processes: trial and error, collecting data and final outcome

1. Production Reflection
Gemma Nicholls

2. Process:
front cover
• For collecting my front cover
picture, I decorated my
Christmas tree and took pictures
of the ornament's at different
angles and heights. When taking
the photographs I used my
phone as I was at home, not in
school and I didn't’t book out
any equipment.
• I then took the image I liked
Photoshop and used
adjustments to fit my colour
pallet better I did this by
lightening the background and
slightly giving ait a red tint. This
was to suggest to the reader
that there was a fire in the
background

3. Process:
front cover
• When creating my final front cover I
used Photoshop. Unfortunately I
discovered that I didn't’t really like
how my front cover was turning out It
looked really cramped and busy and it
didn't’t look like something I would
want to pick up in stores. I played
around with the placement, added
and took away pieces from my
original layout and ended up with
this. However I still didn't’t like the
out come so I decided to rethink and
start again with a more simplistic idea
in mind.
Different from original
Same as the original

4. Process:
front cover
• For my new idea I took a photo that I had
taken from my phone originally intended for
the double page spread on baking cookies.
This is because it could make the inside and
outside more related. I chose this picture
specifically out out the others as it was my
personal favorite. It focused on the closest
cookie and made the others a subtlety out of
focus. It also captured the small markings of
the flour and little extra sugar the cookie
gained while being rolled out.
• I wanted to keep my colour scheme the same
so I first started messing around with the
adjustment settings for the photograph. I
changes the hue/ saturation to a reddish-
pink and messed with the brightness and
saturation until I was happy. This made the
dough look like it was a reddish pink to begin
with. The little sugar granules and dusted
flour perfectly kept a beautiful natural tinge
of red while still staying a white based colour.
This made me very happy as my photograph
looked very professional.
• I flipped the image so it would fit the my
final front cover better so I wouldn't’t have
an oversized or stretched image.

5. Process:
front cover
• When adding text I decided to go for the less is
more approach. This is because it can be
interesting to customers and also look really clean
and tidy.
• For the title I added a colour gradient ,a white
bevel and emboss and a small drop shadow; to
give the effect it was raised from the page. This
was to make it stand out more. Just bellow I
added a quote small that makes the magazine feel
more professional.
• I also added some text in the middle, as
something to interest people as “festive
inspiration” is something people are generally
looking for when they turn to Christmas
magazines. Bellow I then added a small context of
what to expect when reading the magazine.
• In the bottom right corner I also added a barcode
which I cut to also have a Santa in his sleigh ride
over. I did this in Photoshop and made sure that
you could see the Santa silhouette by making the
barcode had a white background. To make sure
this felt more in place and more branded I added
it just above the quote "festive inspiration”. Just
above the barcode there is also small details like
the issue, price and the day of it’s publish.

6. Process:
double page spread
• When typing up my writing for the double
page spread there wasn’t a lot I could write
about except the recipe and ingredients. So I
decided to also include some secret tips to
help when baking to give a personal
experience from the writer (me). This makes
the magazine more personal and something
the readers can relate to more. That’s why I
made sure not to copy anything word for
word and try put it in my own way of
speaking and made sure its nice and easy to
under stand.
• In comparison from the source I made my
notes more set instructions. This makes the
magazine show a small serious side, which ii
believe makes it more like a experienced
baker gave the magazine a recipe or at least
someone who's cooked before.
5 prep cook time 15
Servings 20
The ingredients used :
• 200g butter
• 1tsp vanilla paste/ extract
• 100g caster sugar
• 300g plain flour sifted
Recipe:
• cream the butter, vanilla and sugar, together. Stir in
the flour and mix into a dough. Wrap in cling film and
chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up.
• meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160c/140c (fan) and
line a baking tray ready with parchment paper
• One the dough is nice and chilled, roll out to
approximately ½ cm thickness and cut into your
desired shapes ( the amount of cookies produced will
depend on the shapes made).
• Place them on the prepared baking tray and sprinkle
with a little extra sugar and bake for 12-15 minutes,
until the edges are a golden brown, turning half way
through to ensure an even bake.
• Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving or
decorating.
Double page spread Information:

7. Process:
double page spread
• When collecting my photos for
the double page spread it
wasn’t to hard. This is because I
decided to make some
Christmas cookies and I could
just take photos of the process I
used to make them. Then when
taking the photos I made sure I
had a clean surface that didn't
cast many shadows.
• I looked up a few tips on food
photography and how to set up
a scene so my work would look
professional (here's a site I
looked at;
https://twolovesstudio.com/bl
og/99-food-photography-tips/ )
Collecting pictures

8. Process:
double page spread
• Editing photographs for my double page
spread:
• When editing both of my photographs I
used photoshop. When using
photoshop I adjusted the colour,
contrast, sharpness, brightness,
exposure and hue/saturation to make
sure the image of the cookies being cut
would match the photo I used for my
front cover. I played around with
different combinations of the settings to
make sure both of the images fit
together and with the colour pallet.
After a while I got an outcome I was
happy with, both images came out
looking good and I managed to change
the strong yellow to a reddish/pink,
which felt warm and welcoming.

9. Process:
double page spread
• While editing one of my photos for my
double page spread I had a bit of
difficulty making it fit my colour pallet
and making the picture look natural as
the yellow colour’s in the picture were
very bright and changing the colour to
a more golden colour was harder than
I expected.
• To do this I played around with the
saturation/hue, also the curves
(changing each separately). I also
messed with the exposure and colour
balance.
• While doing this I played around with
the rotation, size and what/how much
of the image I wanted to show. I
decided to use the full size image as I
tested it with the background from my
double page spread.

10. Process:
double page spread
• The process of creating my double page:
• To start of with I looked for a background
on google for a wooden background, as I
didn’t have a wooden surface at home to
take an image of . I cropped and lightened
the image to fit the page. However, I didn’t
do much modification to the image. I kept
my original layout in mind and added the
text into different sections as I planned,
with the fonts I had already selected.
• I then started to add a couple of the
images I had taken and edited to fit my
colour scheme to see where they would fit
with out looking cramped and messed
with the size of the text boxes to do so. I
then started to add some more font that
was in the shape of Christmas
characters/pictures, to places where it
looked plain.
• I also started to play around with the
colour and settled on a coffee cream, that
feel warm and didn’t hurt peoples eyes or
cause strain. I also played around with
adding pins to the corners and the shape
of them, making them from two different
shapes as a finishing touch to my double
page spread.

11. Finished designs