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

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

Since completing my magazine I believe I have learnt more about the different software’s and have developed my skills further in the programmes Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. At the beginning of the academic year when I was working on my preliminary task, I found it hard to demonstrate my skills as I had never used the programmes before and so was unfamiliar with the different tools and buttons I could include to make my magazine look sophisticated and professional.

For the preliminary task, I only completed a rough sketch of how I wanted the cover and contents page of my school magazine to look like whereas for the real product I completed several different documents that contributed to the planning and research stage of my magazine. I found this to be very helpful as it gave me a clear idea of the different components I needed to include in my magazine to suit the genre and audience of my magazine.  I believe these stages helped me to develop my skills to make my current magazine look professional.

Looking back at the preliminary task, I noticed I used a similar layout to my final product. For example, the front cover of the school magazine I created includes a full bleed image with sell lines placed around the image as well as the masthead at the top of the page written in bold letters to appeal to the reader.  For the preliminary task I involved the caption ‘the top selling school magazine for Haydon’, alike the preliminary task for my final product I Included the caption ‘the uk’s favourite top selling magazine’. On the other hand, there are some features that I changed since the preliminary task including the colour scheme. For my school magazine I used the colour scheme dark blue/purple and black as I believed these colours were relevant for the genre of the magazine and suited the logo of Haydon School. However, for the final product I included the colour scheme of red, white and black to emphasise the genre of pop/rock music and to appeal to the dual gender.  I believe the change in colours benefitted my magazine and enhanced the quality of and professionalism of my final product.