Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

What it was?

• At the start of the course we had to do a preliminary task, we were told to produce a front cover and a contents page with whichever software we’d like, just to gain an understanding of how magazines would need a certain layout and a certain picture on the cover to make it appeal to an audience. This benefitted us as it gave us an insight into thinking about what camera angle the pictures should be, how we’d arrange text, what colour schemes we’d use etc. When it came to my final product we had studied magazines and had a greater knowledge on them, we had surveyed people into finding out what they looked for in magazines, planned locations of photographs and also looked into an interview of an artist and the language used in magazines which had similar criteria to mine.

Front cover

My final product on the left differs a great amount from my

preliminary task, It is more structured, The logo is placed

better and it looks more professional. My magazine had

progressed over time as my skills in certain software did. There is certain similarities in

my two covers such as the photo still being in black and

white and having coloured text but it has improved

dramatically in order to appeal to my target audience and look

more professional.

Contents page

There is a massive difference in my actual outcome on the

right to my preliminary task on the left, the left was produced in publisher and is very basic

and to a low standard, it doesn’t include any shadowing

in text as my final product does, doesn’t have pictures

and has a sloppy layout. Photoshop allowed me to

discover many tools that most software doesn’t have to push my work further than being a basic guideline and has come

dramatically far in what I produced in September to what has been produced in

January.

• I have learnt a great deal in developing my skills on Photoshop and certain software which has allowed me to produce a magazine which I am more than satisfied with and believe I have put a great deal of work into producing, it has taken a while to get to my final product but I have got there and believe the skills I have learnt throughout this task will further me throughout college and maybe into further life. I learnt how to layer text onto images, how to put a header behind a picture, add text and add shadowing and been able to develop my magazine and came out with a product I was fully satisfied with.

I have learnt how to use a digital camera and make sure photos are in focus and how different angles and shots can represent different moods and can effect the look of a magazine. Also learnt how layout effects the feel of the magazine and having enough to interest a reader to buy the magazine but not too much to feel the magazine is overbearing.