Q7 powerpoint

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

2. In the progression from my preliminary task
magazine ‘Student Weekly’ to my main task
magazine ‘Rock It’ I feel that it helped me a lot when
producing the main task 4 –page music magazine as I
was able to gain new ideas and understanding of
different software’s. I feel that in my progression to
my full product I learnt how to use tools on Adobe
software’s such as Adobe Photoshop CS5. In order to
create an aesthetically pleasing front cover for the
main task I had learnt from my Prelim Task that
layout was important on the front cover and
contents page to ensure high quality work. By
creating the prelim task first I found that it helped
speed my work flow up when producing the pages
on ‘Rock It’ magazine.

3. Front Cover

6. On my front cover of the preliminary task I used
the ‘Ruler Tool’ (CMD-R) to create the layout of
my magazine so I could make sure the magazine
was symmetrical. This helped me so I knew
where to place shapes and text, which gave me a
rough layout on the page. By doing this I added
the shapes and used the ‘move tool’ (V) to
rearrange the layout. I learnt that laying my page
out and using tools to help such as the ‘ruler
tool’ allowed me to be more accurate with my
conventions and be more effective with time.

7. I kept a consistent house style in blue and yellow
when creating my Prelim magazine, and I kept
swatches so the colours could match to keep the
consistency. In order to do this I used the
‘eyedropper tool’ (I) to make sure I was using the
same colour, I could then add this to my colour
swatches pad. This aided me on my main task as I
could match the desired colours correctly and
quickly, which sped up the workflow.

8. On my Front Cover of my preliminary Task I added
pictures which I edited by using the ‘quick selection tool’
(W) to display the images neatly and professionally. The
‘quick selection tool’ allowed the background of the
image to be deleted in a professional way. However, on
my Main Task I used this tool more effectively as I also
went into Quick Mask Mode with the brush tool and used
the say ‘white reveals and black conceals’ this allowed me
to create a perfect selection. I also used a layer effect and
applied it to my image using a ‘stroke effect’ which is
similar to my magazine of inspiration – ‘Kerrang!’ I learnt
this from my preliminary task as I used a ‘drop shadow’
and ‘stroke effect’ that highlighted the pictures and made
them look more professional.

9. On my preliminary task I added a barcode which
included social media links (synergy) and website links
allowing my readers to interact with the magazine. The
social media logos I used were colourful but did not
match my colour scheme. Therefore, on my main task I
included social media links which matched the house
style as they were white which I edited using the ‘magic
wand tool’ (W) to delete the background colour,
creating a more professional look. On the barcode of
my preliminary task I used my masthead font style to
continue the house style creating brand awareness. On
my main task I also included the name of the magazine
continuing the house style.

10. On my preliminary pages I used
two separate font styles, which I
was able to edit on by going to
‘Window – character’ where I
could play around with the font
to manipulate the size of the
characters so they would fit in
the spaces provided. This helped
with the overall layout of the
page and enabled me to speed
up my work flow on the main
task ‘Rock It’ front page. When
putting text on the page of the
preliminary task I didn’t link the
layers this meant I had to
individually move text. From this
I learnt to link the layers on my
main task which saved time and
made sure the text was still
symmetrical.

11. Contents

14. When starting my contents page editorial
to ensure the spelling and grammar was
correct I wrote it out on a Microsoft Word
document which I then pasted into
Photoshop. This allowed me to use
technical language in my main task
editorial to make it appealing for my
target audience. On my preliminary task
as it was a school magazine I had to adapt
the language so it appealed to teenagers.
Whilst in my main task I had to adapt my
language to fit young adults who are fans
of the Rock genre of music. On my
editorial I ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale – 1980)
a signature to make my magazine look as
professional as possible.

15. On my editorial I included a Drop
Capital convention on my main and
preliminary tasks. On my
preliminary task I created separate
text boxes allowing space for the
drop capital but this was time
consuming as the layers weren’t
linked and it didn’t use the space
effectively. Whereas on the main
task I used the ‘pen tool’ (P) with
anchor points to layout the
editorial. I left space for the Drop
Capital and pasted in my text.
Using the ‘Pen Tool’ allowed the
text to wrap around the image and
Drop Capital. Furthermore, the
drop capital was in my masthead
font style to keep up the brand
identity. The method I used on the
main task was more effective as
the text boxes were easier to move
and fit into the space provided.

16. On my contents page the main tool I used was the ‘ruler tool’
to mark out where the yellow separators on the contents page
would go and where pictures could be placed. This helped me
keep everything symmetrical giving the page a professional
look as I was able to establish where the text, borders and
pictures would be presented. This was important on my main
task contents page as my magazine of inspiration ‘Kerrang!’
uses subtitles ,this meant I could manipulate the text so it
could fit in the contents which demonstrated the highlights of
the magazine. The progress from my preliminary pages to my
main task led me to create more effective layouts so the
magazine appealed to the readers more.

17. Double Page Spread

19. As I mentioned previously many of the skills from Photoshop
CS5 were transferable to other desktop publishing software’s
such as Adobe InDesign, the software I used to create my
double page spread. The ruler tool again was helpful as it
allowed me to layout the magazine symmetrically. The double
page spread also uses additional tools such as the ‘Wrap Text
tool’ this allowed me to wrap my interview text around the
feature Star ‘Sleeping with Sirens’. The main image was edited
using previous tools like the ‘Quick Selection Tool’ (W) on
Photoshop to select the artist and guitar, and delete the
background. I did this on Photoshop so I could manipulate the
image and then transferred it over by saving it as a PNG. The
reason I used Adobe InDesign for the DPS was because it
quickly sets up 2 pages for you and columns for your interview
instead of having to make the columns on Photoshop and
them all being the wrong size.

20. In the preliminary tasks I used
the ‘Window character’ menu
to change the font sizes this is
important as in my magazine I
included a Pull Quote which
used different colours and size
text. I was able to progress and
push my skills further using the
tools on offer on Adobe In
Design such as horizontal and
vertical scaling. This was crucial
in creating a professional Pull
Quote and Drop Capital
convention.

21. I used the shape tool on my preliminary task front
cover and contents page to create effective
information and highlights of the magazine. From
this I was able to create a News Panel on my double
page spread of my main task on Adobe In Design.
This included social media and web links which had
been edited using the ‘Magic wand tool’ so that the
social media links matched the colour scheme of
the page. I selected the text and used the swatches
to make sure that the text ‘news’ was in the same
exact colour to fit the house style. This shows the
progression from preliminary to main task through
the conventions associated with the Rock genre.

22. Conclusion
Overall the preliminary task has positively
reinforced my main task pages as I was able to
familiarize with the tools on photo shop which
allowed me to speed up my work flow when
creating similar conventions that were on my
preliminary task pages. The preliminary task
allowed the quality of the main task to be
greater because of the transferable tools learnt.