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

       Preliminary task                         Music magazine cover

Looking back at the difference between my preliminary task (college magazine) and my main task (music magazine) I can visibly notice that I have learnt and gained a variety of different skills and methods of Adobe Photoshop. When I first started my preliminary task I had no experience of using Photoshop before, therefore I was entirely confused and had to start from scratch, this is obvious when looking at my preliminary task as I have not manipulated anything; I merely placed the different layers on and left it. I feel that the only thing I genuinely had a clear understanding of was the use of different fonts and shapes as it was something I could do on Microsoft word. However as I wanted to make my music magazine to the best of my ability I watched tutorials on YouTube to understand how to work some of the more complicated aspects of Adobe Photoshop which allowed me to learn some more advanced skills then I would have acquired alone. I felt that this was an advantage on my behalf due to the fact it allowed me to have a lot more freedom when it initially came down to putting my music magazine together. The skills that I learnt were of a wide range and allowed me to have a better understanding of the manipulation tools and many other things. I also learnt a lot about blending modes and how to use the transformation options.

When I first started my preliminary task I had not done too much research on other magazines and therefore I did not feel that a colour scheme had much importance which is visibly seen as I have only used similar colours to which are not very effective. The colours that I did use for my college magazine did not stand out due to being so similar to my background. I feel that because of this my magazine looked messy resulting to it looking unprofessional. Along with my lack of understanding of colour schemes I also did not take note of my font and colours of my text, causing them to not stand out and again look unprofessional. In addition I feel that the image I used for my college magazine was not effective as it was very simple and caused ‘college’ to seem like a boring environment as I done no manipulation to the image leaving it simple and bland. However I acquired advice from my peers and my teachers and this enabled me to have the right understanding and confidence of Photoshop to create my music magazine. Some tools that I felt were extremely useful were:

·         The magic wand tool- this tool allowed me to save a lot of time as you could remove the background of an image usually with one click. However there were times when I needed to use the erase tool to remove the extra parts and to tidy the image up. This tool was very effective and allowed me to get most of my work done in a reasonable amount of time.

·         The blending options- these options allowed me to paste in different and certain textures for my work and this allowed me to make my images more interesting and added more texture.

·         The colour match tool- this tool was extremely helpful as it allowed me select a colour from a chosen part of my magazine and apply it to a piece I was about to create. This therefore allowed me to use the same colour scheme with all aspects of my magazine without being confused and worrying about getting the wrong shade. By using this tool I was able to represent that I had an understanding of unity within magazines.

·         The stroke tool- this tool was one that I found very useful as it allows me to add a refined edge to my masthead. I used this tool for both my cover page and my contents page. I used this tool as a way to make my text stand out therefore causing it to attract the reader’s eye. This tool allowed me to add a black rim around my specified font, with this I was able to change and decide the width of the stroke therefore allowing me the freedom to decide how I presented my work.

In my preliminary task I decided that when addressing my audience I would take a very neutral approach due to college being full of different cultures and interests. I decided to speak in a normal manner in my college magazine as I felt that as it was an educational magazine it would be appropriate to speak in the dialect that is emphasised in college. However I felt that due to the age of the students they would not want a boring magazine based on math and science, therefore I decided to put popular topics such as ‘gossip’ that would be more appealing for this particular age. However when I was creating my music magazine I addressed my audience in a much more precise tone and nature as I felt that my audience was specific. In addition when I was creating my preliminary task I did not know that people are more attracted to magazines due to the image therefore in my college magazine I had an image that had an objective gaze, whereas my music magazine had a image with a subjective gaze, which ultimately most magazines that are mainstream like mine tend to have a subjective image to attract the readers.

Also in my preliminary task I didn’t really use many different fonts or colours with my text and this is due to the fact I did not realise that they had an importance to stand out and be appealing. In addition my masthead was rather small and although it did stand out, it would not have if the other content was of better quality. This was something that I did not want to happen when I was creating my music magazine, as it looked very unprofessional. This is why I decided to go for a simple, yet striking font and colour for my music magazine which in my opinion made it memorable.

When I first started my preliminary task I had done very little research and had little understanding on what was essential on a magazine and this is visible with my cover for college magazine. After I had finished it I did a lot of research and analysing of different music magazines and different layouts, and key qualities which additionally was shown in my music magazine. With the feedback that I received from peers and my teacher I ensured that my music magazine would not have the same mistakes.