Monday 7 May 2012

Evaluation


For my final major project I wanted to create a make-up magazine for start out professional make-up artist or for people who may just have an interest in make-up. The reason I decided to make this way because I did not feel there was much if anything on the market for people considering a career in make-up. I looked at FaceOn Magazine and Make-up Artist Magazine but I felt these were aimed at a more professional and experienced audience. I also felt these magazines were more high end and high fashion, I wanted to carry this through with FaceCake I didn’t want it to be too commercialized and young. Although it is aimed at 16 year olds but it needed to be relevant from 16 to 25 year olds therefore I didn’t want the magazine coming across to young and attract the audience I wasn’t targeted at.

I then looked through magazines to decide what I wanted to put in FaceCake. I knew I wanted to do a “How to” section. I already make “How To” videos on YouTube and they have been received well so I thought this would be a key point to the magazine. Also as I was aiming FaceCake at people who may be considering a career in make-up artistry I thought this would be a good starting point for those readers. Furthermore, Make-up Artist Magazine does occasionally have a “Hot t” section but it is aimed at a more experience audience. I decided to do two “how to” sections one on eyebrows and the other on lips. The reason for this is because when I started out I did not know the importance of shaping eyebrows or using a lip liner. Eyebrows really frame the face and they show expression and this is important to convey the mood you are trying to get across as a make-up artist. Lips are also extremely important. It’s so easy to change the shape of lips and without lip liner the look can look unfinished and amateur.

I also wanted to conduct interviews with people in the industry, so the audience could get a better idea of what the industry and future clients will expect of them. I firstly conducted interviews with students as they are of similar ages rages and can relate well to the readers, they have also been in the same situation and some of the readers. I decided to go with a stylist and a photographer, as these are people the readers will be working with and it will give them a better idea of what to expect of the industry. I also conducted interviews with the founder of Illamasqua and Agenda beauty. The reasons behind these interviews is that Illamasqua is a well-known and well respected brand that will appeal to my readers and Agenda Beauty is a new brand so it will appeal to people who want to start their own brand or cosmetics line.

I didn’t just want the magazine to be for enjoyment but I also wanted it to teach my readers about the industry and products. So I decided to make a “behind the scenes” section. I thought this would be extremely relevant to people who may be starting or considering a career in the industry as it could give them an idea of what to expect and how to prepare. I wanted to aim this particularly at the make-up side of things rather than the photography. I started with how to set up a make-up table. As sometimes people forget how important it is to keep things clean and organized. The next step was at the photo shoot itself reminding make-up artists that it is important to jump in if something doesn’t look right. The camera will always pick it up. This can be quite daunting as a photographer can be quite intimidating; especially if it’s his or her own shoot. I wanted to assure my readers that is important to jump in otherwise you may not get hired again as the make-up artist would get blamed if it did not photograph right and this may lead to losing future jobs. The final stage is to make sure you look at the images on screen. I thought this would help my readers get the most from their work. In FaceCake I also created a must have product list. These products weren’t all make-up products, as many make-up artists do know the importance of sterilizing make-up. I wanted to inform my readers that keeping everything clean is just as important as the job they have been given.

I also wanted to feature new make-up trends that will be popular in summer 2012. I found a few but decided “Heavy Metal”, “UV” and “Pastel and Hypercolour Brows”. The reason for this is because UV make-up is popular at festivals every year so I knew this trend would popular. I though Hypercolour Brows would be a great festival look as festivals are becoming increasingly popular with each passing year. I also thought metallic make-up especially in eye shadows have always been on the market and they can be great for any occasion and it’s easy for anyone to pull off.

I had some test copies printed, before it was completely finished. The reason for this was that I felt I needed to check the printing quality was good enough for FaceCake. I also wanted to check colours and fonts. I was worried that the font may have been too small and difficult for my readers to read, but after the test prints I found that this would not be an issue. One issue I did have was that some of my images came out a little yellow. Therefore I had to pull down the yellow colouring on Photoshop and I also spoke to my printers about this issue. They did suggest that this might be because of the paper so I then tested another type of paper and this was no longer an issue.

Overall, I feel that my magazine, FaceCake reached the brief I set for myself. It did teach and inform the readers and also was entertaining. It does appeal to my target market age 16 to 25; it was not too advanced but still informative and educational. If I had more time I would of liked to add more pages, however, I did create 12 images and write the whole magazine and I understand that in a real magazine their would be more than one person creating it all so I think the amount I did was acceptable. I know I could of put more thought and have a better process with choosing my photographers. I did have issues with two of my photographers when it came to getting the images. With the first photographer she would not give me many and she also said that she would not allow me to have the raw files or unedited images. I did state in an email before hand that I would need this but I needed to have it in writing. This did put me a week behind, but I did start early incase I had any issues. Although this was a problem I did learn from it and after this I had everything in writing. I made sure to create contracts for my models and photographers stating that I was allowed all the imagery and that I was allowed to use it in my portfolio, final major project, and my website. I do feel I organized myself extremely well. I started my project early to leave time if any problems or mistakes would occur. I also made sure I’d book studios as soon as they became available, as I wanted to use studios for all of my images. I also feel get a test copy of my magazine was extremely useful as it became clear what I needed to work on further and I had something to show my lectures to get advice on what needed to be done and what I needed to edit. This allowed me to go back and fix these issues without having to worry that I wouldn’t finish my work in time. Another issue I did have was I did fall behind with my learning journal. But I had all the dates, times, models and photographers in my diary so I was able to go back and look over my notes to catch up. Overall, I’m pleased and proud of my final project and do intend to put it on my website with the option to sell, I have made sure to get written permission for everyone in and involved with FaceCake. I also had an issue with the printing, one image has come out pixelated and unfortunately I did not have the time to fix this so I have printed the image and put it in the magazine, I do not understand why this problem occurred as I printed out the same file and had no issue.

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