1. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
2. Throughout the process of making the magazine, I feel that I
have learnt a lot. This is because when we first started the
course, we were assigned a preliminary task where we had to create
a college magazine, I had no skills, I did not know how to use
photo shop or InDesign. I was also being taught a variety of
terminologies that accompany a magazine. For example, Pull quotes,
cover lines, denotation, connotation Drop caps etc. for the college
magazine, I was only assigned to do a front cover and contents
page. All of the pictures taken were on my smartphone or a compact
camera which had very basic quality.
3. This made the college magazine look less professional. We
were also allowed to take pictures from google, for example:
pictures of logos and things like that. Which differed in the
actual magazine because all of the photography within the magazine
had to be taken by yourself. I created the front cover on the
magazine on photo shop and at the time I was new to the software so
I wasnt familiar with how to use it to its fullest potential.
However I still used some of the terminology that I just learned by
putting in teasers and a cover line. But still, the front cover was
not up to scratch. This is because the front cover image was really
dull and in black and white. The teasers and anchorage texts were
not in line and I was using times new roman
4. The contents page I used was only one page as well however I
tried to stick to a house style by carrying on the grey from the
front cover. All this did was just carry on the dullness of the
magazine. The images on the contents page was very limited which
lead to the contents page having far too much empty space on the
page. Looking at my college magazine and my actual magazine, I see
a big improvement and it is very obvious as well. This is because
you can tell that my photo shop and InDesign skills have improved
in a major way and that is shown through the quality of the
magazine. For example, on the front cover of the college magazine
the image was in black and white and that just set a dull theme.
However on the real magazine, the front cover image was in colour
followed by the bright colour of Red to accompany it and make it
pop and stand out.
5. Also when I was doing the college magazine, all I knew how
to do was change the colour of the main image, however when I
started to do the real magazine, I started to fully use the
software to its fullest potential by using image manipulation,
changing the brightness and contrast tool, using the spot healing
tool, stroke tool and most of all I used the rubbing out technique
on the masthead. This is where I rub out parts of the masthead to
fit around the models head, this gives the illusion that the model
is in front of the masthead which then gives the connotation that
the model is more important as she is featuring in the latest issue
as well as making it look like most magazines in the industry like
Vibe and XXL.
6. On the DPS, I used a drop caps technique to make sure the
readers know where the article is starting and it also makes it
look like a real magazine. I used denotations of the image of the
model to show that she is fierce, determined, strong etc. However
these denotations may lead to connotations that the public can
assume their selves which makes my images not allow any
limitations. My colour scheme also give out connotations for the
genre of RnB/Hip Hop. With black white and red. Red connoting love,
fierceness, black connoting seriousness and mystery and the white
being the median between the two and shows how the magazine can be
for everyone as white connotes a truce. I have used pull quotes in
magazine which I did not do in the college one, making the magazine
look realistic. Overall, it is evident that I put far more work and
effort into the actual music magazine compared to the college
magazine like when I spent a lot of time designing my masthead and
editing pictures on Photoshop.
7. This developed my understanding of these softwares which
then made it easier for me to navigate around the page and use all
the tools. This is shown through feedback because on my college
magazine, I was told that it looked too bland and the colour scheme
was really dull. But on my music magazine, the feedback was very
positive and the choice of colour was praised, however I was told
to change a few things such as the cover line and then I went back
and addressed this.
