The document discusses the learning and improvements the author made from their preliminary magazine task to the full magazine product. Some key areas of improvement included using less exaggerated design elements, incorporating genre-appropriate props in images, limiting colors and fonts used, and increased research into magazine conventions. Planning and justifying design decisions also improved. While happy with overall results, the author notes they would spend more time on contents page design, research fonts and language techniques for headings if doing the task again.

1. Looking back at your preliminary
task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
Evaluation 7

2. Masthead
From the preliminary task masthead to the main masthead there is improvement between the two. This is because of my lack of
understanding of magazine mastheads. For example as you can see clearly, I have used a very strong stroke. You wouldn’t see that on
magazines not even on children's magazine as it would be too exaggerated. I have learnt this from my research of general mastheads. As you
can see there is a massive difference between the stroke on my preliminary task masthead and the main task masthead. This is because on
the ‘Rave’ masthead you could see that it is smaller and less harsh as it is a glow and that makes it look subtle and professional. It is clear
from the two masthead how I have learnt how to use the tools on InDesign and improved it. For example, you could see that for my
preliminary task masthead I have used everything on a high level whereas on my main task masthead, I have used a wide range of tools
however, I used the right amount (less is more!).
Moving onto the content of the magazine, you could see that I have used two words for the preliminary task masthead. This can be
acceptable however the least the better as it could be much more catchy especially for my target audience. Not only that, but you could also
see that the letters are stuck together and that could cause confusion for my target audience because t hey are very young. Having a long
masthead with very tight kerning makes the magazine look too messy and crowded. You can see that I have developed this as I have used a
much shorter masthead for my main task with kerning also to show clarity. Not only that but because my main task masthead was short, I
needed to make sure that it spread through the page and that is why I used kerning.
I have also used 3 different colors within the masthead of the preliminary task. I learnt that this could make the magazine appear very busy
especially if the colors were bright and that is exactly what I did. Looking at my main task masthead I have only used two colors and between
those two colors only one is bright. This causes less disruption and doesn't’t make the magazine look busy with bright colors.

3. Contents page
Clearly the lay outs of the two contents pages are very different.
This shows how much research has been put on each contents
page. By looking at existing music contents page, I have noticed
that they out very short sub headings as well as the descriptions. As
you can see I have followed that convention on my main task,
however on the primary contents page you could clearly see that
both sub title and description are long. This shows
unprofessionalism. Also as you could see the majority of the page is
taken by writing as the picture is displayed in a small size at the
bottom left of the page.
There are a number of similarities between these two contents pages. For
example the font that I have used for the contents are relatively similar. This
is a key convention of a contents page however I have developed this by
using the correct lay out. For my preliminary task, the lay out did not look
professional as only a little research went to that. I have developed this on
my main task however and I have displayed the contents all on one side.
This enabled the page to be neatly presented. Another similarity is that I
have placed the word ‘contents’ at the top of the page. This is a key
convention of a contents page and I clearly showed that. However, on my
main task contents page I have developed that so it could represent my
genres conventions as well as suit my target audience. Although I prefer the
font that I have used on the ‘contents’ on my preliminary task. This is
because I feel as though it represents my target audience a lot more. The
third similarity is that I have included page numbers. However, as you can
see on the preliminary task the numbers do not stand out. I have developed
this as through my research I have found out that the numbers must stand
out especially within my genre. A key convention of a contents page is to
display the name of the magazine somewhere within the contents page. It is
usually written at the top of the page just like how I did it on my main task
contents page. For the picture, I feel as though it looks very unprofessional
as you can see the line that I have left while cutting off the background. This
shows that my skills with Photoshop weren't as good as they are now. I
should have watched more YouTube tutorials.

4. Images
As you can see, the images are very different to each other. This is because on the preliminary task
I have only used the minim photography skills. This is shown through the use of lighting. On my
preliminary task images I have only used natural lighting and 0 of artificial lighting. This is because
my photographic skills were weaker than how they are now. On my main task however, I decided to
use artificial lighting for example I have used the black light for both cover picture and contents
page. This artificial use of lighting gives my images a much more professional look as it has been
taken in a studio and in a studio, you could control all the elements. It is worth to mentioned that
this has also been done to my DPS as I have used LED lights to represent my genre. A similarity is
that in both of the tasks, I have used a good range of props. For example within my preliminary
task, I have used the minion bag, costume and for the contents page I have used the hat as well as
costume again. For my main task i used props as well but the props that I have used in my main
task relate to my genre much more. For example, the clubbing glasses, raving bra (DPS), neon paint,
and the t shirt all link to clubbing and also all represent my social group. However as you can see
on my preliminary task I decided to use a hat on the model. This is not very accurate in terms of
what image I am trying to get across. Not only that, but hat doesn't’t really represent the social
group that was aimed to be represented with the magazine. However, I do believe that I have used
two elements right within the images of both tasks. The first will have to be facial expressions. This
is because on my preliminary task you could see that the facial expressions on the child are very
positive and that represents the social group within the magazine. Also for my main task, I have
used facial expressions very well as the cover picture shows a female with an open mouth. This
represents my target audiences as they have personalities like what my model is doing. She is
showing her crazy and wild side as well as confidence. For my contents image however, the male
has his tongue out which this is also a common facial expression that my target audience tend to
do when they are excited or happy. The second element that I have done very well within both
magazine is choosing the right camera shots. For the preliminary task, for the cover picture I chose
to do a medium shot, this is because I wanted to show the models bag as that would attract my
target audience as well as show his personality as that represent the target audience. However, for
the contents page I decided to use a medium shot again as I wanted to capture his positive facial
expressions. For my main task, I have used close up for my cover picture as the main focus was the
clubbing glasses and the make up, and for the contents page, I did medium shot as I wanted to
show the shirt as well as his facial expressions

5. Font/Typography - Magazine cover
In terms of typography, you can see that there in improvement in designing it so that it
looks much more professional. This is because on the preliminary task cover lines you could
see that I have used more than one/two colors. This shows that I didn’t have a house
style/colour scheme that I stuck to. This shows unprofessionalism. Not only that but also a
lot of colors could show the magazine as being too busy with colour. This distracts the read
from focusing on the main focus of the magazine. For example I have used simple colors on
my main task cover lines which were light orange and white. These two were light and so
didn’t cause any distraction. Not only that, but also because the colors of the fonts are light,
this makes the central image and the main cover line stand out a lot. This has been done in
existing magazine and so that is where I have learnt this from. Moving onto the actual font
of the magazine, for the preliminary task, I find that I have used so many fonts. This also
made it very unprofessional as through looking at existing magazine the maximum number
of fonts they would use on their magazine covers is 3 only! Because I have used so many
fonts, it was not clear which the main cover line was on the magazine. On my main task
however, you could see that I have used only one font throughout all fonts and then
changed the font for the cover line so that it looks different and could stand out to truly be
the main cover line. The lay out of the cover line has also improved as you can see on my
main task, I have stuck to a certain shape to ensure that my magazine cover looks very neat.
However, in my preliminary task, you could see that I have placed the fonts in different
shapes making the magazine appear messy. Not only that but I have also placed the cover
lines where I found an empty space on the magazine. This shows that I haven’t planned the
layout of my magazine cover very well.

6. Font/Typography – Contents page
As for the typography for my contents page, you could see a major
improvement in how I have presented the contents. For example, as you
can see on my preliminary task I have displayed my contents in black. The
colour black with the font that I have chosen did not go well together and
that made my contents page look unprofessional. Although I still prefer the
typography that I have used on my preliminary task for the ‘contents’, this is
because I feel as though it fits very well with my target audience whereas
for my main task, it still fits my target audience but it look quite boring. Not
only that, but you could also see that on my main task contents page I have
experimented with colour quite a lot as I have added color in many
elements. For example the numbers of the pages are in different color and
font whereas on my preliminary task contents page, the numbers fit in with
the contents. Furthermore, i feel as though I have shown that the sub title is
the sub title as I have made it stand out by using the correct font style. This
is because on the main task contents page, I have used a very bold font to
ensure that the sub title stood out whereas on me preliminary task the font
isn't as bold. It is worth to mention that the layout of my contents page did
not look professional, this shows the amount of research that went for the
preliminary task. However for my main task you could see it looks organized
as I have used lines to section everything. This breaks it down for the
readers making it easy to read. You can now tell that I have improved my
research skills.

7. Research and planning
• This task also involved research and planning just like the preliminary task. I
believe that I have improved my research skills as I have done a lot more
research for the main task. I believe that this is why my end products were
very good as they all met the conventions and elements that I have found
out within my research. For my preliminary task, I haven’t done as much
research as the majority was planning and it wasn’t a lot of planning either.
This prevented my work from being in its best standard.
• Alongside with research, I have also improved my planning skills as within
my blog I was backing every decision I have made. For example for the
photoshoots, I have made a whole PowerPoint presentation explaining all
the different props, angles and what type of model i am going to be using
and justifying my decisions linking it to my target audience and genre.
However for my preliminary task, I haven’t done any of that.

8. What would I improve if I did this task again?
• I feel as though my main problem throughout this task was time. This is because I haven’t
done this task before and so I didn’t have an idea about how much time I should spend on
each product. I should have resolved this problem by making myself a time table and writing
what I should work on each day. This is so that I could have more time to work on the
contents and DPS so they could be in a better standard.
• Also, I feel as though I should have spent more time on the research for the fonts on the
contents page, particularly for the numbers as I feel as though it makes my contents page
look very unprofessional. To fix this, i should have researched more on the fonts that
clubbing/dance genres do.
• Thirdly, I feel as though I should have used language techniques on my DPS heading. This is
because it would make it look much more catchy and interesting. I would of came up with a
best heading for my double page spread if I have researched more about language
techniques on DPS headings.
• Overall, I am very happy with how my magazine products came out as I believe that I have
created it so that it looks realistic and believable. This happened because I did good research
on magazines forms and conventions in general as well as my genres conventions.