I used Photoshop to create my magazine, it was a very useful software because i was able to create layers which allowed me to overlap certain text on top of others. Photoshop was practical when resizing images because they never had the stretch effect if you held down the shift key. This made my image looks more professional and it would fit in with other magazine available on the market. I used the software Photoshop to manipulate my text, for example I used a drop shadow on my main head line. This creates a 3D effect which grabs the readers attention, and draws them into the magazine.

Another soft wear I used was publisher, publisher enabled me to generate an idea but not to a professional level. I created my first two drafts of my magazine on publisher because its quick and easy to use and I could create a base idea to work from on Photoshop.

To present my magazine I used a site called blogger, blogger allowed me to up load and share all of my work. Blogger is a practical website because it allows the audience to comment on your work.

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

On my preliminary task I have used the house style of red and green, i have learnt that a house style is very important to the overall look of the magazine, it also make the magazine more consistent. The house style in my preliminary task doesn’t work very well because the colour and to bright and different, because there both bright bold colours the over all look is childish. This doesn’t make the page look professional. Unlike my finished product that only uses one bright colour.

I have also learnt that the layout is extremely important when constructing a magazine, for example in my preliminary task I wrote in columns. Also in both the preliminary task and the finished products I have placed the title on the top of the page,

I have learnt that using a mid-shot is important, mid-shots enable the reader to see the models expression but it also allows some of the back ground to be shown. In the preliminary task he model is looking down, this doesn’t engage the audience. However in my finished product I made sure the model was looking directly at the camera.

I created drafts using publisher to test layouts, I followed the codes and conventions of indie rock magazines when designing my magazine. I used the drafts to help me create the real magazine on Photoshop.

Initially I chose to have the quote below the musicians name, when I first tested it I found that it was hard to see the quotation on the dark back ground. To solve this problem I placed a white back ground behind the quote, I also had feed back from my intended audience who felt that the quote needed to be above the name of the musician.

When I created the 3rd draft I received feedback from my intended audience, who said that the stories down the left hand side were to small. To make the stories stand out more I put the musicians names in bold, and increase the font size. To make sure the left hand side didn’t look to crowded I decreased the amount of text.

I think my music magazine is successful because it looks professional, my magazine wouldn’t stand out against other magazine of my chosen genre because I have followed the most common codes and conventions. To improve my front cover I would make my competition banner more visually attractive, I could do this by adding a small image.

I think that the lay out I used on the content looks very visually dynamic, however my content page could be improved if I tested the image in colour. Through out the magazine I have used black and white images, the content page may have looked more interesting if I used a coloured image.

I think that my double page spread looks professional because my model is entwined with the text, however I feel that the double page spread could be improved by changing the front style of the quote on top of the page, I feel it looks too bold making it unclear.