chance to use new images.

After doing all the planning, I finally decided to start practically making the website using dreamweaver. To do this I used a series of images that I firstly made in photoshop and imported them into dreamweaver to place them where I wanted.

These were the images I created:

Masthead:


Banner:


Main Content:


I then created both the navigation bar and the strapline, on dreamweaver, using text matching the theme of the rest of the website.

This is the final result of the Homepage:




After completing my homepage, I decided to create an About Us page which would include a contact us section, which I think would be very conventional and helpful on a local newspaper website. I decided that I wanted to keep with the same theme as the first page, to make it very clear and direct. So once again I created the images in photoshop, and this is the finished result:



This is my completed website, with two working links.

Ancillary Task One - Poster

The ancillary task I chose was to create a poster, advertising my new local newspaper. I decided to create this in photoshop as an A4 document.

To have the highest quality print possible, I made the resolution 300px per inch, which is good quality for print work.

"The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed." - Wikipedia.com

I then decided that I wanted to follow my newspaper logo's colour scheme, so using this as a basis, I used an iconic image of Southend beach to fade into the teal background. I did this using the gradient tool. This is shown below:



This is meant to resemble the process of the sea lapping on the beach. I think the bright colours are very eye-catching and attractive. The image used is very relevant to the poster as it represents the local attraction that all buyers of the paper would be aware of and recognise.

I then wanted to have my newspaper very prominent on the poster, so it would be immediately associated with my newspaper. So I decided to use my logo as both a header and footer for my poster. This is shown below:



I then needed to add text to say price and small information. I only wanted a small amount of text as it is a poster, which would be seen only quickly and I wanted it to be attractive. So knowing this I used the font type GillsSans, which I used as it was a very clear and modern font, then keeping to the colour scheme, I used the effects to have a glowing effect around the text, which I think made it stand out more. I set out the words to appear like waves fading out to the shore, which I thought was very fitting for this poster. My final poster is shown below:

InDesign: Making the Newspaper

Now I have all of the components together of each section of the newspaper, I now need to compile it altogether to create my final newspaper.

To do this I will use the Adobe program, InDesign.

"Adobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines and books. Designers and graphics production artists are the principal users, creating and laying out periodical publications, posters, and print media." - Wikipedia.com

So I created two A4 pages for my newspaper. I added in all of my separate components, setting them out like I had shown in my final page designs.

I then needed to add the articles, headers and sub headers. So I had the articles saved in a word document, I then used text boxes in InDesign with the setting for four columns, and then copy and pasted my articles accordingly.

The font for my headers was Arial Black, which I used because it was very conventional of newspapers, and I had the headings all in capitals to attract the eye. A header is shown below for example:



The font I used for my sub headers was Arial Bold, I used this to still catch the eye, but not take away from the main header, this also shows that it is further to the header. An example is shown below:



Then for the main body of the articles I used Arial Narrow, I thought this was a good font to use as it is sans serif, which gives it a more modern and fresh look, which is the impression i wanted my paper to give. An example is shown below:



This shows the finished front page:

Weather & Tides and Contents Section Design

The next part I needed to create was the weather and tides section to go on the second page of my newspaper. I would need to draw some sort of image to make this section more interesting to look at.

So the first thing I decided to do was to set out my contents conventioanlly and clearly. I used to photoshop to do this. The contents section is shown below:



I decided to make a clear title for each segment, as it would make it clear for readers to tell aprt the sections. I used the font Arial Black for the title as it stands out well, and chose a blue shade to colour it to make the paper more attractive. The main other font is arial and I used black colouring so it was very clear and easy to read. I wanted the contents to be easy to use so I made this section very clean and spaced out well. I wanted to attract more attention to this part of the paper so I used an image I had taken to reflect one of the articles in the paper.

The next section I designed was the weather section, which I also designed in photoshop. It is shown below:



To achieve this, I used the same font for the titling to create a conventional look to make it attractive and then drew a simple cloud in photoshop to represent the type of weather, I then titled each day accordingly using arial font and then gave the weather forecast next to the image, I thought this made it a very clear diagram. Then at the bottom I added the tides in arial narrow font, to make it clear that it was set slightly apart from the weather. I think this layout makes it look more professional.


I then combined all these different sections to make one image to put on my newspaper.
As shown below:

Creating an Advertisment

After looking through many local newspapers and analysing the advertisements used, I sussed that most are for local businesses and companies. With this knowledge I thought to create my own revolving around a fictional local company which I would come up with. I decided to develop mine around a local restaurant, and the advertisement would serve as a coupon for customers to use to gain 10% off with their meal.

I knew the first step was to come up with a company name. I decided to make this restaurant a Spanish restaurant and bar, and with this in mind I came up with the restaurant name Gourmet, which associates very well with food. With this now in mind, I knew I had to create a memorable logo, after looking at some Spanish restaurant logos online, and I picked two of my favourites, as shown below:

Logo One



I liked the colours used in this logo and also the shape, I thought these were very good design features. From this one I decided to use the colour yellow for font and also to have my logo as a circle.

Logo Two



I liked the fork image in this logo as I thought it connected very well to the idea of a restaurant. So from this I decided to incorporate the image of a fork in my own logo design.

I decided to take a picture of a crossed knife and fork as I knew I could not draw a knife or fork very well, so i thought this would look more professional. The image is shown below:



After this I decided that I wanted to make the logo less complex, so i wanted to make the image a cartoon. I used photoshop to achieve this by using the cutout effect, as shown below:



I then flipped this so it was right way up and drew a simple circle of the matching background colour as the image in photoshop. This then made the simple base of my logo. This is shown below:



I then wanted to add text, so after browsing through many different fonts I decided that the Copperplate Gothic font looked very traditional and so therefore matched the restaurant very well. I added the restaurant name in the yellow colour I decided on earlier, and this was my finished logo:



After doing this I wanted an image to accompany the logo on the advert, so I took an image of a dish of food, as shown below:



Using photoshop I decided to combine this with my logo on a black background and used the gradient tool to blend the image to the background which I think created a much more professional look to the advert. I then added text in the same font used for the advert but changed the colour to white to make it stand out more. This is my completed advert:

Article Images

After deciding on my main articles, I used a digital camera to take the images for the stories, keeping in mind the conventions of local newspaper images and how they are composed.

For my front page article based on the uncovering of a dead body on the beach. I knew it was conventional of a local newspaper to use a nicer image showing the area as it was before the incident rather than showing a picture of the actual event as it would be far too extreme for this type of paper. With this in mind, I went to the actual location of Thorpe Bay to the beach and took a few pictures.
The most appropriate picture, which I thought would match the article best is shown below:



The composition of this image is very professional looking, I think it very well reflects the use of the foreground (sand), middle ground (beach huts) and background (the sky) rule. The slanted angle creates dimension to the image, which makes it look a little less scenic and a lot more dynamic, which I think hints just slightly at the image not being quite what it seems, which reflects the article it is attached to.

Another image I used for the feature article of the boy saving a woman from drowning. The image is shown below:


This type of image is very conventional of a lifesaver type story. From what I analysed from other similar articles is that they usually have the subject revisit the area that the incident occurred, but put a positive spin on it, by having them smile at the camera. I used this technique, and also used the rule of thirds to have my subject in the centre of the image, showing that he is the focus, and then each side of him is a section of swamp to show where the incident occurred.

I decided to use an image for the other front page feature story of a puppy saving a couple from a fire. I took this image of a puppy, which looks like it would just be a family photo. This is very conventional of the type of image local newspapers would use. The image is shown below:



I think this image is very dynamic due to the use of the foreground, subject and back ground technique, it is also quite ironic, and while local newspapers do not usually show any type of slant upon stories, I find that they tend to use an underlying message. In this image I think it hints at irony as the puppy is shown to be very vulnerable in this image, and in the story he is shown as being brave.

I chose to have an image for the second page story of the council initiating a change to the local community. I used an iconic image of the southend beach, as shown below:



I think this type of image is very common in local newspapers, as it uses an iconic image of a local space. I think the composition of this image reflects almost what the change in the community hopes to achieve, as this image creates a nice image.

I also decided to use an image for the second article on the second page of my newspaper, about the building of the hotel in southend. The image is shown below:



I think image shows the hotel as quite an obstruction to and otherwise nice looking image, which hints at the main locals' reaction to it, without explicitly saying so. This is very conventional of an image used in local newspapers.

With both the articles written and the photos ready I thought I should design an advertisement for the newspaper, as most local newspapers contain one.

Articles

My next task was to develop around nine articles that would be in a local newspaper. To do this I investigated from several local newspapers and local; newspaper websites the kind of articles that they featured.

Most revolved around local events, and over half of the articles I looked at were to do with the subject of crime. A few covered local events and happenings and a few covered human interest stories. With this information, I came up with nine separate article subjects that I could use in my newspaper.

1. A body being found in the local area, which would very conventional of a main front-page story.

2. A local boy saving an old woman, which will be used as a feature article on the front page.

3. A dog saving a local couple, which will be used as a feature article on the front page.

4. A fight taken place in a local club, which will be more of a sub-article as it is only a small story.

5. An accident in a local supermarket, which will also be a sub-article.

6. A cashpoint fraud warning concerning the local area, which will be a sub-article featured on the front page.

7. A local celebrity article, which will be a sub-article shown on the front page.

8. The local Council introducing a change to the community, will be my second page story, as it is important local news, but less exciting, so would not be on front page.

9. The building of a hotel in the local area, will be a second page story, as it contains a lot of local opinion, but is only a small story so would not fill the front page or alert much attention.

Keeping these article idea in mind I studied several stories to see how a local newspaper would address the different issues. After learning this I decided to use a non-biased stance in each situation, as this is the convention that most local newspapers take. For each article I tried to use an interesting but vague header to gain interest in the article so they would read on.

Now aware of my articles I need to take photos to accompany some of the main articles.

Local Newspaper Logo Design

After I knew the name choice for my newspaper, I was able to start designing my logo. I thought the first step towards this was to decide on a suitable font for the newspaper name, so using photoshop, I browsed through the font types and chose five of my favourites.

However I firstly had to research about fonts so I was knowledgeable about the design features of them. I found that these two diagrams explained the main features of font.
This diagram displays the difference between serif text and sans serif text.

This shows that the difference between sans serif and serif text, is that serif text includes the parts that are circled in this diagram, sans serif does not.
This image was supplied by: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKEPty2aWeNj_Kg6EYDYS1nH-kZvIXqNUfnSlAa4AKME7N0oMTNG_vSFaQ1aXldR3f0Q6dDse0p0pT8VQv6CB8_O9ahPwtmZMOiaROQ1KeJcg8S7UooiovaRFjY4uEblR74rUvpZQ_87Q/s400/serif_sans-serif.jpg

This second diagram shows the features of the font.

Supplied by: http://www.myfirstfont.com/images/glyphterms.gif

With both of these in mind, I looked through many fonts and then chose my favourites.


My first choice was the font type Century. As shown below.

This is a serif font. I liked the elegance this font has, as the ascenders and descenders are quite long. I think this text however, does not stand out enough, and is perhaps too formal for my local newspaper, which I want to be quite fresh looking.

My second choice was the font type Eccentric Std. As shown below.

This is serif text. I liked that this font was in all capitals, as I think it made it stand out. This is a very unique font and has a very elegant sense to it as the length of the lettering is very tall and narrow. However, I feel that this text would make my logo look rather unprofessional as the font is very unconventional.

The third font I chose was the font type Eurostile. As shown below.

This is a sans-serif font. I thougth that this sans serif font made it look very modern and fresh. This font is also very clear and easy to read, which is vital for a good logo. However, the lettering shaping is rather boxy which gives off a rather amateur impression.

The third font I chose was the font type Calibri. As shown below.

This is a sans serif font. I liked this font best in bold and capitals. I think this font is very clear and easy to read. However I think this font lacks a small flair to set it apart, as it looks almost too conventional.

My fifth choice was the font type Candara. As shown below.

This is a sans serif font. I thought this font looked best in bold and capitals. I thought that this font type was very clear and easy to read but still looked slightly unique as the lettering experiments with different thickness. I think this font would be very well fitting for a logo.

After analysing them myself, I once again asked 10 people to choose the font that they thought would suit both my newspaper name and the newspaper itself. These were the results:



After taking both these results and my own analysis into consideration, I decided to use the font type Candara.

After this choice was made, I decided that I wanted to have a colourful logo as it would make my logo more attractive and would also make my newspaper stand out. To decide this I tested a few colour schemes. I knew using more than three colours would be too complex, so I wanted to only use up to two different colours with the colour white.

These were my top three choices.

Choice One


Choice Two


Choice Three


After choosing my options I once again did a questionnaire, asking which they thought would be best for my local newspaper logo. These were the results:


This shows that the most liked choice was the third choice. So using this information I decided to use this colour scheme for my logo.

I used the font type Candara and the third colour scheme. Then using photoshop I designed three different logos.

Design One

I like the use of the line in this design, and also the fact that the title is all in one line, as I think it makes it easy to read. However I think there is too much white, which makes it look quite bare.

Design Two

I like the large use of colour in this design. However I think that there is too much blank space on this design, which makes the logo look quite unproffesional. The use of different sized font makes the logo slightly confusing.

Design Three

I like the set out of this logo, as I think it covers the main area so it doesn't look bare, but leaves enough so it doesn't not look cluttered and is therefore hard to read. I think that this logo is easy to read and very clear while still looking very attractive.

Once again I decided to ask ten people, which logo they thought would be most suitable for my local newspaper. These were the results:



Taking both these results and my own analysis into account, I decided to use design three as my local newspaper logo.