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

When I started the preliminary task I had no skills or knowledge of using InDesign or any of the other programs listed in Question 6. Having little understanding of how to use the software’s in the preliminary task meant I produced a student magazine of which I was not proud of - I feel as though I didn’t put my full potential and ability into the task and I produced a poor quality piece of work. When it came to start producing the main task I felt increasingly more confident as I had been taught many new features and I had watched many videos on YouTube explaining how to do certain things on InDesign. I have learnt how to make my practical work look more professional by asking my target audience what they think and doing my own research into what indie/pop magazines look like and what content they feature.

During my preliminary task I did little research and this didn’t help me in analysing my magazine pages. I did more research for my indie music magazine which helped me with designing and constructing my magazine as I knew the forms and conventions of indie magazines, as well as what the layout should be like. The preliminary task contained no continuity and the layout was unprofessional, the key conventions were all over the place and it looked very complex. The magazine I produced for my main task looked more professional as I stayed with only a few colours to create a sense of simplicity and continuity throughout my magazine (green, white, black). The general conventions were placed more appropriately in my music magazine as I knew what would look best as I had done a lot more research, for example, my images on my contents page were placed far more appropriately as they were next to the relevant information.

I also spent more time on the photography aspect of my music magazine as I feel the photographs are what draw the readers in (it’s the hook that 70% of people buy magazines based on). I learnt how to make my photographs look more appealing to my target audience – I used a proper digital camera to take the photographs and I used a spotlight with the images with a white/negative background. In the live photographs I focused on how my models were being represented. In the (long-shot) central image featured on my double page spread, the model looks slightly moody, but in the bottom left hand corner, in the secondary image, the same model is smiling/laughing. This is because I wanted to beat stereotypes of ‘indie’/hipster people, people assume they are moody or in a bad mood all the time. I beat the stereotype as I showed that she is happy and can have a good time.