L O O K I N G B A C K AT Y O U R P R E L I M I N A RY TA SK , W HAT DO Y O U F E E L Y O U HAV E LE AR N T I N T HE

P R O G R E SSI O N F R O M I T T O T HE F U L L P R O DU C T ?

I believe that my skills have massively improved since carrying out the preliminary task, in my use and

understanding of technologies and my understanding of the conventions of a magazine. Looking back at my

preliminary task my editing skills and knowledge of the photo shop software were very minimal, limiting the quality

of the product I was able to produce. However looking at my final product this has improved drastically, and I now

have a much better and clearer understanding of how to use this technology to create something which looks

genuine and professional. For example, when I first used the software I only had the minimal information we had

been given and didn’t really understand what any of the tools were for, however I now know the most important

features and some extras which helped me to create my final product. Also at the start of the process I had very

little knowledge about what a ‘real’ magazine should look like. This shows in my preliminary task, which shows very

few features and conventions of a magazine. However in my final product and through my extensive research I

learnt how to manipulate the tools and features in photo shop to help me create a product that was convincing and

one that I was satisfied with. Furthermore, during my preliminary task I did not realise the importance of the Z, F

and E layouts, to make a magazine aesthetically pleasing and to make a magazine look acceptable and convincing

amongst other magazines. Therefore I tried to incorporate some of this into my work. At the beginning of the

process I had the preconceived idea that any magazine that stood out and looked good would work. However I

learnt throughout and during the process that the conventions and layout of a magazine have many different layers

to them that need to be fulfilled to create a good magazine. Things like the rule of thirds and the spiral come to

mind when I mention this. I also did not realise the importance of style models to get the grasp of these conventions

and therefore used magazines such as Clash and Vibe increasingly and continually throughout the process to try

and get the right idea and look for my magazine.

As you can see my final cover page looks a lot more professional than the cover I

produced in my preliminary task. For example the masthead copies the style of

clash magazine and therefore has a much better sizing. Where as in my preliminary

task the masthead was a bit too small and so didn’t stand out on the page enough.

Furthermore, the barcode has been placed in a more appropriate place on the page

with relevant details added underneath compared to in my prelim where the

barcode was oversized and cropped out the corner of the page. My final product has

a much more clean cut and classy look and the page is much better laid out. Added

plugs/lures are also given down the right hand side of the page to give something

extra to the page and again copy the style of clash magazine giving the final

product a more realistic and convincing look

My contents page has also majorly improved from that I produced in the preliminary

task. For example, the image that I used in the preliminary task had been stretched, and

the colour had been removed from the background of the photo, making the image look

very unrealistic, almost like the girl in the image is floating in the middle of the page,

this does not give the page a clear layout. Furthermore, the font is very oversized, and I

learnt after research that I needed to reduce my font size to match that of my style

models, for example in clash. This gives a much cleaner cut look to the page. I also kept

my colour pallet more limited in my final product. In the preliminary contents that I

produced much of the text is not in line with each other. As a result, and from looking

back on this, I made sure that all my font was in line on my final product, by using the

grid feature on photo shop. I have also ensured that the images are not stretched and

work with a coloured background to make the magazine look more professional.