Evaluation question 7: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 your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary sixth form front cover and Contents page 

Music magazine front cover, double page spread and Contents page 

In the preliminary task I felt that my product was genre appropriate but I had not fully explored how to use the editing applications or been very adventurous with my photography. For example the product that I created only used one font, which makes the cover appear very monotone and boring. In my real product I have used a number of different fonts in order to make the magazine more engaging, however I have still made sure that the fonts work well together.

In the preliminary task I used Photoshop for both my contents page and front cover however after researching into the program InDesign I decided that this program would be a better option for more word publications such as my contents page and double page spread. InDesign helped to make my contents page look far more professional than my preliminary task.

click here for research into different editing programs. 

 In the prelim task the masthead of the product is also much too small and does not stand out against the cover lines however in my real product I have made sure that my masthead Is much larger I think this has also helped create a better sense of brand identity and would make the name of the magazine become important and a name that people will automatically know such as NME.



My prelim masthead vs my real masthead.

The photography in my preliminary product was very simple and basic and not very engaging, it did use the rule of thirds and it was genre appropriate but it did not stand out from the crowd in anyway. In my music magazine I tried to rectify this by making my photography much more interesting and engaging for the audience whilst keeping it genre appropriate I felt that I was a lot more adventurous the second time round and I think that this paid off and helped to produce a much more striking image. As well as this, to help me focus the aesthetic of my music magazine, I made a mood board. This aided me in establishing a clear style for my photography.

Click here for a link to my mood board.

I felt that my music magazine contents page was far superior to my preliminary contents page. My prelim contents page did not have a good sense of cohesion and did not adhere to many of the conventions of real magazine contents pages. For example there was no short description under some of the article headlines, there was only one two images used on the page and there was little brand identity created between the contents page and front cover. Where as my music magazine contents page used several different images, all of which worked together well and helped to create a stronger brand identity and helped attract the target audience.


Prelim contents page without descriptions vs real contents with descriptions and more engaging colours.

In the preliminary task I had also forgot small but crucial elements such as a barcode, price and byline. As well as this is did not include a website on the contents page. I remembered to include all of these components in my music magazine and they helped to contribute to making my magazine seem as real as possible as these are all conventions of real magazines.

      Byline and and price and barcode from my real product which add to the verisimilitude of my magazine.

During the creation of my music magazine I learnt about the institutions behind the magazines and how important they were and how they would help my magazine become as realistic as possible. i did this by looking into the different distributors of magazines and looking at magazine media packs. By learning about different institutions I was able to understand how specific language and lexicon of words was used by the institution to create a brand identity and tone.

Click here for the media pack for Q 
Click here for the media pack for Clash 

In the process of creating my real product I researched into my target audience and made a focus group so that I had a better understanding the people that my magazine would be targeting. As well as this I made an audience profile. This helped me to create a magazine that appealed to my target audience more and a product that was similar to the other products that they would buy. I did not do this level of audience research for my sixth form magazine and so I did not know (in detail) who my target audience were and what sort magazines they would buy. 

Click here for a link to my focus group.
Click here for a link to my audience profile.

I also utilised the digital technology available to me and created an online questionaire on google docs. This helped me to interact with my audience and understand how they saw the magazine and what they though was good and bad about it. This meant that I was able to refine my magazine accordingly. 

Click here for a link to my google docs results. 

Before I  created my music magazine I also looked into the genre of music and and at different subcultures before focusing the "indie" subculture and music.

click here for information on the indie subculture

In conclusion I learnt many skills and details about the magazine industry from the production process of my preliminary task to my final task and I think that it helped me greatly.