I used Microsoft Word to create the Print draft designs which I had previously drawn out. I printed these initial designs out and gave them to a friend for feedback, as well as looking over them myself. My friend gave me comments on what I had done well and annotated what I could improve.
These are the Initial Designs with the feedback annotations and comments, from which I shall improve upon and reach my final Print designs.
Together, me and my friend noticed several changes which I could make to the front cover. The images was a main problem, as it was not clear and the reader could almost see the pixels. Additionally, the text at the bottom of the page printed in a different size and font from the printer than it had showed up on my screen.
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| Screenshot of original font and size |
I printed this page twice to check the error and found that the issue may be down to the fact I had opened this Microsoft Word document on a different computer, thus it may have altered some of the layout. I will test this by printing via a different computer. Also, the colour of the text often made the text hard to read, meaning that I should change the colour in some areas. My friend suggested that I make the gold sticker slightly smaller as it takes up focus of the page, rather than the contents and title accompanying the gold sticker to attract the desired target audience. Another thing she noticed was that a dash border separated the images and the title section: not fitting in with the layout of the magazine. Together we decided that the front cover would look better without the border.
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Each page that printed, printed with a white border around the contents. This cut off some of the information which I had put onto the design (such as the barcode on the front cover). I looked into this and found that it was because the printer required room to grip onto the paper, however when I get the designs printed professionally the border is unlikely to (and should not) print. On this particular design the border cut off the page number and credit to the photographer, which my friend (who gave feedback) noticed. She also suggested to lighten the background colour which will allow more of a focus on the foreground text and images.
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Design has a white background
rather than light pink |
When I first printed, the page colour did not print (the background to this was white although it was supposed to be a pale pink). I researched why this was and found that to do so, you can adjust the settings via 'Word Options' to print the page colour (shown in the screenshot). I then printed the page again, and the page colour also printed (which can be seen below).
After getting the feedback, I noticed that my friend and seen some subtle errors which I need to correct. For one, I had cut off some of the text in the bold introduction. Also, the background of the editor's signature was white, rather than matching the page colour. She suggested that I centered the web-links more to the images as they appeared out of place.
By using this feedback I am able to test any issues which I have encountered and make changes to suit the audience better.
