In this evaluation, the author reflects on how their skills and understanding of magazine design improved from their preliminary task to the final product. Some key areas of growth included learning how to use design software like Quark and Photoshop, conducting audience research to make informed design choices, including things like an introduction to make the magazine seem more realistic, and focusing on things like layout, structure, and appropriate content for the target audience. The author feels they have gained valuable experience in magazine design that will help them create a more polished and professional product in the future.

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

2. When completing my main task I have noticed that I have used things to develop and improve from the preliminary task, As you can see from my preliminary task it is very basic and does not use a lot of conventions of a real magazine such as it is missing a barcode, this is because we did this task at the start of the year and I did not have a clue how to use things such as Quark. The planning of my real magazine was very crucial because as you can see from my preliminary task not a lot of planning went into it so I couldn’t really include anything to do with any audience responses or change the layout. This differs from my main task as audience research was very important in making my final product, also I didn’t have a lot of time in the preliminary task to get all my photos together and edit them so as you can see the photo is quite basic and theirs not a lot of images put in, which relates to the way that I was inexperienced with using the camera so I wasn’t changing the angle or scenery in the photos. In the preliminary task I dint have a lot of time to think about my target audience so I didn’t have any feedback about how my text or font should look like or what the photo was going to be in my front cover. The biggest thing I have learnt from this project is generally how to use new technologies such as quark or Photoshop effectively, and at the start of the year if I got asked to make a magazine I wouldn’t know what to use or how to use it, but know I think I am good at using these programmes and editing the photos.

3. As you can see from my preliminary task contents page its not very well structured or doesn’t have any real relevant information, an improvement which I have made in my real magazine is that I have an introduction which introduces the readers to the magazine, I think this is very effective and makes it seem more realistic because in my research I found quite a few magazines which have done this. Another thing which I have improved on since my Preliminary task is the way that in my contents page I have used a relevant mode of address by using alot of slang as it is relevant to my audience and makes it more appropriate for the type of people I am aiming for, I did not do this in my preliminary task as I did not take audience in to consideration. The last thing which I have improved on is my background in the preliminary task is just writing on a blue background but on my main task I have used a layering tool to give sort of a bleeding out tool which makes the page layout look a lot more structured and technical, and makes it seem more realistic and it’s the sort of thing that you could buy from a shop.