Stan Shirokiy

I have used camera in order to take pictures for the pages. I would also use the camera in order to record a video of my friends, who would give their feedback on the final piece. I had to make sure that the camera which I have used would produce good and high quality images which would prevent my mark being decreased.

Photoshop, had been the most useful programme that I have used in order to create the three pages for my coursework. I have gained some experience, whilst making the front cover and contents page for school magazine and then applied my skills for the ‘real’ task. The functions that I was able to do included: edit images, edit text and put all of the information together.

Some of the work, I have preferred to create using a pen and some paper instead of typing up on the computer. Largely it was the layout of all of three pages, students voted on to choose what was their favourite layout was. The scanner, helped me by transforming the paper onto the computer, that later on could be posted online.

I did not find using InDesign particularly useful, as I have used it only once in order to edit the columns on the double page spread. The programme is very similar to Photoshop, which meant that most of the work could be done on either one programme or the other.

Befunky is the website, which edits the image that you would choose. I have used Befunky only once, but it helped my image for the front cover to be more eye-catching and ‘different’. On the website, there is a vast amount of different functions that could be done, but I have only found one that would suite the type of genre for my magazine. Below, shows to images, on the left hand side, before I have the website, and on the right hand side, is the result.

This is the website where you can change the font of the text. I have found the website particular useful as it helped the pages to look more interesting and fascinating, by using eye- catching fonts. The most useful part of using the website, had been finding out a specific font which would reflect on the genre of my music magazine. Even though, colour editing had been done using Photoshop, the font itself and general idea on how it could be edited had been taken from dafont.com. Furthermore, I have asked a number of student to comment and pick their favourite font that would suite the magazine, and, below, is the screen shot which shows the process of choosing the appropriate font, for all, front cover, contents page and the double page spread.

On my blog, I have used PowerPoint a couple of times, but mainly in order to show the audience feedback statistically-by providing pie charts and analysing them. The process of producing material on PowerPoint is not only much quicker but also efficient in comparison with either typing on Word or Blogger itself. On PowerPoint I have also covered- analysing the pages and briefly studying one of the magazine which is relevant to genre of my magazine which have been produced. On the slide I would how I was able to transform the work that had been on the PowerPoint online. Below, is an example:

Even though there is not much to be mentioned about the website, the reason on why I had to use it, is to change the format on the PowerPoint so it could be transformed online- onto my Blog. The process of posting and signing up very quick, but the reason why I have used Slideshare is to make the Blog more interesting by using a wider range of technologies.

To conclude, I have found Photoshop as the most useful programme because all three pages-front cover, contents page and double page spread had been created using Photoshop. The functions which I was able to do using Photoshop were- edit the size and the font of the text, edit images and also the title. On the other hand, InDesign, had been the least useful during the process of making the pages, as mentioned, I have only used it once.

Through the use of different types of technologies, I was able to gain some experience especially from using PhotoShop, which would help me in the future tasks. Throughout the process, the requirement of using the internet had been high, which lead me finding new websites which I have not used before-Dafont.com, Slideshare etc. Overall I feel much more confident and the technologies have helped me to make a good quality product.