How I feel my work on Vibe magazine went...

Looking at the piece I did for Vibe magazine, I can see several positive attributes about it as well as some that, if I were to do it again, I'd change.  Firstly, the content of my article. I chose to do a feature on SMILE week, which is a week where people from within the music industry take part in a multitude of industry related events within Southampton Solent University and around the city of Southampton. I feel this particular topic suits my target audience perfectly, students that are part of the music scheme, as well as perspective students and parents at Southampton Solent University. It gives a detailed insight to what the week's about, as well as what went on in previous years. Before I began to design my layout, I looked at various music magazines, such as Q, Kerrang! and NME. I really liked the clean cut stylish way that Q took, revitalising a boring layout by adding in splashes of colour as well as colour coordinating parts, such as making all the features on colour, the reviews another, and the interviews a different one. This created variety, yet establishing a flow.

There are however a few areas that could be changed to make it both more aesthetically appealing and generally fit VIBE itself a lot better. After reading through my finished article, I can see that there are the odd grammatical and spelling errors, so in professional environment, it wouldn't pass as a feature article. Generally I feel the overall layout of my article looks suitable, but I should have condensed down the content so I could make the text larger and easier on the eye. The image is also fairly unclear, therefore I should have chosen a brighter, sharper image. The page also looks quite bland, hints of colour amongst the title or quotes would have also made it more aesthetically pleasing.

So overall, after looking at my piece as part of a magazine, I feel I should have added more colour, better imagery, and generally formatted my piece better. From the process of producing a magazine spread on Adobe Indesign I have learnt that I can be a little more creative when it comes to making a page, as well as perhaps not rushing it, learning to understand the process more in a professional environment.