The document discusses what the author learned from creating a preliminary magazine project compared to their final magazine project. Some key lessons learned were the importance of research and planning, choosing appropriate photo locations and editing, designing more professional-looking contents pages with multiple columns of articles and pictures, using more interesting color palettes, improving coverlines on the front cover, and gaining greater proficiency with the photo editing software Photoshop. The author felt their final magazine looked much more polished and "like a magazine" compared to their preliminary version due to applying these lessons.

1. Evaluation question 7

2. Preliminary magazine. Front cover Contents page

3. Final product. Double page spread Contents page Front cover

4. Research and Planning. I believe I have learnt how to create a magazine aimed at a specific target audience. In the preliminary there was limited research into any aspect of making a magazine, so I think I have learnt how important planning and research is in creating a magazine. It allows you to gain a better insight into what will work together and what won’t. I’ve also learnt that it’s better to make lots of different mock ups, so you can see which of your ideas work well together, something I didn’t do for my preliminary task.

5. Design. Also, the place where you take your photos, mise-en-scene, is also important. For my preliminary task I just took the main image in the media room, which didn’t fit in with the drama themed magazine. The photos I took for my full product were mainly taken against plain walls, meaning it was easier for me to cut out the models afterwards. I have learnt that the contents pages need much more articles than I had in my preliminary task and that the page numbers don’t have to go in chronological order. My colour palette also looks more ‘interesting’ for my final product as I have tried to use colours that people wouldn’t expect to see together, the turquoise, skin colour and pink-red, rather than the plain black, white and red I used for my preliminary task.

6. Information. I think the coverlines that I used on my front cover for my preliminary task were not very interesting, and where too ‘wordy’ for the front cover. I also had to put the coverlines onto a coloured background, otherwise they weren’t readable against the image background. The coverlines that I used in my final product are short and eye-catching, and I only gave extra information for the main article, which makes the page look less inundated with words. My contents page has also improved dramatically. I only had 5 articles on my preliminary work, and two pictures to accompany it. My final product has 4 columns of articles, which makes the contents page look more realistic, and 5 pictures. Overall, this gives my contents page for my final product a more professional and ‘busy’ look.

7. Photoshop. Mostly though I feel I have learnt how to use Photoshop and gained a better understanding of the tools and the effects it can create. When making my preliminary task I have never been on Photoshop before and this limited me to a handful of tools, such as the paint brush and the magic easer, that I could use, but having to use the technology so much for my magazine has made me a lot more confident in using it. I think this is reflected in my work, as my full product looks much more professional, and more like a magazine, than my preliminary task does. I also learnt how to edit photos more effectively for my final product, as the images on my preliminary task hadn’t been edited, whereas my final product has greyscale photos, and certain parts are highlighted in photos, or are more colourful, like the image used in my double page spread.