Looking back at your Preliminary Task,

what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

ComparisonPreliminary – Front

CoverFinal – Front Cover

Comparing the front cover of the preliminary task I did compared to my final front cover I believe, shows that I have learnt a lot from the construction of this media product and along the way I learnt many skills whilst constructing my media product.O I learnt that the Masthead needs to be bold and should stand out from

the rest of the writing that is on the front cover. It needs to be seen clearly and the header should be just above it. Whether the Masthead be, the header should be roughly aligned with it. This is seen in my final magazine. I made sure the header was roughly aligned with the masthead, otherwise it will look out of place as seen in my preliminary task.

O Another thing I learnt was that there shouldn’t be too much writing on both sides of the magazines. All the main writing should be in the rule of thirds column on the left hand side and on other brief pieces of writing can go on the right hand side. However, I challenged this Stereotype and did it the other way round. But the majority of the writing should be in the rule of thirds column.

O The distinct use of Photoshop makes my image on the final front cover look more professional by using tools such as the brightness and contrast tool. I learnt that the front image has to grab the attention of the audience straight away. The artist on the preliminary task looks quite innocent and doesn’t really grab your attention.

However, I made sure on my final magazine the main image did grab the audiences attention and I have followed this as the artist is giving and intimidating look to the camera which is very captivating.O The barcode shouldn’t be placed randomly anywhere on the page, it

should be placed usually in the bottom corners of the front cover or near the bottom somewhere, but it should be touching the border of the page.

O The text should also be aligned with each other as it looks more professional when all the text starts at the point and ends and same point. In the preliminary task none of the text on my front cover is aligned which makes the magazine look extremely messy. Compared to my actual magazine cover; all the text is aligned with each other. The text starts at the point and ends at the same point.

O I also learnt the spacing between the words or sentences should be spaced out correctly. The spacing between the words and sentences should be even as seen in my final front cover.

O The shouldn’t be any hyphens on the front cover of your magazine in between words as the magazine looks quite armature. I used the hyphen tool to get rid of any hyphens that would have been in the text of my actual front cover. As seen compared to the preliminary task, there is a hyphen between a sentence which makes the text look tacky.

ComparisonPreliminary – Contents

PageFinal – Contents Page

Comparing the contents page of the preliminary task I did compared to my final contents page, I believe, shows that I have learnt a lot from the construction of this media product. I did not actually construct a contents page on photo shop, I did a mock up of one instead.O The layout of preliminary task in comparison to the layout of

the contents page in my actual magazine I believe is much better as it looks more proficient because everything is in its own columns for e.g. all the pictures and text are together.

O The most important thing is how to use the white space effectively. In my preliminary task there is a lot of white space around and there is no structure to the design as its all over the place. Whereas, in my final music magazine the space has been used effectively with very small and equal white spacing.

O I have made sure that the colours on my final magazine are consistent the whole of my magazine. However, I do believe that if I did get the chance to create a contents page on Adobe Photoshop, I wouldn’t have kept the colours consistent as I wouldn’t have known to do it.

O Another skill I learnt was the contents page images should be easily seen and clear. In the preliminary task I did the images are at the bottoms and extremely small which look quite dull. However, in my actual magazine the images take up about 3/5ths of the page which makes the magazine appeal more to audiences as its looks colourful and eye catching.

O I also learnt that the text should be seen vividly, and this is done by the font style and size you use. The front style in my preliminary task was very bland and had no edge to it. However, in my final magazine the font style is very appealing and stands out to a lot of people the most ( I discovered this through research ). The font size in my contents page varies through a variety of different sizes. I made sure the font wasn’t too small so it couldn’t be readable but also that it wasn’t too big that it was in your face, so I had to make it a decent size i.e. that it was big and stood out but not too big.

ComparisonPreliminary – Double Page

Spread

Final – Double Page Spread

Comparing the double page spread of the preliminary task I did compared to my final double page spread, I believe, shows that I have learnt a lot from the construction of this media product. I did not actually construct a double page spread on Photoshop or Publisher, I did a mock up of one instead. I believe I have leant how and understood how to develop something into a real life product judging from the difference of my mock up for the preliminary student college magazine task compared to my final double page spread for my music magazine. O I have learnt how to structure a double page spread article and

the typical conventions of one for e.g. a drop cap or a large title. The use of Publisher enabled me to add a drop cap to the beginning of the article which draws in the attention of audience as it looks interesting and too make sure I caught the attention of audiences to my double page spread; I changed the drop cap colour from black to blood red so it stands out from the rest of the magazine as the article is the main content on the double page spread.

O I learnt that the images on the double page spread should either be one big image or a few images here and there and not small images everywhere as it can look tacky. I did this for my college

Magazine so I tried to prevent it completely when creating my double page spread for my final music magazine. I chose to use one big image for my double page spread as I believed it was sophisticated for my target audience and I saw this in many magazines which were similar to my genre; therefore I tried to follow the typical design and layout of a classical music magazine as I wanted my magazine to be close to a real life product as possible. O Another thing I learnt was to make sure the article on the double

page spread wasn’t too long to read. I wanted to make it short and snappy. I made sure that there wasn’t too much text included in the article.

O I made sure that the colours I used were consistent with the colour scheme throughout the whole of the magazine. Again, like the contents page I do believe that if I did create a double page spread on Adobe Photoshop or Publisher for the preliminary task, I wouldn’t have kept the colours on it consistent like I did do for my final magazine.

The Double Page Spread for my final music magazine was the most challenging page to make out of all the three pages as it required a lot of work due to the complexity of it. But, I do have faith in it and I believe that is one of the strongest pages of my music magazine.