Looking back at your preliminary

task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progressing from it to

the full product?

• The main thing which I

feel I have achieved is

the ability to use software

better. At the beginning

of my preliminary task,

my Photoshop skills were

limited and the product I

created wasn't very

good. After practice and

tutorials on Photoshop, I

managed to use a variety

of different tools in order

to make the product look

more professional and

authentic which was the

main aim of the task..

The Preliminary

The Final Contents

Me using skills on Photoshop

in order to create the Contents

page for my magazine

• It is clear to see where my skills have changed and

developed from start to end as the final product looks a lot

more professional and more aesthetically pleasing to the

target audience. I have made sure I have used my model

and information on the cover to appeal to the target reader

using costume, makeup and hair as well as bands which

they will be interested in as it will make them want to buy

the magazine.

PRELIMINARY

MAGAZINE

FINAL

MAGAZINE

• From doing my preliminaries I have also learned

to use different technologies such as

cameras, lighting equipment and, of

course, Photoshop. Using these I increased my

knowledge as to how magazines are made and

also how to use skills I have gained in order to

create a product that looks professional and

authentic.

ORIGINAL

IMAGE

ENHANCED

IMAGE

As you can see from the

images, I learned how to use the

enhancing tools on Photoshop in

order to make my images look

better and more professional to

make my magazine look more

authentic overall.

• On my final product I used a

variety of different tools and effects

which I worked out how to use. I

think that this makes the final

product look a lot more

professional in comparison to my

preliminary work. The images are

sharper and the overall look of the

product is more authentic.

MY MAGAZINE COVER

EFFECTIVE DUE TO SHARP

IMAGES MAKING IT LOOK

AUTHENTIC

Images of

successful

artists are very

sharp and

enhanced to

make the

photograph look

more

professional

and the model

look better.

• In comparison to my prelim, the way I have edited the cover to make it look

more professional as I have done a lot of research to realise how the

magazine should look. I have also further researched magazines which

relate to the music genre I have chosen which ensures my magazine is

fitting and will look authentic enough to be sold on shelves alongside other

magazines. When doing the preliminary work I hadn't done any research

into magazine conventions and I believe that this has helped me to create a

better product overall which makes it more professional and more attractive

to my target market.

A range of successful magazines and my magazine, showing

that it doesn’t look bad amongst other professional, REAL

magazines

• An example of this is using exposure and contrasting in order to make the image more striking and to make the magazine stand out more to readers. Before, the colours which I used were very simple and understated meaning that it looked fairly boring. I believe that the cover of my magazine is very eye catching and is attractive to the intended audience (as opposed to my prelim which was supposed to be aimed at students who may not have been attracted to the magazine)

• From my research I found that a lot of the images had been enhanced in order to make them look smoother and more professional and so I wanted to do the same on my magazine. I didn’t do this in my preliminary task which one of the reasons why it didn’t look authentic enough or professional enough to pass for a real school magazine

• If I had the skills then that I now have then it would have looked a lot better.

My preliminary (shown

top left) looked dark and

dreary- not something

that a magazine should

look like!

During this evaluation

question I quickly edited

the exposure on the

image and it looked a lot

more professional

(bottom left) meaning

that through the

development of these

skills I can make things

look more professional

and make a better

quality product than

before.

Quick change

on Photoshop

• My understanding of the way which magazines are created

has improved as during the research and planning I looked

into magazines. This involved analysis of covers, contents

pages and double page spreads. This helped me to

understand the conventions of magazines and helped me to

realise how I needed to layout my magazine

I have tried to make elements of my magazine similar to others as well as using

conventions taken from my analysis of existing products. Here I have followed the

Q magazine DPS by having an image of my artist filling one page and the writing

on the other page which I think works well, is effective yet is still clear for the

reader.

• The double page spread shows using techniques such as exposure, shadows, text

alignment, creating patterns within text which all helped to create a more

professional product overall. This was achieved through the development of skills

that I gained from doing my preliminary work as well as research and planning.

• I also realised the techniques, features and conventions used in order to appeal to a

chosen audience. Features such as the golden spiral for photographs as it controls

the readers focus on the page as well as being able to make the page aesthetically

pleasing to the target reader.

Me using skills developed from my

preliminaries in order to create my

magazines double page spread.

• My knowledge grew further during planning when I was creating

drawn plans and computer versions of the plan. Working out where

everything would look best and what i wanted it to look like overall

was challenging however with time and practice I became a lot

more aware of the layout of my magazine and how i wanted to

make it look. This then helped me achieve my final product

Cover design drawn

and then scanned into

the computer. This

was used as a

template when

designing my draft

magazine.

Draft magazine following the

design draft template

• Showing the contents pages from my preliminary work and my

final project it is clear to see the differences as I have

developed my skills on Photoshop

• First of all I believe that the final contents page is more suited

to my target audience as I think that they will relate more to

the images, text and layout/overall look of the page

• I think that my preliminary work is

quite boring and does not relate

well to the target audience of school

students as they will be more likely

to want to look at something

exciting and fun (full of pictures,

text, stories, etc) and therefore

doesn't fit the target audience well.

• School students don’t enjoy looking

at things which are really boring and

therefore this wouldn’t appeal to my

audience

• However, I think that the stories and

features that I have shown on the

contents page to be within the

magazine would be appealing to

them as they would want to read

these things. I took this forward and

used exciting features that would

appeal to my target audience in my

final magazine

• Also the layout looks more

professional. The final design

shows that I have researched

carefully into the way which

magazine contents pages have

been laid out in real magazines.

I did this in order to achieve an

authentic looking magazine

contents page and I feel that

with a few tweaks it could look

very professional and authentic

• I would want to change the

colour on the background in

order to make it more fun to look

at as I think that this would

relate to my audience more.

They would want to read the

magazine which is the main

purpose of the product,

• The preliminary layout wasn't

unprofessional or scatty, it was

neat which was good as it was

clear for the audience to read

however the neatness and

lack of images/colour made it

look really boring and

therefore not good enough to

be considered a real magazine

• My draft magazine

contents was really

crowded and messy

which made it really

difficult for my audience

to read. For my final

magazine I needed to

tone it down and make

the page less busy.

A mixture of too simple/boring and

too crowded and busy making a good

contents page,

DRAFT

PRELIMINARY FINAL

After comparing my magazine contents pages to other existing

contents pages I don’t think that mine look to bad. I think that they look

fairly authentic which was the main point of the project and I think that,

like the others, my magazine contents appeals to my target audience

which will make them want to read and buy my product.

• I have learnt that using images of better quality (and using the right people!)

ensure a more professional and genuine look to the magazine. Using the

camera and other equipment that the school provided I managed to create

good quality images to use throughout my magazine in order to ensure that

the magazine looked as good, high end and professional as possible

This is a good quality image of George which I used in my preliminary,

however the pose and the costume (etc) wouldn’t appeal to my audience.

Also he probably isn't the best person to use to appeal to students as the

whole image looks a bit boring.

This image of Chloe which I used in my draft. It is a

good image as she looks relaxed and would appeal to

my target readers however the quality is awful and

the costume would need a few tweaks in order to

make it good enough.

These images used in my final product were a lot

better quality and would appeal/relate to my target

audience more than the others. The quality of them

makes them more professional and the costumes

reflect the genre and the readers well.

• From looking at the cover of

my magazines, development

in skills and ideas is clearly

shown. The more

professional (neater) layout

and the more relevant topics

shows development in my

understanding of the concept

and target audience as well

as developing skills in taking

photographs and using

technology (Photoshop) in

order to bring my product

together and have continuity

throughout which, I

believe, makes my product

more professional and

therefore more suited to my

target audience.