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EVALUATION – QUESTION SEVEN: Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since creating my preliminary college magazine front cover to creating my music magazine front cover, I think I have learnt a lot more about the codes and conventions of a professional magazine and the software in which I created them both in: Photoshop. For example, I learned more about the tools in Photoshop when I was creating my music magazine which I didn’t know about when creating my college magazine as these tools were not needed as it was a simpler magazine and design. Furthermore, I did not use a header on my college magazine which is an important convention of most magazines and so I used it to create improvement on my music magazine. Moreover, I believe that my college magazine looks a little amateurish as the cover lines are positioned over someone's face and that is not a convention of a magazine that I have seen before; whereas the cover lines on my music magazine are positioned neatly and in line with each other to follow a convention of Kerrang! magazine and to make it more professional. Also, generally, two flashers are not used on one page of a magazine which is what I used on my college magazine but on my music magazine I used one flasher and used a more appropriate shape in a more appropriate position. The background of my college magazine does not look like something you would usually see on a magazine and so on my music magazine I used the magic wand tool from Photoshop, which I did not know about when creating my college magazine, to cut the image out so that I could place it on a more common and professional background of white. Also the price and date are usually placed with the barcode and issue number but I did not do this for my college magazine, however, once I had done more research into the codes and conventions of music magazines I did position the date and price with the barcode and issue number on my music magazine. I did use a footer, which is a convention on most magazines, on my college magazine but it is not as noticeable or professional as the footer on my music magazine as I made it bigger and coloured it in electric blue to attract my target audience. For my college magazine I used an appropriate colour scheme consisting of four colours: Purple, Pink, dark blue and light blue which I believe is a suitable amount of colours; I then carried this forwards during the creation of my music magazine and so used four colours but this time to suit the genre Rock/Punk, these were: white, black, purple and electric blue. However, on my college magazine I believe there was no organised positioning of the colours which made it lack in professionalism, for example, the blue was randomly mixed in with the pink whereas in my music magazine I decided to carefully consider where each colour should be used, for example, I only used purple for the cover lines and white for the background and black for the masthead with electric blue for things that I wanted to stand out. I didn’t position anything at an angle on my college magazine which I found out in my research into music magazines is an effective way to attract attention and so I decided to position a few things on my front cover at an angle so that they stood out. Also I used one image on my college magazine even though I was targeting it at a similar age group to my music magazine and discovered that, that age group prefer image led pages, therefore, I added two smaller images onto my music magazine front cover. Finally, the images are appropriate for the genres of both magazines and I used the consistent convention of rule of thirds on my college magazine and, therefore, retained this to use on my music magazine; the fonts used on my college magazine are appropriate for both the cover lines and masthead and so I carried this forward to the fonts of my music magazine, making those also suitable.
From my contents page creation for my college magazine to my contents page creation for my music magazines I have also learnt more about the codes and conventions of a contents page and the software in which I created them both in: In Design, again, I learnt more about the different types of tools that you can use but more so whilst creating my music magazine. Moreover, I have used three smaller images on my college contents page which is, generally, not a convention of any magazine and so I followed a more professional convention on my music contents page and used one main image with two smaller images on top which was in fact following my research into Kerrang! magazine. I also positioned the date at the bottom of the page and didn’t include the issue number on my college contents page, which is not a convention of any magazine, and so for my music contents page I included the date and issue number but I positioned them at the top of the page where they are usually found in most other magazines. The layout of my college contents page is not as professional as it should be as I did not use rule of thirds as I positioned my text across two large columns instead of across three smaller columns which is what I then decided to do on my music contents page to follow a consistent house style from my front cover. I did, however, use appropriately constructed sections of content on my college contents page and so decided to carry this construction idea to my music contents page. Although, these sections were in alternating colours and it would have been more professional to have the text all in one colour but with, perhaps, the page number in a different colour and the heading a different colour, to stand out, to follow the codes and conventions of other magazines and so I decided to display my sections of content this way on my music contents page. As I did not feature an editorial on my college contents page I decided it would be a good idea to on my music contents page as it attracts the target audience more and is an important convention on most contents pages. I also did not feature credits on my college contents page and as this is, again, a professional convention of most magazines I decided to include them on my contents page. However, on my college contents page I did use a consistent colour scheme from my front cover through to my contents page, I did place the page numbers onto the images displayed and I did use the same masthead as on my front cover and then add the words ‘contents page’ in the same fonts used; these were then the important conventions that I carried forward into the creation of my music contents page.
I did not create a double page spread in my preliminary task and so had no experience with it and ideas of how to improve it and so I just used the knowledge that I had from constructing my front covers and contents pages previously and combined this information with currently existing music magazine double pages to discover the appropriate and important codes and conventions to use on a double page spread. I used a consistent house style of colours, rule of thirds, credits and a masthead that I had used before. I then imported my article into In Design and added a drop capital. I then followed the conventions of double page spreads on other music magazines and so filled the left hand page with an appropriate image of the band being interviewed and added a gradient, I then added the page number, caption and magazine name along with a stand first on the right page, images and extra information at the bottom.
My knowledge of the software that I have used to create both my front covers and contents pages from my preliminary task to my main task has improved vastly. For example, throughout the process of my front cover in my preliminary task I only used the basics of Photoshop including: the outline/shadow tool, shape tool and import (of image) process whereas throughout the process of my front cover in my main task, I still used these tools but, I included more complex tools as well such as: the magic wand tool and the gradient tool. I also learnt more in In Design, for example, throughout the process of my contents page in my preliminary task I, again, only used the basics including: the shape tool, shadow/outline tool and text tool whereas throughout the process of my contents page in my main task, I still used these tools but, I included more complex tools as well such as: the import process where I first edited the image in Photoshop and then imported it into In Design. In In Design I also used the column tool (for my article) and the (remove) red eye tool (for my main image) on my double page spread.
Overall, I have learnt that my target audience is a very important part of my work as they are who my work is aimed at. I have learnt a wide range of techniques as to what are the important and consistent codes and conventions of all magazines and what features relate just to music magazines. I have also gained knowledge from my preliminary task and either carried this knowledge forward or improved it for my main task. However, I have not just learnt about software I have learnt how to display and explain my work, how to convert documents that are not images to JPEGs and PDFs and manage a blog. Finally, I have gained more knowledge, also, from the software that I have used to create all of my pages, considering I had never even used these programmes before I started any of these tasks. All of this gained knowledge and experience has helped me to create a successful and professional music magazine.
