EvaluationQuestion Seven

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

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Task Final Design

Developing SkillsO I feel like I have drastically developed my editing skills. I

now understand a lot better, how to position certain elements of the front cover such as coverlines, mastheads and inserts in order for them to look most effective on the page. During the preliminary task I didn’t think much about where I was placing the coverlines. I thought that anywhere on the side of the page would work well, however after looking back and what I created then to what I have finished creating now I have managed to identify where the individual coverlines will work best. This is because I have a better understanding of what I am doing on photoshop and I also planned in a lot more detail where I was going to put certain elements.

Developing SkillsO With fonts I feel like I have also come a long way in

understanding which are appropriate for the genre of magazine and how many different fonts it is okay to use. In the preliminary task, I used many different fonts, a different font for every coverline actually and looking back at it now, it is clearly too much and the reader may get quite distracted because of this. Whilst creating my final designs I began to understand that all of the coverlines will look their best if they are in the same font. I could then make one coverline bigger than the others to highlight that it is the key story. I had the same idea for the individual descriptors below each of them.

Magazine ConventionsO When I was creating my preliminary task front cover, I didn’t have

a very good understanding of the different magazine conventions for that particular genre of magazine. At the time I thought it was ok just to do it how I wanted it to look without really thinking about my target audience and how they would like it to look. With my final design I have taken a lot more into consideration the type of magazine that it is and the type of people that it is going to appeal to. When I had originally decided to create the festival magazine for 16 – 21 year old females, I knew that it was going to have to look fairly girly on the front which is why I decided to go with an earthy pink colour. I feel like this is a convention of the particular target audience which I have come to understand in a lot more detail.

Magazine ConventionsO Another convention of magazines that I have come to

understand is the various fonts that you can use. With the preliminary task I didn’t really think much about how they would relate to the magazine itself. I used many different fonts with many of them not relating to the idea behind the magazine. At the time I thought that they were all relevant which is probably why I didn’t see it as an issue. Looking back to what I created I can clearly see that the variety of fonts that I have used may confuse the reader and make them feel drawn to one particular area over the others. In my final design I kept all of the different fonts in particular areas the same. I used the same font for each coverline to keep it consistent and the same for the individual descriptors. The top and bottom straplines are also in the same font to not make the reader feel more drawn to one over the other.

Research SkillsO When it came to researching for my preliminary task, I didn’t

really think much about what I would research. I thought I knew what most magazines looked like so I didn’t do a great deal of research into the various conventions. Thinking back to when I created it I think that it would have benefitted the overall look of the magazine cover because I would have had a better understanding of the conventions I should include. During my final design I researched a lot more, specifically into what sort of things my target audience likes. This helped me when it came to including images, fonts and the certain colour scheme as I knew what my target audience would want.

Research SkillsO I also looked much more in depth at the types of fonts

and colours that are appropriate for my audience. During my preliminary task I included colours and fonts that were simply nice looking. This is fine but it may not appeal to the majority of my audience as I hadn’t done the research to find out whether the audience that I was targeting would like the colour scheme that I was going to follow. Looking back I realise now that it would’ve been a good idea to do this extra research in order to make sure that everything would appeal to my target audience in the best possible way. When it came to creating my final designs, I made sure that I looked at a lot of other magazines so that I could get a good idea as to what fonts and colours would be appropriate.