Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The first task I was set was to produce a school magazine and contents page. For my school magazine I made numerous creative decisions that would fit in with the genre of the magazine. The creative descions I had to consider were:

-Location of the pictures

-Name of the magazine

-Props

-Contents of the magazine

-Coverlines

-Colour scheme

These things would have to link in with the school genre which I tried my best to create.

My preliminary task was to create a school magazine front cover and contents page which is shown above. With the school genre I had to carefully consider what type of cover lines and images were to be included in the magazine. I learnt that the type of magazine has to link in with the pictures and information in the magazine. Before doing this task I had little experience on Photoshop and in design and so this magazine does not show the full potential of skills that I have learnt on Photoshop after making this magazine. To create this background I used my school logo and stretched it across the page, and then I used the gradient tool to create the faded effect. On top of this I then placed the picture of my model. Making the cover lines I found out that a typical technique of magazines was to increase the size of certain words to make them stand out. For the contents page I learnt that magazines set their contents pages into columns and so I split mine into three different sections. In each section is different headings which give an idea of what is inside the magazine. I used the same colour scheme throughout which is maroon, blue and cream to link the two pages together.
From this magazine I learnt:
-Different tools and effects on Photoshop
- How to put cover lines onto a magazine-How to split a page into columns
-Different text effect
-Picture editing

This is my music magazine; it is a chart magazine and required different elements than my school magazine because they are two different genres. On this magazine I added a barcode, price, date and issue number which is a typical element of real media products. As well as this I learnt how to add stickers onto the magazine which says ‘voted #1 UK chart magazine 2010’ this is to entice people to buy and read my magazine and is used on many famous music magazines. This type of image involved me linking two layers together which I had learnt to do. With my contents page I split the page into 3 columns but made the second column double up, the reason I did this is because I wanted to have the large image which is used to advertise my magazines double page spread.
Through this magazine I have learnt:
-How to edit text further-How to add stickers onto the magazine
-How to overlap text
-How to use Indesign-How to link layers together on Photoshop
-How to put colours behind images (contents page)

This is my double page spread which is something I did not create for my preliminary task. This was new for me and so I had to learn from the beginning how to create a double page spread. First of all I learnt how to split the page into 6 columns, I placed the text and just pasted it into one the text boxes. By doing this a red cross showed up at the bottom of the page which enabled me to transfer the text into the next text boxes until no more were needed. I learnt how to place a picture in Indesign by 'placing' a picture. I also learnt that you had to change the quality of the page to high so that the pictures did not blur. A typical feature of a double page spread is having a drop caps which I learnt to do. There was a tool in the tool bar of indesign that allowed me to adjust the size of this. I found this size was the best as it still stood out but did not over power the double page spread.

Through making my double page spread I learnt:

- How to add text and pictures

- How to set it out like a double page spread

- Layer text

- Add background

- Make and add pull quotes

OVERALL...