Lo4 - Review of assets

Front cover assets

This photo is the main cover image for my 5th and 6th versions. This photo has strengths and improvements – for example, this photo was taken using a DSLR camera and therefore is of a very high quality which is a massive strength since my product is print based and therefore needs to be lossless to ensure that despite the size it’s printed it will still be of a good quality, the fact that this photo has a high quality also makes it look more professional and realistic in general as it looks like an actual photographer has taken the photo since they would use this sort of advanced equipment. Another strength is the lighting. On this day I got lucky as although it was April, the weather was very warm and sunny, contrasting from the weather in my previous photoshoot which had a gloomy,  serious effect on the photos. The fact that the weather was sunny meant my everything in my photos was lit well and therefore clear to see,  meaning I didn’t have to brighten anything or edit much during the editing of my photos for my magazine. I also like the fact that the lighting was coming from the left hand side and therefore created depth within the photo due to the horse having half of it’s face highlighted since this creates a 3D more realistic effect. 

The background is also a huge strength of the photo as the tree’s evenly bend around Rocky’s face which in general gives a really nice visually appealing effect as everything seems to work together really well. The trees also help reinforce the theme of nature and animals on my front cover and help attract the older half of my audience since they’re stereotypically more interested in ‘natural’ and more mature elements. The fact that you can also see the view of Stannington / Bradfield in the background on the photo allows my photo to appeal to a Sheffield based audience since they may recognise this area, making the front cover effective of my audiences life – meaning they’ll find it relatable and therefore want to buy the magazine. Lastly for the strengths, the shot type of the photo is great as the medium long shot allows the audience to denote my models costume, which consists of conventional equestrian wear such as jodhpurs and a riding coat, making my model relatable to my audience since most riders (which is who I’m targeting) own clothes similar to this. Despite this photo being of a medium long shot, you’re still able to clearly denote my models face and facial expressions, which is good as she’s smiling, connoting to the audience that she’s happy, giving the atmosphere a nice, inviting denotation – this pose is also ideal for my magazine in regards to attract the right target audience since a smile is a neutral expression that is attractive to all people, not like a pout that would typically appeal to a younger audience. I purposely took this shot in a way that put my model and her horse to the right of the image fairly low down in order to leave space for the cell lines and masthead since it’d look unprofessional if they lapped over the model, which is another benefit of this image. 

                                                                   

The weaknesses of this photo consist of things such as the fact that my model is not looking at the camera. I took this photo at at time where my model looked down however didn’t realise until after and therefore couldn’t do much about it. However, I didn't have any other photos that I liked as much as this one – therefore I decided to still use the photo, I knew that my model looking away made my photo look unprofessional especially she isn’t looking at anything in particular, making her look unfocused and not very bothered, which isn’t how a model in a real photoshoot would be acting. Secondly, due to the fact that the horses face reaches out further than my models, the horse blocked the light from hitting my models face, resulting in her face being completely shadowed and quite dark in comparison to everything else. Again, making my photo look less professional since a model in a photo usually has good lighting on her face to give a more flawless and ideal self effect. Although this was fixable in PhotoShot by using the magnetic lasso tool to circle my models face and then the brightness / contrast adjustments to add more highlights. 

This photo was used on the 4th version of my front cover. The first strength that this photo has is the fact that all colours within the photo are of the same tone, for example, my models body warmer and the sky are both blue, whereas everything else is a grey tone – therefore, all elements corollate well together, creating a visually appealing effect since its satisfying when nothing looks out of place. Secondly, my model is looking directly at the camera, making it look like she’s personally smiling at the audience and making them feel special, especially if they can relate to her as they’ll feel more of a connection. I think this photo is more conventional to the equestrian genre due to it’s inclusiveness of equestrian gear and wear. For example the horse has on a bridle and saddle which will make the photo relatable to an audience of people who ride as they’ll typically be familiar with what this equipment is – the bridle used on the horse in this photo is also very expensive and my audience of riders will most likely recognise that since the equestrian world is very competitive - meaning people will see others who have good equipment as an ideal self, further attracting my target audience towards buying the magazine. Secondly, my model is wearing a more stereotypical riding outfit since she is actually riding in this photoshoot, whereas in my other photoshoot she is not – my model is wearing an outfit that includes a body protector, riding hat, crop riding fleece, jodhpurs and riding boots, which is a very stereotypical, full on riding outfit. Making my model relatable to my target audience as they will all most likely have all of these things. Therefore, the use of equipment and costumes really help reinforce my genre and theme of the magazine due to people stereotypically solely associating this denotation with horses and riding, making my main cover image be fitting strongly within the equestrian genre.

Other strengths of this photo are the camera work, for example, I have used a medium long shot to take this photo, due to the fact that it gives me the space to fit both my model and horse in the frame clearly yet proportionally, all whilst leaving room for a masthead at the top of the page, I liked the fact that my models head was quite high up on the page as it meant I could erase part of the past head to make it appear behind the text as I thought this looked professional and visually appealing since I had seen it done on other real magazines.  

The improvements for this image consist of the fact that I haven’t really left enough from for cell lines to go down the side of the page, meaning I ended up scaling the photo down to a smaller size and didn't have any image at the bottom of my front cover below the banner gong across the page, which just gave an unprofessional denotation the page since you could see missing parts of the front cover that were blank due to the image not being big enough to cover that area. Other improvements also consist of the fact that the image was taken on an iPhone due to my camera dying and the fact that I was unable to charge the battery in time for before my model had to leave, therefore causing the quality to be low, making my front cover to look pixeled / blurry once I had started editing it since photos also typically tend to loose some quality when being exported into file after file. Due to the fact that my model was wearing a riding hat, her face was shadowed fairly heavily, making her face look quite hard to see properly, which is not professional or realistic at all in comparison to other real front covers regarding the main image and hoe the model’s face is typically well lit. Although, I did end up being able to brighten up my models face in PhotoShop by using the magnetic lasso tool to circle my models face and then the brightness / contrast adjustments to add more highlights. Another improvement was the fact that the whether was very gloomy and almost gave a miserable denotation since we associate dull, cloudy weather conditions with being sad since this sort of weather stereotypically causes us to get cold and wet people aren’t a fan of, meaning we think of this feeling when we denote pictures of these weather conditions, this is further reinforced through the fact that my model is wearing a coat as it shows that she’s cold, not really making anyone want to be in her position and also the fact that the trees in the background don’t have any leaves on them. 

This photo was used on my 5th and 6th version control to accompany the cell lines that read ‘how to jump confidently’ I like this photo due to the fact that it is an action shot, which typically have very visually appealing effects as in real life you’d typically only see the horse in the air when jumping for around 1 second due to gravity, whereas here, you're able to look at the horse jumping for as long as you want and really approiate their beauty when going so. Therefore helping attract both the younger and older half of my target audience as images such as this one are appealing to more or less everyone due to their realistic denotation yet unrealistic concept. Another strength of this photo is the equipment denoted. For example, the jump I have used is a stereotypical jump which many people own since the white and red poles are a classic, well known equestrian associated piece of equipment. Making the photo relatable and reflective of my audiences life's since most riders own a jumping set similar to this one. Not only is this piece of equipment relatable to the audience, but the bridle used on the horse in this photo is also very expensive and my audience of riders will most likely recognise that since the equestrian world is very competitive - meaning people will see others who have good equipment as an ideal self, further attracting my target audience towards buying the magazine. Secondly, my model is wearing a more stereotypical riding outfit since she is actually riding in this photoshoot, whereas in my other photoshoot she is not – my model is wearing an outfit that includes a body protector, riding hat, crop riding fleece, jodhpurs and riding boots, which is a very stereotypical, full on riding outfit. Making my model relatable to my target audience as they will all most likely have all of these things. Therefore, the use of equipment and costumes really help reinforce my genre and theme of the magazine due to people stereotypically solely associating this denotation with horses and riding, making my main cover image be fitting strongly within the equestrian genre.

Further strengths of this photo are the fact that you can see Clough Fields, well known indoor riding school building within the background – making the photo relatable to a Sheffield based audience since Clough fields is a popular riding school and therefore since Sheffield is fairly small most riders in Sheffield will recognise this location, further making them able to relate to my magazine and therefore want to buy it. Lastly the camera work in this photo is a strength due to the fact that I have used a low angle shot to take this image, reinforcing the fact that the horse and rider are the most dominant and important element on the photo since a low angle creates the effect that we are lower down in comparison to the rider ad horse, metaphorically meaning they’re more important and dominant that anything else. I’ve also used an establishing shot again to show the background ad full boy of the horse since I firstly didn’t want to get too close and spooked the horse potentially causing an injury, but two wanted to ensure that I captured all of the horse and rider in the photo since I didn't know how high he was going to jump. 

The improvements of this photo consist of the fact that he jump is poorly placed. I say this as right behind my model and horse is a shed that makes is hard for you to clearly see the outline of the house due to the house being of a same colour to the wood that the shed is made of, which makes my photo look unprofessional as background should typically be plain or solely just white space to really make the audience look at main focus, another improvement is the fact that the sky is again looking very grey and cloudy which almost gives a miserable denotation since we associate dull, cloudy weather conditions with being sad since this sort of weather stereotypically causes us to get cold and wet people aren’t a fan of, meaning we think of this feeling when we denote pictures of these weather conditions in them, this is further reinforced through the fact that my model is wearing a coat as it shows that she’s cold, not really making anyone want to be in her position. Other improvements also consist of the fact that the image was taken on an iPhone due to my camera dying and the fact that I was unable to charge the battery in time for before my model had to leave, therefore causing the quality to be low, making my front cover to look pixeled / blurry once I had started editing it since photos also typically tend to loose some quality when being exported into file after file. Lastly I think this photo has too much white space / was taken too far away from the horse as you cant clearly see my models face or what she’s doing, taking the focus away from her and not allow my audience to relate to her since they cant see her very well. Although, this wasn’t really a problem when put on my magazine since the photo was scaled down to quite a small photo, meaning you wouldn’t have been able to denote her clearly even if her face was clear, this also meant it didn’t really matter too much that the quality wasn’t amazing in the photo as it was to be scaled down where you wouldn’t have been able to tell whether the quality was good or not. 

This asset is the masthead that I used on my final version of my front cover. I think the strengths of this asset consist of the fact that the color helps in regards to attracting my target audience of females since we associate the color pink with being attractive to females due to traditional female stereotypes. This color is also strength as although it’s pink, its not a bold, ‘immature’ looking pink that would only attract an audience of children, as its pastel, more mauve denotation makes it look more toned down and mature, appealing to both the younger and older half of my 16-35 year old target audience.  Following improvements consist of the drop shadow behind the masthead since although its subtle it helps my masthead stand out from background front cover assets such as my main image, the drop shadow also gives my masthead a 3D effect as it makes it look like its rising above the other 2D assets on the page, giving a visually appealing effect and appealing to the younger, digital native half of my audience sincethey’ve been brought up in a world with technology such as 3D films and games. Lastly, since I used serif font my masthead appeals to an audience of people who are within the ABC1 social grade as we typically see serif font being used to advertise expensive products, therefore this font will connote to them that this product is most likely aimed at them. 

I think this masthead could have improvements such as being thicker in certain areas. For example, the letters are very thin and very thick in different areas making it kind of hard for the masthead to be clearly denoted on my front cover depending on the background – however,since my background is quote dark the masthead is quite visible as even the smaller lines contrast from the darkness of the backgrounds. 

This asset has strengths such as the fact that it resembles a directional sign and therefore reinforces the theme of horse riding throughout the magazine due to the fact that you’d typically see directional signs such as this one when you’re out on a riding hack (a ride out in the country side / public) therefore making an audience of people that are interested in horses will recognise this sign, making it easier for them to understand the genre of the magazine. Other strengths are ones such as such as the colour scheme due to the fact that the contrast between the lighter colours and the black background, making it easy for the audience to clearly denote what the sign says – it’s important that the wording is especially clear to read since this asset is scaled down to a fairly smaller size, making it harder to see in comparison to text such as the masthead. The use of colour is also a strength since it’s allowed me to highlight the most important words and make them more eye catching, which is beneficial as these words are the names of stables located in Sheffield and therefore make my magazine more relative to an audience of people who are based in Sheffield. Lastly due t the fact that this asset was fairly scaled down and small on my magazine the font is a strength since sans-serif makes text easier to read from a distance since it’s bold and doesn’t have any extra fancy flicks that may make it hard for the reader to see what the letter actually is when smaller.

The improvements for this asset are the fact that despite the pink being on the more pastel side and therefore stereotypically appealing to my 16-35 year old audience since pastels / duller colours are seen as more mature, there’s nothing on my magazine that is stereotypically seen as appealing to my ABC1 audience, such as serif font or more ‘earthy’ colours such as my other house style colour which as more or a dusty brown. 

The strengths of this asset are that the use of images instantly help reinforce the genre of my magazine as there are many images of horses, connoting that they’re the most dominant and significant on the magazine. The fact that these photos also include a female model helps reinforce my target audience as these girls look like they’re aged between 16-35 which is who I'm targeting, therefore, not only helping imply that my audience ranges fairly wide regarding age but the images also show that my magazine is mostly aimed at females as models are typically known to be an ‘ideal’ version of the audience they're targeting. The banner also has strengths such as the font being sans-serif, making it easy for the audience to read the text despite this asset being fairly small and therefore harder to clearly see. The fact that that each photo has a white stroke around is also a strength as it makes each photo stand out against black background since the photos are fairly dark, making them separate and showing each ‘poster’ clearly. This banner in general is conventional to a real magazine since they help attract an audience due to the fact that they’re giving a physical prize back to them alongside the magazine which makes the audience feel as though they’re getting their money worth, the inclusiveness is especially beneficial in regards to attracting an audience since my target audience is fairly niche, therefore I need more persuasive elements as to why they should buy the magazine such as free prizes. 

Improvements that could be made are ones such as the photos being scaled down better since some of the gaps between photos are bigger than others. Which gives an unprofessional denotation as in a real magazine everything would be fitted perfectly, therefore making my banner unconventional to a real magazine. I also think the banner could have looked better if the word ‘free’ was more in the middle above the word ‘posters’ as the word is quite close to the number 7 and I think this is unprofessional as everything should be spaced out nicely. I think another weakness is the fact that banners are typically used more when trying to attract a younger / kiddy audience since young adults don’t typically have posters in their room, therefore potentially implying that I’m attracting a younger audience than I am which is not what I want.

This asset is the main headline on my contents page, I think the strengths of this asset are the fact that I used serif font, since this makes the text appeals to an audience of people who are within the ABC1 social grade as we typically see serif font being used to advertise expensive products, therefore this font will connote to them that this product is most likely aimed at them.  This font is helps attract females which is beneficial as I'm targeting mostly females – the font appeals to females due to the flicks giving a hand written denotation which is something that we typically associate with elements such as diaries and gossip which are seen as ‘girly’ things. Therefore helping my magazine appeal to my desired target audience. This font also has strengths as it helps reinforce my brand throughout each page due to this font being used on my front cover, therefore by using the same fonts and house styles I'm a too keep my audience intrigued since this font was used to initially attract my target audience. 

No effects are used on this asset, which I think is a weakness as despite the font there are no other visually appealing elements that go on to this asset therefore not giving the audience much to look at. However saying this , the simplicity of the text helps attract my audience since I’m targeting older people and they typically like things that denote more simple due to it giving a more mature connotation. The fact that there aren’t many effects on the text as gives a classy effect as it’s implies that this page is good enough to not need extra, un necessary effects in order to keep my audience intrigued.

This asset is the main image on my contents page. The strengths of it consist of the fact that the background works really well with the foreground. For example, the area that the horse and my model are in has an ideal background as it’s cloudy and therefore the sky is all one colour, there's also no trees or other elements getting in the way – creating white space. The white space is a strength because it gives the audience nothing else to look at but my model since she stands out against the consistent background colour, reinforcing the fact that my model and hors are the main focus. The background is also a strength as despite the area behind my model and horse being white space, the areas surrounding have nicely placed tree’s and branches which act as leading lines due to the fact that they’re pointing towards my model and horse and therefore draw my audiences eyes towards her. Lastly the background denotes a view of Sheffield in the Stannington ./ Bradfield area which makes my photo appeal to a Sheffield based audience, meeting the brief given to me by SPH publishing in regards to attracting people living in Sheffield. Another strength is that this photo has is the fact that all colours within the photo are of the same tone, for example, my models body warmer and the sky are both blue, whereas everything else is a grey tone – therefore, all elements correlate well together, creating a visually appealing effect since its satisfying when nothing looks out of place.

I think this photo is more conventional to the equestrian genre due to it’s inclusiveness of equestrian gear and wear. For example the horse has on a bridle and saddle which will make the photo relatable to an audience of people who ride as they’ll typically be familiar with what this equipment is – the bridle used on the horse in this photo is also very expensive and my audience of riders will most likely recognise that since the equestrian world is very competitive - meaning people will see others who have good equipment as an ideal self, further attracting my target audience towards buying the magazine. Secondly, my model is wearing a more stereotypical riding outfit since she is actually riding in this photoshoot, whereas in my other photoshoot she is not – my model is wearing an outfit that includes a body protector, riding hat, crop riding fleece, jodhpurs and riding boots, which is a very stereotypical, full on riding outfit. Making my model relatable to my target audience as they will all most likely have all of these things. Therefore, the use of equipment and costumes really help reinforce my genre and theme of the magazine due to people stereotypically solely associating this denotation with horses and riding, making my main cover image be fitting strongly within the equestrian genre. 

However, this photo does have improvements that could be made such as the fact that the photo is quite dark and I didn’t brighten it when editing. Although, since the photo was placed on a black background on my contents page it is made to stand out and look brighter in comparison to being on a white background. However this is still a weakness as my models face is unclear and hard to see if able to see at all, which gives an unprofessional denotation since you’re usually always able to see the models face unless done intentionally. Making my image not fit the conventions of a real magazine contents page photo. Other weaknesses consist of the fact that these photos were taken on a cloudy day therefore blocking the audience from seeing the view in the background very well although you can slightly see it, which is disappointing as although there was nothing I could have done to stop it this was a huge factor which I was relying on in regards to making my contents page still appeal to a Sheffield based audience.

This asset is the banner on my contents page. This asset has strengths such as the fact that it has visually appealing effects due to the use of contrast that has been created using opposing colours, fonts and shapes. For example, I have two separate layers of text one of which is my masthead and the other disclaiming the frequency of which a new copy of my magazine is released. The first element of contrast is denoted between these tow different words due to the fonts used completely having different denotations from one another, as although they're both in serif, not only is one is lowercases but the word ‘weekly’ has a lot more flicks and is smaller in comparison to the word ‘canter’ making it apparent that the word ‘canter’ is the most dominant and relevant, helping reinforce my brand throughout each page since this text is my masthead. Other strengths are the fact that half of the banner is grey and the other half is white, therefore creating contrast between them as these colours are polar opposite, lastly due to these dramatic opposing colours on each half of the banner, I have made the text on each side easy to read by making the text white on the grey banner and black on the white, again adding elements of contrast. The fact that I have used serif font makes the text appeals to an audience of people who are within the ABC1 social grade as we typically see serif font being used to advertise expensive products, therefore this font will connote to them that this product is most likely aimed at them.  This font is helps attract females which is beneficial as I'm targeting mostly females – the font appeals to females due to the flicks giving a hand written denotation which is something that we typically associate with elements such as diaries and gossip which are seen as ‘girly’ things. Therefore helping my magazine appeal to my desired target audience

Improvements of this banner consist of the fact that the ‘weekly’ text doesn’t proportionally fit onto the grey banner causing parts of the text such as the letter ‘Y’ together cut off, which looks unprofessional, this is defiantly the biggest weakness of the page as it’s unconventional to a real magazine banner since everything would be proportionally fitted, the reason mine isn’t is du to the fact that I wanted both texts to be of the same size however the word canter didn’t have extra bits coming off meaning it could be bigger whereas there’s lot more to the ‘weekly’ font, however I'm glad I went with this choice as if I would have made the text smaller it would have looked even more out of place.

This asset is the main photo for my double page spread. The photo has strengths such as the camera work. The camera work is a strength due to the fact that the long shot allows the audience to fully denote the horse whilst still being able to see the detail on its face. This was due to the fact that I had used a DSLR high quality camera, giving my photo a more professional denotation fitting the conventions of an equestrian magazine since e the phot needs to be of a high quality in order to attract my ABC1 target audience since they are used to buying luxurious products and therefore expect good quality in the things that they buy. Secondly the fact that you can see the background in this image is a beneficial and a strength due to the fact that it’s in an indoor stable, therefore reinforcing the theme of horses as this is where people groom and keep their horses, appealing to an audience of people who are interested in horses as they will known what and where this location is. Another strength is the fact that the striped lighting adds a dramatic and visually appealing effect due to the contrast between shadows also adding a mysterious effect, making the audience want to read the double page spread to find out what its about. 

The weaknesses of this photo are the fact that it’s quite dark, however I was able to brighten it in photoshoot and therefore this wasn’t much of an issue, although by brightening it did loose some of its quality. I think another weakness is the fact that half of the horses face is not very clear to see due to it being shadowed, this wasn’t really fixable in Photoshop as its so dark it just kind of got a grey hue to it when I tried to brighten the area.

This asset was the drop capital on my double page spread along with a title at the bottom of it as this B is part of the word background. I think this asset has strengths such as the fact that the serif font in which I have used to make it helps keep my ABC1 target audience appealed due to the fact that the flicks on it give a fancy and luxurious denotation, which is something that they'll be attracted too due to the fact that they’ll be used to buying expensive products therefore they’ll associate this font with being relevant to them. The fact hat this font is ‘vogue’ from dafont.com is also a strength due to the fact that this was the font that I used on both my masthead and contents page, therefore this drop capital keeps a consistent representation of my brand throughout all of my pages. 

The weaknesses are ones such as there being no additional colour or effects since this gives quite a boring and simple denotation, however this simple denotation does benefit me as it keeps my older, more mature audience intrigued and appealed since  the simpler the asset the more mature it looks.