Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?

By Eddie Cameron

I feel like I have learnt and developed a lot of techniques that I had never before used. In my preliminary task, I was limited, I wasn’t putting as much attention to detail in all of the features used on any of the pages. Before, through research, I knew some of the typical conventions of a magazine. With making progress through this task, I learnt more and more about typical conventions that were found on a music magazine. Through extensive research of other music magazines on the market, for example, KERRANG was one that I researched a lot, I found out the right conventions along with a standard layout that I could develop for my own magazine. I have carried over many conventions from my model magazine but I have adapted and developed them all in different ways that suit my magazine. Initially, looking at a magazine was just to read it, but now, I can notice all of the features that were used on it to build up the final product.

I used the program Microsoft Publisher to create both my preliminary magazine as well as my final product. From the time that I had completed my preliminary magazine and to the time I had finished my final, I had learnt a lot more about Microsoft Publisher and the features that I could use on it. Also during the production of my final magazine I had heard about a site called www.picmonkey.com. This is a site in which you can edit any photos for free. So overall the images that I took for the preliminary task were not as good as they are on my final task. Along with this there was a difference in the way I took my picture. For example, for my preliminary task I took the main images with the camera on my tablet, so the photo was okay quality but had some graininess to it. Whereas for my final product, I took the main images with a digital camera that produced quality images. So I learnt that I need to choose a quality camera to produce quality image.

I also learnt how much a magazine needs to be thought out and planned. For example, I had a guideline and plan I was going to follow for my magazine. But along the way, this plan changed, as I started producing the magazine, I realised the amount of space I was limited to, along with the size of the text that I had to adhere to in order for my audience to be able to read it. So I realised that, although I had a plan, it wouldn’t always work. The problem I had, is balancing all the pages out so that they looked professional. I had to include enough information and features for it to look authentic and not empty, but I also had to make sure that there wasn’t too much information on the pages as it would look too crowded and would be confusing for the readers. Initially I thought that setting up and building the pages would be fairly straight forward, but throughout the time of making the pages, more factors played parts in how I would finish and space out all of the elements on the pages.

Throughout me producing this magazine as well I also learnt they amount of help that the ruler tool on Publisher can help. My magazine was evenly spread out due to this tool and I could place things finely and get them in correlation with each other, which was very handy for me as I wanted my magazine to be as authentic as possible.

I feel like I can evaluate a bit better now due to the 7 evaluation questions. I have broken down everything I did through the course and explained why I have done it. I have evaluated before on different pieces of work, but never to this extent.

I also know how to target my audience well now. I know that as soon as I identify my target audience then it is extremely easy to target them by using specific features and including certain content. For example, I could apply to my target audience very well when creating my double page spread because I tried to make the interview and pictures seem as personal as possible. Like I said, once I had found and identified my target audience, I could then reach out to them very easily.

Overall, I think the biggest thing that I did learn was just how to plan out and place typical conventions on a magazine so that it looks authentic. I never before realised the effort and all of the planning that actually goes into making a magazine, and with this, I now know. I am very happy with my final product and although it is not exactly like my initial thoughts for my magazine, I am still content with it.