Monitoring Post: February 14th 2014

So this week consists of mostly the same as last week. I have updated and edited the double page spreads for articles 2 and 3 and attempted to finish my front cover to a more professional standard. I have attempted to gain some new photos for article 2 using my own camera at home. When placing them in I have decided to desaturate the image and make it look more like a prison mugshot. This fits the newspaper theme and looks better than the coloured image. The other image in the article is taken from the internet and is of a game mentioned in the article.

The other main editing I have done was to the review, which was a simple case of re-arranging text and adding another quote insert and an extra image to fill an extra column that surfaced after re-sizing. The rest of the article remains unchanged as it still closely follows a review from 360 magazine, ensuring professional practice.

The last main aspect of my progress this week is based on my Front cover editing and feedback and raises a lot of questions. I throughout the planning phase talked about alternative layouts and standing out from the market. With my front cover despite changing the image to something slightly similar than my original flat plan remained similar. This new image was edited to desaturate the background and drain some colour from the models to mimic the Division cover of Edge with it's faded characters and cityscape background. This in my opinion looks cool with my selected image, however one assessor feels it is unprofessional and ugly. This has prompted at a re-take of the image but I am unsure how to progress. I have designed feedback questions that will get me the answers to possible improvements to my entire product and will question the needs of my audience.I will distribute these over half term.

Overall I am relatively happy with my progress and will aim to keep improving over half term so that when i get back for the final week I'll be ready to finish up any final improvements and be ready for hand-in.  I think my client would be happy with my progress as I have, in my opinion, finished the second drafts of my products and am now focusing on gaining feedback.