Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progressing from it to the full product?

• The main thing which I feel I have achieved is the ability to use software better. At the beginning of my preliminary task, my Photoshop skills were limited and the product I created wasn't very good. After practice and tutorials on Photoshop, I managed to use a variety of different tools in order to make the product look more professional and authentic which was the main aim of the task..

The PreliminaryThe Final ContentsMe using skills on Photoshop in order to create the Contents page for my magazine

• It is clear to see where my skills have changed and developed from start to end as the final product looks a lot more professional and more aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. I have made sure I have used my model and information on the cover to appeal to the target reader using costume, makeup and hair as well as bands which they will be interested in as it will make them want to buy the magazine.

PRELIMINARY

MAGAZINE

FINAL MAGAZINE

• From doing my preliminaries I have also learned to use different technologies such as cameras, lighting equipment and, of course, Photoshop. Using these I increased my knowledge as to how magazines are made and also how to use skills I have gained in order to create a product that looks professional and authentic.

ORIGINAL

IMAGE

ENHANCED IMAGE

As you can see from the images, I learned how to use the enhancing tools on Photoshop in order to

make my images look better and more

professional to make my magazine look more authentic overall.

• On my final product I used a variety of different tools and effects which I worked out how to use. I think that this makes the final product look a lot more professional in comparison to my preliminary work. The images are sharper and the overall look of the product is more authentic. MY MAGAZINE

COVEREFFECTIVE DUE TO SHARP IMAGES MAKING IT LOOK AUTHENTIC

Images of successful artists are very sharp

and enhanced to

make the photograph look more

professional and the

model look better.

• In comparison to my prelim, the way I have edited the cover to make it look more professional as I have done a lot of research to realise how the magazine should look. I have also further researched magazines which relate to the music genre I have chosen which ensures my magazine is fitting and will look authentic enough to be sold on shelves alongside other magazines. When doing the preliminary work I hadn't done any research into magazine conventions and I believe that this has helped me to create a better product overall which makes it more professional and more attractive to my target market.

A range of successful magazines and my magazine, showing that it doesn’t look bad

amongst other professional, REAL magazines

• An example of this is using exposure and contrasting in order to make the image more striking and to make the magazine stand out more to readers. Before, the colours which I used were very simple and understated meaning that it looked fairly boring. I believe that the cover of my magazine is very eye catching and is attractive to the intended audience (as opposed to my prelim which was supposed to be aimed at students who may not have been attracted to the magazine)

• From my research I found that a lot of the images had been enhanced in order to make them look smoother and more professional and so I wanted to do the same on my magazine. I didn’t do this in my preliminary task which one of the reasons why it didn’t look authentic enough or professional enough to pass for a real school magazine

• If I had the skills then that I now have then it would have looked a lot better.

My preliminary (shown top left) looked dark and

dreary- not something that a magazine should

look like! During this evaluation

question I quickly edited the

exposure on the image and it

looked a lot more professional (bottom left) meaning that through the

development of these skills I can make things look more professional and make a better

quality product than before.

Quick change on Photoshop

• My understanding of the way which magazines are created has improved as during the research and planning I looked into magazines. This involved analysis of covers, contents pages and double page spreads. This helped me to understand the conventions of magazines and helped me to realise how I needed to layout my magazine

I have tried to make elements of my magazine similar to others as well as using conventions taken from my analysis of existing

products. Here I have followed the Q magazine DPS by having an image of my artist filling one page and the writing on the other

page which I think works well, is effective yet is still clear for the reader.

• The double page spread shows using techniques such as exposure, shadows, text alignment, creating patterns within text which all helped to create a more professional product overall. This was achieved through the development of skills that I gained from doing my preliminary work as well as research and planning.

• I also realised the techniques, features and conventions used in order to appeal to a chosen audience. Features such as the golden spiral for photographs as it controls the readers focus on the page as well as being able to make the page aesthetically pleasing to the target reader.

Me using skills developed from my preliminaries in

order to create my magazines double page

spread.

• My knowledge grew further during planning when I was creating drawn plans and computer versions of the plan. Working out where everything would look best and what i wanted it to look like overall was challenging however with time and practice I became a lot more aware of the layout of my magazine and how i wanted to make it look. This then helped me achieve my final product

Cover design drawn and then

scanned into the computer. This was used as a

template when designing my

draft magazine.

Draft magazine following the design draft template

• Showing the contents pages from my preliminary work and my final project it is clear to see the differences as I have developed my skills on Photoshop

• First of all I believe that the final contents page is more suited to my target audience as I think that they will relate more to the images, text and layout/overall look of the page

• I think that my preliminary work is quite boring and does not relate well to the target audience of school students as they will be more likely to want to look at something exciting and fun (full of pictures, text, stories, etc) and therefore doesn't fit the target audience well.

• School students don’t enjoy looking at things which are really boring and therefore this wouldn’t appeal to my audience

• However, I think that the stories and features that I have shown on the contents page to be within the magazine would be appealing to them as they would want to read these things. I took this forward and used exciting features that would appeal to my target audience in my final magazine

• Also the layout looks more professional. The final design shows that I have researched carefully into the way which magazine contents pages have been laid out in real magazines. I did this in order to achieve an authentic looking magazine contents page and I feel that with a few tweaks it could look very professional and authentic

• I would want to change the colour on the background in order to make it more fun to look at as I think that this would relate to my audience more. They would want to read the magazine which is the main purpose of the product,

• The preliminary layout wasn't unprofessional or scatty, it was neat which was good as it was clear for the audience to read however the neatness and lack of images/colour made it look really boring and therefore not good enough to be considered a real magazine

• My draft magazine contents was really crowded and messy which made it really difficult for my audience to read. For my final magazine I needed to tone it down and make the page less busy.

A mixture of too simple/boring and too

crowded and busy making a good contents

page,

DRAFT

PRELIMINARY FINAL

After comparing my magazine contents pages to other existing contents pages I don’t think that mine

look to bad. I think that they look fairly authentic which was the main point of the project and I think

that, like the others, my magazine contents appeals to my target audience which will make them want

to read and buy my product.

• I have learnt that using images of better quality (and using the right people!) ensure a more professional and genuine look to the magazine. Using the camera and other equipment that the school provided I managed to create good quality images to use throughout my magazine in order to ensure that the magazine looked as good, high end and professional as possible

This is a good quality image of George which I used in my preliminary, however the pose and the costume (etc) wouldn’t appeal to my audience. Also he probably isn't the best person to use to appeal to students as the whole image looks a bit boring.

This image of Chloe which I used in my draft. It is a good image as she looks relaxed and would appeal to my target readers however the quality is awful and the costume would need a few tweaks in order to make it good enough.

These images used in my final product were a lot better quality and would appeal/relate to my target audience more than the others. The quality of them makes them more professional and the costumes reflect the genre and the readers well.

• From looking at the cover of my magazines, development in skills and ideas is clearly shown. The more professional (neater) layout and the more relevant topics shows development in my understanding of the concept and target audience as well as developing skills in taking photographs and using technology (Photoshop) in order to bring my product together and have continuity throughout which, I believe, makes my product more professional and therefore more suited to my target audience.