An improvement in skills is evident from the preliminary college magazine cover to the final music magazine cover and spread. For the preliminary task, there was little planning, research, or evaluation, resulting in a lower quality product. However, lessons were learned about photo editing tools and designing professionally. For the final product, more advanced techniques were used, such as selecting fonts suited to the genre, applying effects like drop shadows, and leaving space in layouts for clear text insertion. Overall, the production process helped strengthen media skills and allowed for a higher quality, more polished end product.

1. Preliminary Task: Full Product
College magazine front cover New music magazine front cover,
contents & double page spread
One major progression I felt I learnt was coming to terms with Photo Shops tools and layers.
After becoming used to them I felt my work grew and became increasingly professional.

2. For final product:
Research
Audience
Market
Planning
Research
Pitch My preliminary task had no much
Layouts/flat plans research, planning, and evaluation.
Style sheet For my college magazine I went
Planning photographs straight into producing it. However,
Writing article copy this mistake showed as the college
magazine was no where near as
Production professional or high quality and my
Image manipulation final product.
Text manipulation
Layout design &manipulation
Evaluation
power point- print screen

3. Firstly, from looking at the preliminary task
photograph and the final products photograph I can
see many improvements and it is clear my media skills
During production process I learnt about the lasso have progressed to some extent.
magnetic tool on Photo shop which allowed me to
cut my models head out and paste it again to be in
front of the title, this made the final product This was due to :
magazine look more professional and advanced as
other existing products including Vibe and XXL do Space was left by using a
this. As I was inexperienced when producing the plain light coloured
college magazine this technique was not included background on the wall
with occasional graffiti this
allowed me to insert a
contrasting coloured text to
bounce of the background.
The book shelves
within the image
overcrowd the
background so text is
unclear or confusing
when inserted over
the top.
An improvement in the quality of image was visible. For example because the final product pictures were planned the
spacing around the main feature could be arranged for headlines to be inserted. Whereas the college magazine had a very
busy photograph where all the headlines had to be cramped at the bottom of the page. Also, adjustments to the image
were made including an increase in brightness and contrast, levels, and curves. These adjustments allowed the image to be
more striking and have more vibrant colours connoting the hip hop genre.

4. The college magazine title is a simple font already
existing on Photo Shop. The font was tedious and
looked out of date suggesting the college the
magazine was for is strict and not modern. My college magazine had three headlines all placed
at the bottom of the magazine. The headlines were
in a simple small font which looked bland. The font
had nothing that made the text stand out or become
noticeable. This is when I learnt to find and choose a
suitable font for my final product one that was visibly
striking and appropriate for my genre. I also learnt
I was more adventurous with my masthead on on Photo Shop how to apply extra effects on my
the final product as I learn to downloaded the headlines. Such as drop shadows. This technique was
font from the internet website DAFONT. This used a lot during the production process.
font suited my genre as it was modern and
stylish. I was able to change the colour of my
font easily enough without any help. This was another headline that included a drop shadow
effect. It was the name of the artist which was spread out
horizontally across the middle of the front cover. This
made it clear who featured in the magazine. It also
allowed me to break up the page which I did not do with
the college magazine. As I was not confident with a more
adventurous layout. I learnt to be more experimental
with the planning of my final product.

5. A bar code was inserted onto my final product however, It never crossed my mind
earlier on when producing my college magazine.