The author learned several new skills in creating their music magazine that improved upon their initial college magazine. They gained proficiency in Final Cut Pro X and learned both basic and advanced skills in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop by importing and editing images within InDesign. These new technical skills allowed the author to create a more developed magazine that better expressed their vision. Previously, the author had limited experience in Photoshop and little knowledge of music magazine conventions.

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

2. I developed in ways with various other programs such as an
increased proficiency in Final Cut Pro X, developing video for
the research of my magazine using effects that I had never
used before. I also developed in my skills with Adobe InDesign,
learning, as a complete beginner, the absolute basics of how to
resize images and import/place media, to more advanced skills
of editing images via Adobe Photoshop while still being in the
InDesign program. These developments, with InDesign and
Photoshop particularly, have allowed me to produce a final
magazine, that is much more technically developed than my
college magazine and much more expressive of the music
magazine I wanted to create in terms of its objective features,
conventional (and unconventional) use of magazine traditions
and appeal to a target audience.
I had very limited experience in Adobe
Photoshop when it came to developing
this initial magazine, as well as the fact
that I did not have an extensive knowledge
of music magazine conventions or typical
features as I had not done textual analysis
of various magazine covers, contents
pages or double page spreads.
The feature image on the front cover of the college magazine
was restricted, in the sense that it had to be a particular style
of shot and represent particular social groups in society.
Therefore, in a creative sense, I was not able to express the
features that I so wanted to, yet the task gave me a grounding
in creating basic front cover. I did not know, however, the
most simplest of tools such as how to change the stroke size
of a ‘Spot Healing’ tool, which is something that I learnt and
became proficient in during the development of my music
magazine.
I also did not make good use of textual features of the
magazine, in the sense that I did not utilise thirds or specific
positioning on the page, nor did I make good use of the
advantages of varying fonts (in terms of attracting audiences
or differentiating messages). This is something that I learnt to
do after the research part of my project, and through
extensive reading of magazines in the UK- I learnt to use
various fonts to achieve various effects, I learnt to choose the
best colour scheme for my genre and I learnt to manipulate
images to appeal the most to my audience.
QUESTION 7