Alidaviesq7

Question 7Looking back at your preliminary task, what do

you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product of your music magazine?

Prelim CoverThis is the front cover that I produced for the prelim task. Some of the feedback I gained from this included the fact that the red colour of the cover lines does not really stand out. I learnt for my main product to ensure that I use either light text on a dark background or visa versa. Another criticism I got was that there was a bit too much text on the bottom near the key cover line making the text look confusing. Due to this I learnt to keep text minimal and make sure it looks organised. Feedback that I continued into my final music magazine product included a bold masthead and a good principle of thirds.

Final Music Magazine Cover

This is a final copy of the music magazine that I produced. Here you can see the relevant aspects that I learnt from the prelim task, this includes aspects mentioned in the previous slide. I also felt that The menu bar on my prelim task did not stand out or look professional. This is something that I included in my final production.

Prelim ContentsThis is the contents page that I produced for my prelim task. I feel that this looked very unprofessional due to the fact that I did not use columns. This is something that I felt vastly improved my final magazine contents page. My feedback showed that the numbers were big which was good because they stood out well. I continued this into my magazine. Negative feedback also consisted of the captions of the images look messy. This is again something I learnt to improve. I also learnt how to use which space and guttering well, I think this again improved the layout of my final magazine contents design.

Final Music Magazine Contents

Here you can see the skills that I learnt from the prelim in my music magazine contents. I again made the word ‘contents’ clear as I thought this was important. As you can see, I learnt how to use a column layout, and for me, this worked really well.

Draft Music CoverThis is the draft version of my music magazine cover. I learnt that the shape containing ‘exclusive’ didn't stand out well and did not look good. I then learnt how to create a colour overlay on this shape. Other criticisms were the fact that my menu strip does not stand out well. I also felt that the design features of the lines seperating the cover lines didn’t look very good as it was the same colour as the cover line. This is something I changed in my final design. This was also the same case with the circles on the menu strip.

Final Music Magzine Cover

This is what I produced for the final cover of my music magazine. In this you can see the relevant changes that I made from the feedback of my draft stage version.

Draft Stage ContentsThis is the draft stage version of the contents page. I gained feedback such as the fact that the space at the bottom of the page did not stand out well. Due to this I made a blue strip and then changed the relevant text to which, ensuring that it stood out. For this I learnt how to use the shape tool on Photoshop. Something that I did not know how to do prior to the prelim task. Another aspect of the page that I thought looked unprofessional was the bars that contain the words ‘features’ and ‘on the cover’ were uneven as one went to the edge of the page and one left white space. This is something I changed.

Final Music Magazine Contents

This is the final page that I produced for my contents page. I neatened up the information using the ruler tool. Other things that I changed are the pause button at the top which I made lighter. I also changed the image on the bottom right hand side of the page as I did not like the way it looked before. I felt the colours were too similar to the image at the top and contrasted very negatively.

Draft Double Page SpreadOne of the main aspects I changed from my double page spread draft is the main body text. I felt that the blue colour was too overpowering and made the page look unprofessional. So, for my final page I reversed the colours of the questions and the answers, this made the page look more organised and more aesthetically pleasing. I also took care and consideration in to the white space on my pageand made sure it was even. Especially around the side bar and the pull out quote shape. The page numbers I felt did not look professional either. From my research on music magazines I learnt that having the page number in the corner looked better, this is something I changed.

Final Music Magazine Double Page Spread

This is the final page that I produced for my double page spread. As well as the improvements mentioned in the previous slide, I also made changes such as the glow and shadowing around the ‘dreaming big’ in the masthead. This made the text look better and easier to read.

Overall I have learnt many skills on Photoshop. Previous to this course I had never used Photoshop before. I learnt all skills including how to cut out images, I did this in my cover to place the artist in front of the masthead. I have also learnt skills such as making text stand out my using techniques such as drop shadowing and strokes. I feel that I have really benefitted from the skills that I have learnt and overall have found the whole experience very rewarding as I am pleased with the way that my final music magazine looks. I have also learnt a lot about how magazines target their audience too. For example through language and design features.

Overall skills learnt

I also feel that I have learnt a lot about magazines overall especially music magazines. I have learnt a lot about publishing companies and keyconventions of magazines which are crucial in making them successful. I have also learnt how magazines target a specific audience though use of aspects such as language, colours and font style.