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

the progression from it to full product?

Meg Allard

Music magazine front cover. Preliminary front cover.

Compared to my preliminary task I believe that my music magazine has progressed in almost every aspect. It looks a lot more professional and more like a magazine that would be brought in a shop. The first thing that I think has improved drastically is my Masthead. My school magazine has a very plain and boring font, it doesn’t stand out or attract the audience that much. However I believe that my music magazine does, this is because of the more professional and sophisticated font, the colours and the effects that I have applied to it. The use of emboss on my font makes it stand and look 3D, this also makes it eye catching. The next thing that I think I have improved on is my central image. My music magazine picture is much more professional and I have thought about it a lot more compared to my school central image. My school image is much simple, the angle of the shot is boring as it is straight on, there's is nothing really happening in the common room so the background isn’t interesting. Also by having the background it meant that I didn’t have much room to write the articles around it. On my music magazine image I have an interesting angle, he is more stylised and happy, both of these are both generic conventions of pop. My design and layout of my pop magazine have also improved. They have improved because as I was thinking of how to lay it out I was referring back to my school magazine, this meant that I was not laying it out the same as I did not like my design of that magazine. The reason I think that it has improved is because it looks like the other pop magazines I have looked at. The colours that I have used in my school magazine are different to my music magazine, this is because, my school magazines colours had to be suitable for both genders, however with my music magazine I had to pick girly colours. This was easier because of the stereotypical colours that are related to girls. What I have kept the same in both of my magazines are the modes of address. The main one is direct mode of address through my subject looking directly into the camera. This is important because it makes the reader feel a connection to the magazine and the person featuring on it. Other modes of address that I have featured are asking them questions and saying words like ‘us’. It makes it feel like they are being included and considered.

Preliminary contents page.

Music magazine contents page.

I think that my music magazine contents page has improved because it generally looks much more professional. I think this is due to the fonts that I have used. On my preliminary contents page I have used big and bold fonts, you don’t often see this on a contents page because they take up too much room. Whilst comparing you can see the difference it make to have a thinner font as it enables my writing to look less compact. Also I think the fact that I have used different fonts on my contents makes it look better because on my school magazine it is all the same font which looks boring. The images I have chosen have improved because I have cut them out to have them on a white background, this makes them stand out and look more like photos that would actually feature in a professional magazine. The photos on my school magazine are all very squared and messy, where as I have made my music magazines images more spaced out and easier to see. The colours I have used on my music magazine stand out, and are appealing this is because of the vibrancy in the purple. Also the purple works well with the black and white because they compliment each other and are easily visible.

I think that both my music front cover and contents have improved compared to my preliminary task. I think that doing the preliminary has helped the production of my magazine as it gave me the chance to design a magazine then look at what was good and bad about it. I then carried these ideas through to my music magazine to help make it more professional.