Evaluation

Introduction

The objectives of this task were to make a platform within media to present our idea of The City and the Layers Beneath the City. I chose to make a careers magazine which would be representing the careers within London's Emergency Services like The Metropolitan Police, London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade. Using the research that I had collected I was able to show an understand about different roles within those emergency services, understand about different ways to present and layout information and different problems emergency services in London face.

Research

During this task, I was able to find out about the different job roles within the emergency services in London. I was able to find out what you need to get that career path for example, qualification needed, skills needed and how to apply. I was able to get some information through police officers I know and some ambulance cadets that I am friends with so collecting information wasn't that difficult. However, collecting information about London Fire Brigade was difficult due to the fact that most of the fire fighters or officers were stationed at very far stations which I couldn't get too due to the fact of so many stations closing down. I was able to create a survey on survey monkey about the different articles I would be writing about in the magazine. I made a 10 question survey about their opinion on the budget cuts and their experience with the emergency services. The only problem I had with survey monkey is the platform I used because there were certain questions not everyone had to answer but it was a paid service to chose the option to place a 'skip question' button onto the survey. I was also collecting some information about the publishing company I would us and I found one called Asendia which was very good because they send different educational centres all around the UK which means that the magazine can reach far and would consider those people who would want to work within London from a far city like Newcastle or Birmingham. What I thought I done well with was the proposal, timetable and Pecha Kucha. I felt like I delivered everything that I had done within the project and I tried to stick to the timetable as much as I can. Also the magazine front cover analysis I could have made more time to analyse more of the magazines e.g contents and double page spread. Overall I think I completed the research significantly and I was able to create reliable articles based on the information I collected.  

Pre-Production 

My pre-production was very good to start off with I was able to create a flat plan of the magazine. I was easier to create this because it helped me plan what I was going to have as the final project. If I had more time I believe I could have create a magazine with more pages e.g 16,32. I started looking through old images of pictures related to the services that I have saved. I figured to use the picture on my front cover because It uses the girls face as a focal point while it starts ti become blurry the further back of the image. I thought this was really effective because firstly it shows all the different races included within London serviced meaning they do not show any discrimination between anyone. Creating and designing the titles I believe was very good because I thought of a lot of different designs and explained my decisions. I feel like the colors that I chose really contrasted well with the blue background that is why I chose orange as the final color. I felt like it even out the concentration point off the image so much. What I think I needed to improve on is the time management and the transition from one thing to another. I realised that I spend uneven amount of time on unnecessary things like trying out as much colours as I can when really I should be focusing on colours which contrast and experiment with those instead of every colour. Also I wasn't able to blog every detail because I was more concerned about the product than the steps that I was taking so I missed some step during the production. I was able to make time to make an advert by looking and different types of emergency service adverts online. I believe that I am able to make a successful pre-production and felt like I covered the things needed.

Product

My target audience for the magazine is for people in different types of educational centres around the UK. However I would mainly target 16+. I decided this age group because I wanted it to be a careers magazine and people from 16+ are usually looking for how to get into certain careers and look at what type of qualifications needed. This makes it a magazine for a niche audience because major publishing companies would be more likely to publish this than a smaller publishing company because the bigger companies have the resources and the machinery to produce mass loads while the smaller ones do not. The front cover is unconventional because it doesn't feature any taglines or headlines but it is purposeful because of the examples on education emergency service magazines show how they only feature a picture and then all the contents is inside like "On The Bell" and "In Attendance" magazines. They just have an image which really explains it self because its eye catching and powerful. The magazine subvert from codes and conventions because it focuses on one thing rather than the whole image. However the magazine as a whole magazine conforms because it has the basic things a magazine has like page numbers, editors letter and pull quotes.