Evaluation: Q7Looking back at your preliminary task, what do

you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When comparing my music magazine to the preliminary task, I feel that I have improved my abilities in all areas of design and development. I performed much more research into target audience and existing products on the market which gave me a much clearer guide in the initial design stages, such as fonts, layout and the sorts of models and mise-en-scene o use in my images.

The preliminary task- a student magazine – definitely looked like a student magazine. The house style and colour scheme was inconsistent and the layout was unclear and messy. With my music magazine however, I stuck with mainly here colours: black, white and red in order to maintain house style. I also put the masthead on the contents page and smaller, next to my page numbers to anchor my brand identity.

One mistake that I made with my music magazine that I didn’t make on the preliminary task was not taking enough images to use. For my music magazine I only had three images of the model that the splash focused on and then an image of two other models. This limited me in terms of what I could include on my contents page, making I seem a bit devoid of content. Where my student magazine’s contents page did seem more unorganised and basic, whilst my main project was more professional, the student one did have more images, in terms of environments and appealing backgrounds for my models. However the exiting products I researched often did have plain black backgrounds in order to focus on the eccentricity of the model themselves.

The images themselves for my music magazine were more professional however, as I used a range of shot types, including medium close ups and close ups. This added a level of professionalism and variety to the project which the preliminary task lacked.

My skills in the software used, improved greatly during the main task. I implemented the use of Photoshop to edit my images more effectively to fit the genre and style of my magazine. I also used inDesign’s text manipulation much more effectively; utilising columns, text wrapping and tracking and kerning to make it more professional and was able to alter these things to appeal to my target audience.

Due to more careful planning, preparation and research, my music magazine, overall, ended up looking more professional and appealing to my target audience, by implementing new features and techniques that I did not know about during the production of the preliminary task. I was able to create an indie magazine that did not conform to conventions but did take inspiration from similar products currently on the market and looked of a higher quality and professionalism than the student magazine created during the preliminary task.