Lend 'es A Mag Mate?

You'll Get A Fat Lip!

Before I could class my Women's poster as being 'finished', I decided that there was a few small changes to be made. The poster was always intended to be simple, with very little text, however, I felt that the poster did no give enough information. To rectify this, I added a small paragraph to the bottom left of the poster, with a pithy statistic, just to reinforce the nature of the product.

Another issue was that of the amount of fonts. Each of the pink cirlces above represent a section of text, and in my poster I had a different font for each of these.   I felth that this was too much variation and that the lack of consitency was almost off-putting. Therefore I changed all fonts except the 'title' (condoms essential wear) to the same font.

The final issue I felt I had was that the model's face looked almost as if something was missing. It took me a while to realise, however, I found that the lips had become too similar to the colour of the skin within the black and white transformation, meaning the model had, again, the sense that something was missing.

I decided that I would change the colour of the lips, so that the model looked almost as though she had a dark lipstick on in the actual photoshoot. Initially, this colouring had a harsh outline, looking as though I had poorly drawn the colour on:

As you can see this looks un-professional and I was not happy with this. I also decided that I would try to make the lips have a greater emphasis, therefore I would increase their size and colour with greater detail.

Using the smudge tool, I managed to colour the lips with far greater acuracy, whilst increasing the size of the lips to create that sense of prominence, without their size becoming distracting from the main image thanks to the 'blurry' quality.

DANGER! You are now entering a Mock-Up Zone.

The men's poster is a lot simpler than that of the women's, requiring almost no photography and very little editing, whilst still having the desired effect. Below is the Mock-Up I created, which is basically the final version, however, the condom image is not my own, and the NHS logo 'blue' colour is slightly too dark.

Within the poster there is an image of a condom package, which would have to be my own photo, however, to save time, I simply cut the condom from my women's poster photo shoot and used that. Also, with the change in my logo I had to rectify the current logo which meant that I needed to reposition the logo elsewhere.

The NHS logo is not as dark a shade of blue as most people (my self included) would expect. After researching the NHS website, I found the exact shade and colour I would have to have. This differs slightly from my idea that the main blue rectangles within the poster would link to the NHS logo, however, that is the official colour, and changing the 'No Condom' (etc) box colours to the NHS blue, would create a weaker, less contrasted and less noticable poster.

Another issue with the mock up, is that there is no definition to the edge of the poster. When on Photoshop, the edge of the poster is clearly shown by the size of the canvas, however, when the image is placed on a white background, its outline is lost and the poster looses some of the layout quality. To rectify this, I have used an idea which I had originally used on my men's leaflet front cover, which involves a simple
yet definitive black border to the image.

Compare the Leaflet. Shimples.

My Women's Leaflet needs to be such that it remains a distinctly classy image, being similar to something which would be found in vogue, or other such 'glossy' magazines. I have kept the format simple, leaving the black on white colouring, and the sophisticated yet simple font. I have opted for the headline/ title "the obscurity of promiscuity" as it isn't obvious. My article is in fact a 'true to life' story, however, I did not simply want something such as; "Chlamydia Terror" or "bastard ex infected me". The article isn't even simply about contracting an STI, it's also about how this made the individual feel, her alienation from her peers and how she was depicted from this.

From the image above, there were some alterations which I needed to make. The first, most obvious was that the text on the second page, was in fact only in one column,  instead of three as I had planned. Also, the text for the title, along with the title and introductory pieces were in fact poorly arranged and the fonts were not the best. I have now changed these along with adding a slight red colour to the; "Samantha's Story" header, this has created a more professional product.

In terms of the colour of the page, was initially going to be white, with the text being black, however, I decided to rotate this, to see if there was a greater effect. I found that with the white text and the black background, the overall  feel of the piece had a greater class and professional feel. The image I used also appeared to 'sit' better with the black background.

The layouts pictured here are both lacking in the main image which I would be including, I needed to create a realistic image, of a girl who is sad, and longing to rid herself of this alienation and promiscuous name and get her life on track. I was planning on attempting to create this image in a studio, against a back drop with professional lighting, however, I realised that this would look too professional for the feel I was trying to create and would distract from this story being 'true to life'. To create the image I wanted, I had my model in their comfort zone of their own home, just sat on a couch. This made them feel that they were part of the true to life story as they were somewhere in which it could actually happen. I then proceeded to read my article and asked her to show the mood of the story through facial and body expressions. I had many photos, however, they seemed to have almost an 'over composed' feel, looking like someone trying to act rather than feeling the emotion. I said I was not happy and we would have to try again, which seemed to almost annoy my model, and she moved into the pose we see in the image. I immediately saw the opportunity to take my real life shot, and with no lighting equipment, and the room becoming dark from the naturally fading outside light, however, there was just enough coming through the window, out of which the model was looking, to highlight the front of the models face and hands beautifully, whilst highlighting her hair and outline brilliantly. 

The image was lucky in that my reactions were quick enough to capture the exact natural pose whilst keeping the image in focus. I had already set up the camera to have a low F-Stop, which has assisted me in keeping the background dark and out of focus, and we see the model in a colourful yet de-saturated light, with a distinct lack of make-up and a glazed look to her face, this sums up the story perfectly. Also the positioning of the model's hands perfectly encaptures the idea that someone would want to hide themselves away with the alienation and promiscuous name they have developed through their STI ordeal. Once again I was lucky in that the camera focussed on the hands moreso than the face and eyes of the model, which creates almost a blurred 'teary' effect as we try to look at the model's face. This instills the idea that this person is sad, almost crying into their hands.

To contrast this image, as the character managed to rectify her life and contacted the College Nurse Team, I contemplated using an image that would perhaps have a more positive colouring and facial expression, however, I wanted to reminisce the original image, with the hands the model not looking at the camera. From the photos I took, there were only two which I though could possibly be used (in a small size) within this contrasting section of the article. 

1.

2.

Despite me wanting to create some 'happier' images, the above photographs still retain almost the sadness from the first image. Image number one has the hand entirely covering the eyes and therefore we feel that the model is hiding even more than in the earlier image, therefore this one is out of the question. The second however, has almost a happier more playful feel, showing consciousness at the same time. The colouring is a lot warmer, and with some editing and slight cropping, this image could be the smaller happpier image I needed. Primarily (colouring aside), the main reason this image is 'happier' than the earlier image is that the model is actually laughing (in real life), despite keeping the make-up and hair the same, to show again the natural feel, however, with the character feeling comfortable with themselves in this image.



In The Beginning There Were Plans

This week I am creating my photo shoot plans, which consist of lighting arrangments and model positioning, along with call sheets for my models.