Q7/ Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the start of the course, I can see that I have learnt, developed and gained new skills. The preliminary task was to design a college magazine. The target audience was students(16-18). This target audience is easy to research, because I could ask people around me fitting that description. The model is looking into camera, engaging the audience more. The finished preliminary product, my college magazine, needed a lot more added to give the reader more information. The expression on the models face doesn’t suit the genre/ magazine.

Preliminary task

This is my final front cover for my music magazine. Again the models are looking into camera, just like the model on my college magazine, this means they are engaging the audience, attracting them and making them want to read it. There are more colours added to this magazine compared to the college magazine and more has been added to the cover, for example banners, puffs, pugs and more stories. Adding these makes the front cover more interesting and more attractive, this was not done in my prelim task.

Full product

When I compare my preliminary final product to my music magazine, I can see that I have developed my Photoshop skills and my knowledge of it as well. I have learnt more about the tools and what to use for certain areas. Photoshop alters the image, the masthead, the text, etc. For my preliminary task, I didn’t use most of the tools to my advantage, I made it very limited on the front cover, compared to my music magazine which I have used all the tools to my advantage, for example airbrushing the models, creating the masthead/ text and the shapes.

Photoshop

When making both of my magazines, there were parts(conventions) that had to be included. The barcode and date is a convention that has to be kept, this shows when the magazine was made and shows how old it is, this means the reader will read it if its more recent. The barcode means it can be sold in a retail store, from corner shops to supermarkets. Issue numbers are another convention that has to be kept, this shows the audience that there are more than one issues, it can also show if the magazines popular by how big the number is.

Conventions that must be kept