The document summarizes the changes made from the preliminary to the finished school magazine. In the preliminary: the front cover took inspiration from a music magazine and focused on rebellion; the contents page layout was rushed. For the finished magazine: the candidate changed everything and incorporated issue numbers, dates, and genre text on the cover; the contents page took inspiration from another candidate's work but with their own spin; the double page spread took inspiration from another source and used tools like layering and grids. The key lesson was that more meaningful text and improved layout, color, and photos were needed for a higher grade. Inspiration was drawn from various magazines and candidates to create a cohesive, polished final product.

1. Preliminary exercise
Preliminary exercise: using
DTP and an image
manipulation program
produce the front page of a
new school/college magazine,
featuring a photograph of a
student in medium close-up
plus some appropriately laid-
out text and a masthead.
Additionally candidates must
produce a DTP mock-up of the
layout of the contents page to
demonstrate their grasp of
the program.
My preliminary front cover was heavily based on a magazine
that I had taken a look at when looking for inspiration. This one
was indeed Vibes magazine as Eric “Eazy.E” Wright edition. The
main points I took from this magazine was the colour template
and scheme it had adopted. Also its layout. I liked the contrast
used between the black and write of the background and the
text. Also I tried to re create the text style. I chose to adopt this
sort of style as the direction I wanted to take my school
magazine relied heavily on the belief that the school is “bad”
and needs changing as it doesn’t cater to the students need so
this magazine is all about that rebellion. This sort of message is
connoted through the audience through the heavy feature of
the black on my cover. The cover person was used as he would
suit the audience demographic for this sort of magazine. He
looks sort of stylish and indie as if he doesn’t care what
everyone thinks. Also he looks like someone who generally
hates the so called “establishment”. This is similar again to the
vibe magazine. On my contents I rushed it a bit. I tried to go for
Here are the finished products
of my preliminary exercise. I
was asked told;
a clean very organised look. I made the text reading
contents staggered as I has seen that in a magazine of i-D,
also I hollowed out this text. The photo takes up a lot of
room on the page and is the main feature of my contents.
Also I used a website at the bottom of the page to cater for
the audience demographic as the magazine is aimed at the
youth of colleges that will be heavy into social media and a
website would be a way to attract more of an online
audience/backing. Also I made sure that the text was
relevant on this page. An example of this being “Sports day
exclusives” as this would be relevant to a student audience
that attends this particular school.
I had a lot to change from my preliminary as this was not very
good standard of work. I needed a complete revamp and to
change everything.

2. Finished magazine
I changed a lot during my draft
stages of my final magazine when
compared to my preliminary. I
did keep 1 key theme from my
preliminary though, this was the
colour scheme. The way I used
lighting and background in this photo made a god black base for which to
place white text upon. I changed the layout as I changed the barcode and
the headline is the only text about the feature, as in my preliminary I had
blocks of text dotted around. Also I incorporated a issue number and date,
also something that is small but makes a big difference is the genre text as it
adds to the magazine aesthetically. This is a conformity of music magazines.
The cover star fits the genre of music a lot better than in my prelim-
miniary as he looks indie and edgy. I have achieved this from variation in
my background and lighting also angle helped me to achieve this. I learnt a
lot about the pictures needed and rule of thirds, also layout colour
contrast/fonts. As to achieve a higher grade I had to make these changes.
My contents page took heavy inspiration from a previous candidates work
called Tom Brown I liked the simplistic layout and colour scheme but I
wanted to put my own spin on it as it had to match the cover theme. I did
this by implementing the black borders and also using the same fonts on
my cover and text is similar. But I broke up each segment using lines as I
did in my preliminary contents, just more moderately. But the main change
from the finished magazine to the preliminary is I had more text that was
Useful and meaningful. I also used my
media skills to create borders around each
photo using a template. I learnt how to do
this when doing my preliminary. I also
elaborated on the social media aspect
including much more than just a website,
also repositioning this area.
I learnt a lot about the way that the program
Photoshop works when creating my double
page spread. I couldn't take much from the
preliminary as I wasn’t asked to create a
double page spread. I took inspiration
instead from a clash double page spread. I used tools such as the
layering tools and rasterizing. Also I heavily relied upon the grid
tool to make sure everything was equally gapped and the columns
of text were of equal length. The theme is carried through as the
fonts and images are similar to the ones used in the cover and
contents. Where I learnt that the photos had to create a certain
style.