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

BEFORE: AFTER:

Preliminary tasks Front page and music magazine front page

The preliminary tasks was done before I started producing my music magazine, this was done to get a taste of how to work with Photo Shop and to practice how a music magazine should be put together. Throughout making my music magazine I have learned a lot of new skills and developed a better understanding of how to layout a page.

On my preliminary task the typography goes over the main image, which makes the front page of the school music magazine look very unprofessional. Whereas on the front page of my music magazine the text goes around the main artists body giving it a more professional and organised look. Furthermore, I was not expert in using the lasso tool in Photo Shop as you can see in the preliminary task. My main image has not been cut out properly due the lack of knowledge and skills on how to use Photo Shop. Having more experience in using photo shop after few weeks benefited me a lot, as I was able now to cut my main artist for my music magazine in a professional and easy way .The typography I used was very simple and straight forward, the reason for that was because I was aware of that magazine front covers need additional cover lines, however I did not think about it in dept where to place those cover lines and what type of typography would go with my front page because of the lack of experience. Also as you can see the additional cover lines all over the place making the front page look very messy and unorganised. In the music magazine I have added more additional cover lines using different size of typography to make them stand out. Plus I added to some of them a red colour to make it more attractive towards the audiences. In addition, I did know my target audience, however I could have used more colours to appeal to the younger audiences. May be I should have thought about a other topic that would go into my school magazine as some year 7 and 8 children would not relate to it because they might not have so much exams to stress out. Although I did know about typical music magazine features such as adding barcodes on the front page, I did not add the date and website of the music magazine, if I did that my work would have looked more professional and real. Therefore, to make my music magazine look more authentic I used a website and added a price to it so that audiences can find more information trough the website which is provided on the front cover and are informed of the price of the music magazine. The main title on the preliminary tasks looks very simple and uncomplicated because of the target audience however I could have made the title look more bigger and could have made it look more stand out but again because of the lack of experience in Photoshop I did not know how to do it . A great improvement was made to the main title on the music magazine front page, my skills in using Photoshop were more developed and therefore I believe that the main title is attention grabbing. For the typography I used only one colour; white, whereas on my music magazine front page I used a combination of white and red colours, which I believe attracts both male and female audiences and associates with the R&B genre. During my preliminary tasks I did not look at other example front covers, whereas while making my music magazine I referred back to real music magazines such as Vibe and XXL.

Unprofessional theway I cut her out

Main title could havebeen more largerand the use of differentcolour would have attracted the lower students

Additional coverlines not straightunder each other

BEFORE: AFTER:

Preliminary tasks contents page an music magazine contents page

My music magazine contents page compared to my preliminary task contents page looks very sophisticated and busy, whereas my preliminary tasks contents page is quite plain and boring. The picture of my main article in the music contents page is larger than the other ones on that page, suggesting she is the main focus of the magazine as opposed to my preliminary tasks although I used visual both of the images are the same size not knowing who the main focus is in the magazine. The title which is in a blue colour does not really link with the rest of the colour scheme on the page, which makes it look very odd and unprofessional whereas the colour scheme in my music contents links with the front page showing a brand identity making it more look authentic. Adding on to the authentic look I have added a signature of myself to make the contents page more believable and professional. On the music contents I have also used a editors message because when researching for real music magazine contents page I saw most of them had this element in common therefore I copied them. Further more, the music contents page includes a tie-in an element which I was not aware of while making my preliminary tasks. This element allows audiences to get the magazine delivered to their door, ‘making life of the audiences easier’. Using subheadings on music content page, will make it easier for audiences to find their particular topic that they were interested in when looking at the front page. Overall, my preliminary contents page looks very dull and boring, I could have used more images to appeal to my target audiences whereas my music contents page looks very busy and shows a that there is a lot of information available in the magazine.

The colour blue doesnot link in with the other colour schemes on thepage, making it look very odd.

Both images samesize, difficult to knowwho the main focusis in the music magazine

Picture blurry

Typography verysimple, makingIt look very boring

+

Lack of colours

Conclusion

Overall, I believe that I have learned a lot of new Photo shop skills that helped me to do well in this media project. Further more, I have been able to identify the needs and wants of my audiences by looking at real music magazines and by providing many conventional features that will appeal to them when seeing the music magazine such as.

In addition, trough researching a lot of other music magazines I have been able to identify typical music magazine elements that I have then copied to my own front page and contents page. Also I have developed my understand of what a good main article should include such as subheadings, floating quotes, main image which I all tried to include in my music magazine main article.

I have also learned to structure and layout a page to make it look organised and professional way so that my audiences can easily access the information they went for example by using subheadings and page numbers.

Finally, I believe that I have developed a lot of not skills in a very short period of time, which made me manage to finish my media music magazine.