Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt the progression from it to the full product?Looking back on
the preliminary when I made my school based magazine, I have
noticed that my knowledge of Photoshop has expanded increasing. I
have learnt what the main tools are used for and I learnt many
techniques. I think that it was useful to have conducted the
preliminary task before moving onto the main task as it helped me
learn basic Photoshop skills and conventions of a front cover,
contents page and double page spread. I feel like I understood the
conventions of magazines better than I did before, by analyzing
different, magazines I now understand how music magazines have used
different features to attract and address their audiences. I then
knew how to approach my magazine as I found out what conventions
encourage readers to pick magazines up. There are a lot more
features that I now understand since doing the main task, which has
an overall better and professional appearance than my preliminary
task.
Examining both of these pieces of work together I can see how
much my skills have developed:My masthead for my preliminary was
very basic and not very colourful; it was boring, placed on a white
background with lots of space which wasnt filled in.
For my main development, I produced a colourful bold font that
incorporated my genre well. It was predominately placed in at the
top of the page where all my readers can clearly view the magazines
name.
I took basic images around college for my first photo shoot, but
when it came to the main task I used images from a different area
to appeal to my target audience and genre.My preliminary task was
very basic in terms of typography and images; I used the same basic
fonts throughout the preliminary task. Therefore I used two
different fonts within my main magazine; this created an
outstanding composition which appeals to the audience.
The original preliminary task was lacking colour. During my main
task I decided to edit all my images and like them in with my
social class of young unskilled workers within my genre. This made
my compositions strong and created a large contrast between my
prelim and main piece.When creating my preliminary production, I
didnt use grids to line up and split my work into sections;
therefore it wasnt concise and didnt convey a professional looking
front cover.
As you can see from the images above the presentation of my
music magazine is much more advanced and professional, it contains
more conventions and is able to address an audience more
effectively. As I learnt a lot more about the conventions I was
able to include more onto my music magazine, for example a puff, I
didnt know beforehand what one was and know I am able to include it
in my magazine in the correct way. I have contained and used the
conventions well, whereas Ionly included around two or three on my
school magazine that werent use effectively, but to just fill the
space. I believe my understanding of magazine conventions and forms
have improved a lot than before, I learnt through analysis of music
magazines what features work good to attract an audience, as well
as my audience research.
The puff I used is on my magazine as a short snippet of text to
gain my audiences attentions, this was an effective way of during
in the interest of my target audience. It is also a key convention
within my magazine, allowing me to direct my focus to my viewers by
linking the text back to my indie festival genre.
Mast Heads
My final products in comparison to my preliminary products are
much more detailed in terms of the layout and pictures. Looking at
the fonts on my preliminary, they seemed really basic and plain
which made the whole products unprofessional and not appealing,
however, on my final products the fonts I used differ greatly as I
spent a lengthy period considering which fonts to use and not to
use. I feel my photo shoot was more successful in my main task. The
reason for this is because it was all preplanned based on audience
researching. I was able to evaluate my audience research and
incorporate it into my final piece. I took into account everything;
location, shot types/angles, editing, mise-en-scene and genre.
In comparison to the masthead of my college magazine, the
masthead I created for my magazine is a lot more sophisticated and
unique. This is because I have been able to download new font
styles ad model it in my way and style. With the help from dafont,
I created a masthead that links to the genre as it is bolder and it
stands out.
My overall knowledge of software has improved enormously. I have
learnt new techniques on Photoshop and Quark as well as gaining
skills that helped me make a professional looking music magazine.
As I was completely new to Photoshop at the beginning, I didnt even
use the software within my school based magazine, however as you
can see my photo editing on the music magazine has increased
massively, just from one glance of my front cover. My design skills
are greater than before as I know how to make a page look
professional and appealing to the potential buyer, by just changing
simple things like fonts can make a big difference in the quality
of the magazine. With the research I have got a much deeper incite
to my audiences wants and needs to help gain more information and
knowledge about what they like including.
I think I have developed critical evaluation skills through the
collaboration of my magazine evaluation. Before I started this
project I didnt think I would be able to create such high standard,
high quality final product, but know I have completed everything I
am extremely happy with my product, the evaluations and the skills
I have learnt. I have specifically learnt that you need to know the
back ground behind a genre and then an audiences wants and
expectations to be able to complete a magazine effectively.