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

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Front CoversPreliminary Main Task

Contents PagesPreliminary Main Task

Double page spread for main task

It is evident that my preliminary is very plain compared my front cover. It is evident that I adhered to the conventions of following a colour scheme, however, I believe I didn’t experiment with colours and impressions enough. In addition, it doesn’t look professional, which subverts the target audience’s standards, as they are parents of the sixth formers, who’d dominantly expect a well constructed magazine. I believe I improved this in my main task, as the colour scheme fits in with my target audience, as vibrant colours suggest a vibrant and outgoing personality, which is seen in this.

I feel as if my contents page for my preliminary magazine was better than the front cover, however, there was still need for improvement. Again, the contents page doesn’t look professional. To overcome this problem in my main task, I made the main feature distinguishable to secondary features, to fit the conventions of a music magazine. I also added another attraction ‘Monthly Giveaway’ to attract to my audience further, compared to just feeding them information.

I found this most challenging as I did not practice making double page spread, but by looking through music magazine double page spreads, I got an idea of what to work off of.

On the next slide is example of how I improved technically…

Technical Skills and adhering to a Genre

Here is my main picture for my preliminary task. I used this as my front cover. I cropped the image and put it onto a grey-white gradient. However, the lines on his body were still harsh and didn’t look professional. To overcome this, I put an outer glow to soften the lines. However, his didn’t look realistic, therefore, it didn’t mirror the genre of a school magazine, whereby school life and information is reality.

BEFORE AFTER

On the other hand…

To give a professional look, I decided to put the model against a white wall, to avoid making the lines around the artist’s body harsh. After this, I still believed that I needed to make it look more like a Pop magazine. To achieve this, I experimented with the Brightness and Contrast tool, and achieved a more HD look, which I have seen in Pop magazines, adhering to the professionalism associated with the Pop genre.

BEFORE AFTER

What have I learnt?- OVERALL

• I feel I have learnt a lot from the preliminary task to the main task. This is particularly seen from technical skills, which has enabled me to adhere to a chosen genre more successfully.