7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since completing my preliminary task and creating my final product i have learnt many new things For example my knowledge on how to use Photo shop has now improved, Before i wasn’t as confident in using it as i am now and wasn’t sure on how to use all the tools as you can see from my two cover pages above. On my final cover page i have added a lot more colours and used a lot more effects for example stroke effects and have included a flasher unlike on my cover for my preliminary task. There is also a lot less content on my preliminary task cover page with only very few cover lines, which are all written in almost all the same font. Unlike my final magazine cover which i made sure included more cover lines, with varied font styles and colours to look more professional as after doing more in depth research into magazine covers such as ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘NME’ i realised i needed to include more cover lines on my final piece. Also looking at my magazine cover from the preliminary task, the magazine itself looks rather girly when it was in fact meant to attract both males and females and so i made sure that my final magazine did attract both males and females. By using several colours and putting things on the cover which appealed to both sexes for example ‘Win free tickets to a7x’. On both covers i did follow the rule of thirds however as you can see on my final cover page i have placed things on the page more effectively. For example i have placed my main cover line across the body of the person on my front cover as when doing research i found this was the case for most music magazines i looked at e.g. ‘Kerrang!’. I have also used both a header and footer on my final product which i didn’t do for my preliminary task as after researching more into magazines i found that using headers and footers was common. With my understanding of how to use Photo shop improving i also found that i was more confidant when creating layers, i quickly learnt how to crop parts of images out by using the quick selection tool and how to bring images foward so that it was placed over the text for example how the person on my front cover, slightly covers the masthead which i was also found was a common convention used in existing magazines which i hadn’t thought about when creating my preliminary task cover page.

Since completing my preliminary task and creating my final magazine i have also developed my skills in In Design, before i wasn’t quite sure on how to use it and was less confident in using it than i am now. As, as you can see my final contents page is much more visually appealing and professional looking as after having time to understand how to use In design more and doing more in depth research into music magazines i have been able to create a much better contents page overall. My preliminary task contents page does follow the rule of thirds however my final contents page layout is much more visually appealing and professionally laid out. With only 3 images on the one side and text on the other, I have also used the rectangle tool to place my sub headings in i did this as when looking at ‘Kerrang!’ magazine i found that this was how their contents page was laid out and that they had placed their subheadings in rectangles. By doing this it made the contents more professional and appealing, looking more like a music magazine already on the market. Unlike my preliminary task contents page i included a note from the editor, i did this as my research proved that most music magazines included one as by doing this it meant my final product looked more like a music magazine currently on the market. Another feature i included was the ‘Subscribe’ feature which when doing research i found in almost every magazine i looked at. Just like in my preliminary task i chose to incorporate a quote on the contents page as this was a feature commonly found in magazines i looked at for example ‘Rock Sound’. With the gained knowledge on how to use In Design i was able to use more effects such as outer glows and drop shadows to make specific areas of my contents page stand out and added strokes also i made sure to vary my font styles to create a more visually appealing contents page. Unlike my preliminary task contents page i used shapes such as rectangles and arrows on the page to make it more attractive and eye-catching to my readers. My preliminary task did include the date however i made it more professional looking as after looking at magazines in my research i found it was more common for it to be presented in the way i presented it on my final contents page meaning i included the issue. No and wrote the date as ‘Cover date’ rather than just simply stating the date. Unlike my Preliminary task my final magazine contents followed more conventions of a music magazine already on the market for example my contents page includes features found in the magazine ‘Kerrang!’ for example the large quote marks around the editorial and the layout of the page, just like ‘Kerrang!’ i also capitalised the font to follow conventions of an existing music magazine which i didn’t do on the contents page for the preliminary task .

With my new confidence in using In Design I was also able to create a double page spread, although I didn’t do a double page spread for my preliminary task I felt the construction of my double page spread went well, I was confident in adding effects such as drop shadows, outer glows and strokes on things such as ‘James Stone’ and using the rectangle and stroke tool for the pull quote, I also found importing text on to In design fairly easy and was pleased with the outcome of how the article was presented on the page.

Overall my understanding of the software has improved, meaning the quality of my work has improved and therefore i have been able to create a much more professional final product compared to my preliminary task.