This document summarizes the learning process and improvements made by the author in creating contents pages and a double-page spread (DPS) for a student music magazine from their initial drafts to the final products. The author's initial sketches lacked creativity, appropriate images, and magazine conventions. Through receiving feedback, researching professional magazines, and multiple revisions, the author incorporated more articles, a variety of layouts, effective color schemes and fonts, and additional design elements in the final contents pages and DPS. However, they note areas that still could have been improved further, such as using more relevant images and developing the layout/design more.

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

2. 2
This was my first music student
magazine contents page. I have not
used any of my own images in this. It
therefore lacks creativity and an
ability to use appropriate tools such
as an SLR camera, software such as
Adobe Photoshop to address an
audience, also. I have learnt that
writing 'page number' etc is
unnecessary and saves space. The
colours used are very basic and little
experimentation are shown- a key
skill, I feel that is needed in the
construction of
any media product. The layout
seems very simplistic and it is limited
in that it provides no extra
information to, at least, some articles.
My initial thoughts of how
my contents page would
look like saw a remarkable
change, one that was
influenced greatly on
professionalism. From my
research analysis I had
realised that Hip-Hop
magazines do not follow this
kind of layout, it was mostly
columned with one or two
images. I also realised that I
would restrict the number of
article heading I would be
able to put, and this is a
considerable issue because
it is a monthly issue.
These two drafts clearly lacked
magazine conventions and simply, as
peers commented; had not enough
articles for a monthly issue.
Furthermore, the mise-en-scene was
similar to that of the DPS image and a
greater variety and mixture of mise-en-
scene and costumes was needed to
make this contents page appealing. The
two images at the bottom, part of the
guess who competition, was repudiated
as being ‘unusual’ and rather absurd
looking to tthat of a Hip-Hop magazine.
The editors note, suggested by the class
teacher, took too much space and could
be used for more article headings or
images.

3. 3
My final contents page saw a seismic change
in its layout to that of my initial sketch. The
content pages shows a mixture of colours
used in a more effective way as a pose to my
music magazine. I have used fonts that are a
more suited to my target audience which I
download from the internet.
From the grey limited colours down to the very
bright one highlights the experimentation I had to
do get a good balance of colours. However they
should have been sectioned of more clearly so it
they be could be easily identified with the article or I
could have inserted page numbers for e.g. on the
images.
This contents page has more of a layout but lacks
the simplicity of a Hip-Hop magazine. The colours
perhaps could have been more appealing and
could have been more 'HipHop' looking.

4. This music magazine front cover has
limited sell lines which would not attract
the intended target audience.
Furthermore, all the fonts are one colour
which seems dull. The image has not
been cropped properly as such the
layout does not flow. This is because it
seems weird how the bottom part of the
model has been cropped. The
magazine undermines it’s ability to sell
as there is no barcode and price. In
addition to this, the magazine doesn’t
have a logo demonstrating how
irrespective and how it had not been
considerate to its target audience in
missing out these key features.
The colour scheme seems
inappropriate to the genre of Hip-
Hop, especially the orange because
it stands out too much, making it
look like a magazine aimed at a
smaller group. The bicycle at the
bottom of 'Chigwell' seemed to have
served no purpose. A torso shot in
this case would miss detailed facial
expression and aspects such as
clothing would have been a
distraction to the audience. The brick
background would have destroyed
the central focus and risk the
magazine’s ability to look
professional.
More sell lines could have
been put in place. Also the
red doesn't seem to flow.
Furthermore, the picture
seems, as commented by
my class teacher, out of
focus. In addition, the
background behind the
masthead could have been a
different colour as it seems
odd?, to some extent, as
commented by peers.

5. 5
My intial sketch for my DPS, was rather simplistic. The idea of having three images
that are the same, being different views, would have wasted space and would be
unnecessary. One image would be better. Also, the positioning of this would look
rather odd- unprofessional like. The sectioning of the text into 3 columns would not
work since it would be too small for the fitting of the text. No enlarged quote section
has been sketched which would make the text look too dense.This is shown in the
first draft of my DPS underwhich i have made the neccessary changes. In the first
draft of my DPS the dark blue font was difficult to read. This needed to be changed.
The DPS title was not the greatest and didn't really match the article as such. This is
because the article is about Joe's succesful debut into the music industry and the title
does not suggest this.

6. 6
The final DPS could have been
more attractive with extra
photography and devlopment. For
example as the article title is
'Rolling Juggernaut' the model
could have been in different
positions . This is also because the
most attractive part of a DPS
according to my research analysis
are images.
The dollar sign background could
have more been transparent so
that the enlarged quote could be
read more easily.The enlarged
quote used to break the article
which would have looked better if
it was red as this would show a
continous use of colours. The
texts of the column are not
straight. This shows a lack in
layout, underwhich I experienced
critism from the class teacher.