Post Crit thoughts/feedback.

Turning up to the crit I had that horrible sinking feeling when you see what everyone else has done and immediately feel ashamed and a bit embarrassed about my work. Looking at everyone else's I felt angry with myself for not having my magazine finished, totally forgetting about the RANGE part of the brief and not having any real illustration work to show, just layouts.

I think the feedback I got was a bit too nice. I would have been a lot more honest with myself! They problem was slow work rate and probably a bit of that unmotivated feeling you get half way through a brief. Initially I'd been really excited, spending evenings in the mac suites and getting all into the project. I had got about half of the magazine done so thought I could relax for a bit (which in hindsight is probably the worst thing to do...ever.) Anyway I'm back on track now and because I was a bit slow half way through I have lots of work to get my through to the end which I like. I think the challenge is a bit part of motivation. 

Another problem was I'd given myself too much to do. The magazine was planned to be 38 pages. And I wanted to fill it with my own illustrations, other people's articles (kindly lent to me) and some of my own articles. At the crit was where I realised it was too much to do in such a short space of time. So I've narrowed it down to 24 pages now. I think it's nicer, and neater. There was a lot of planned content in the old magazine which was probably scraping the barrel to be honest. I wanted it to be a thick magazine as it's only quarterly but I was compromising quality over quantity. 


I noticed very quickly I hadn't even related anything in my brief to the range. It was the last thing on my mind because I was so focused on the layouts etc. Now I've scrapped a chunk of the magazine this will give me time to address the possibilities with the range. I know I am going to now produce: x1 full magazine with content, x3 other covers (one for each season), x4 belly bands to package each newspaper pack for when the magazines would be released and a mock up of either the website or an app. I haven't chosen yet.


The feedback I got was helpful, pointing out some problems with type and layout (which I will try and rectify), and some other people just saying what they liked. 


After reading the module brief, my own brief & statement of intent I have carefully compiled a to do list in order of the priorities. This is the last day I will spend designing and tweaking the magazine before I take it to print. In the next few days I will be busying myself with designing the range, choosing stocks, printing, mocking up my boards and collating all the work from the first part of the module.