Question Seven

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

Looking back at the preliminary task that I created back in September, I feel that I have come a long way in the creation of my magazine, and have made some improvements in my knowledge of the software. For both the preliminary task and my final product I used the software InDesign, when comparing the two products I can see a vast improvement of my ability to use the software and my knowledge of the various tools that were possible for me to use.

I feel that the photos play a massive part in the quality and effectiveness of the magazine. When looking at the preliminary task that I created prior to the music magazine, the images lacked the professionalism which the images used in my music magazine did. The images for the preliminary task were taken using a basic camera on my iPhone compared to the high quality images that were used on my music magazine which were taken using a canon SLR camera – the images that this camera took were much better than those used in the preliminary task and made the magazine look a lot more realistic.

When comparing both the front covers of the preliminary task and the final product I can definitely see a vast improvement in the quality of the products. The preliminary task lacks the realism of a magazine as it looks a lot less realistic than the music magazine I created for my final piece of coursework. When creating the preliminary task, there were not any examples of magazines similar to its type in which I could use for ideas of what is and is not successful. However when creating the real task, there are many music magazine on the market which are extremely successful such as Q and NME which I could look at the successful codes and conventions which I could imitate so that they fitted my house style and genre of magazine.

The most important factor that I felt affected the difference in quality between my preliminary magazine and final task and that was the process of planning the creation of my magazine. I planned the photoshoot, the layout of the magazine and much more which you are able to see under the ‘planning’ tab on my blog (g321zoeramsdaleclark.blogspot.co.uk). I took a lot of time planning the process of the magazine; looking up various music magazines, contents page ideas, sell line ideas, colour scheme ideas and other various aspects that make up a successful magazine. It was very important that I followed the other key conventions which would allow me to create a successful magazine which would effectively attract my target audience. One key factor in which I planned was the involvement of social media as I felt that this would play a massive part in how successful my magazine was due to having quite a young target audience. I researched what forms of social media were frequently used at the moment and utilised my knowledge to make sure all of the key areas were covered.

Overall I believe that I have progressed successfully since the start of the year and I believe that this is noticeable in the quality difference seen between my preliminary task and the full product. My knowledge of the used software has grown massively and I feel that my understanding of the various technologies has heightened massively. With all the practice and application of the skills I have acquired over the past months I feel that I have made a good, strong piece of coursework.