Looking back at your preliminary task

Here are my preliminary front cover and my contents with my music magazine front cover and contents page. I have put them next to each other so I can see where I have progressed. Since producing my preliminary tasks I have learnt a lot about the program Photoshop and I think my skills have progressed as my music magazine is of a higher standard to my college magazine.

On Photoshop I learnt how to change the blending modes on the text to make it stand out and look more appealing. I used the stroke tool in the blending options to give my text an outline to make it more exciting. Also i learnt how to add a gradient onto my photograph to darken it so text can be more visible, I did this on my double page spread at the bottom because the text was hard to read because of the image for the background, by adding the gradient I added black to the image which helped to make the text visible meaning it is now easier to read.

In addition I changed the filters in some of the images I used because they had a slight blue tone to them, and it looked unnatural so i put a red filter on the to make the image look more realistic. Plus i used the magnetic lasso tool, and the magic wand tool a lot in order to select parts of the image that I wanted to copy or change slightly. And I changed the angle of some of my images to make them more exciting to look at, I did this on my contents page several times.

I used the rulers in my music magazine tasks, I found this very helpful as I was able to line up text and I could work out where half way on the page was so I could plan the layout easily and it looked more professional as a result. I feathered some of the edges to my images which made them blend in with the background more and the edges therefore did not look as sharp.

I chose a layout that will appeal to my target audience, this is important because if I did not they would not be interested in buying it. I used bold large texts that stand out and are easily read, also I did not put a lot of detail in my written text as I have found from research that teenagers prefer to read information visually rather than reading lots of information. I also chose a band that is of the same age as my target audience which appeals to the target audience as they are able to relate to the magazine and it makes the magazine seem more personal. Plus, the article written has humour in it which is appealing to young adults, and the text is informal to make it more personal to my target audience.

I found it very important to research existing magazines and articles so I could base my ideas around something and had a starting point in which I could expand upon. By looking at magazines/articles that are targeted at my target audience I was able to see what my target audience like and what is expected in the magazines that target similar people to what I have. So this helped me when I was coming up with ideas, and helped me to understand what my audience may like, also it helped me to see a gap in the market with female music magazines.

Also I found it necessary to get feedback and share my ideas. This is because they could find faults that I may not have noticed and they also could come up with ways to improve that I may not of thought of. The more people I share my work with the more faults they will be able to spot and also the more improvement ideas I will receive back.

I needed to be attentive to detail when making my products because if one small thing is wrong in my final product it can ruin the whole product. For example I had spelt something wrong on my double page spread, which was quickly fixed but if it was left it could of ruined the whole spread as it doesn't look professional.

Each time I made changes I checked for accuracy. Also when making my double page spread I wrote my article up on MS Word first so I could proof read it; it is easier to proof read in Word than it is on Photoshop. I had to make sure my article was well written because if it was not then it may put my audience off reading the entire magazine, or it could be the difference in them buying the magazine or not.