The document discusses several technologies used in creating a magazine product, including: - Blogger was used to organize and document all work, allowing easy navigation and tracking of progress. - Dafont helped find the right font that suited the magazine and appealed to the target audience. - A Canon 600D camera took high quality photos needed for a music magazine. - iMac computers provided powerful programs for magazine creation and allowed work to be backed up. - Photoshop allowed mastheads and text to be edited with effects like strokes and outlines. - Wix.com, an unfamiliar website builder, was used to create an effective ancillary website portraying the magazine.

1. What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?

2. Blogger
• Blogger was essential to the whole creation and progression of my product, from the research and
planning to the actual product itself and now the evaluation of my work. It orders and organises my every
post and this shows how I have gotten to my final product. I was able to use blogger to look back to what I
researched in preparation for my actual product and also to help me with my evaluations. I had a basic
understanding of blogger from last year’s media work so I was familiar with how to use it and what I could
achieve using blogger. This meant that all of my work was organised and set out how I wanted it so I
wouldn’t lose any work and it also helped me keep track on how I was doing. This also meant that I didn’t
need help using it so I could get straight on with my research and planning. With blogger you can
document all of the work you have done during lessons and outside of college, meaning you were able to
carry on with your work. Before uploading a post, I was able to schedule a particular date and rime for
when I wanted the work to be posted to blogger and I could also set myself targets each time.
• Blogger was also helpful in organising my work into sections so I could put all of my work into separate
categories that would make it easier for me to navigate and find my work when I need it.

3. Dafont.com
• Dafont was a great help for finding the right typography that I wanted. It helped me find the right font
that would suit my magazine and that would appeal to my target audience. Their preview tool allowed me
to type in the name of my masthead so I could see what it would look like if I chose that font. This helped
massively. They saved me time and allowed me to compare which fonts stood out to existing competition.
I went for fonts that were featured on festival magazines and billboard and posters so it would stand out
to my target audience and make my magazine known to them. Dafont helped me a lot and it was easy to
use because I used it for last year’s font on my magazine so I knew that this website was reliable and
would help me find the perfect font.

4. Canon 600D Camera
• This camera was perfect for taking the best photos possible and I used this camera last year so I knew it
would take the photos that I wanted. My knowledge of high quality cameras was basic but I knew how to
use it which was good enough for the photos that I wanted. This camera was great for taking outdoor
photos, especially in the sun because you could change the exposure so it didn’t glare. I experimented
with different angles for taking my photos and this resulted in professional, crisp photos. I knew from last
year that it would provide me with great quality imagery. Using this camera was a great choice for me
because I was able to take professional looking photos that were effective for a music magazine and that
would appeal to my taregt audience. I feel that using a high quality camera is the best way to creating a
great product that will make you stand out of a crowd when it comes to competition in the magazine
industry.

5. iMac
• The iMac computers were key for creating and effective piece of work because you had a wide variety of
programmes that you could use to create a magazine. PCs wouldn’t have given you that variety and I
knew that my full potential would come through when using the iMacs. Last year I had never used an
iMac before so I was limited to what I could do but now I have a better understanding when it comes to
using the iMacs and they are extremely helpful. I always backed up my work so I could come back to it
later and so I wouldn’t lose any of it. I felt that the iMacs were the best way to create a magazine because
it would be the way professional magazine industries would create their products. The iMacs give you high
quality programmes and they are faster than PCs so this helped us speed up the creation process. The
iMacs helped me gain new knowledge that I could use to help my peers with future work.

6. Photoshop
• Photoshop was by far the main software that I used throughout the creative process. I was familiar with
photoshop so I knew the basics. However, there was particular areas that I knew nothing about. The
blending options are what made my masthead because I was able to add certain effects, such as, stroke to
my masthead to make it stand out more to an audience. Also I was able to outline some of my text to
make it more visible if it was ever lost in the background. This made it easier to see. Photoshop was
extremely helpful for setting out my magazine and I would have been able to get that on any other
software. Photoshop is something I will use again when it comes to creating and editing my media work.

7. Wix.com
• Wix.com is what helped me to create my website. This programme was completely new to me and I had
never heard of it before but it helped me so much in creating a good website. It offers different templates
that you could use to create a website or you could create one from scratch. I had to experiment with it
first to get a feel for what it was about and I soon got the hang of it and I started to create my website. You
could customize it any way that you wanted, from the navigation bar to the background that you wanted.
This helped me a lot in creating my ancillary task because without it I wouldn’t have a website that
portrayed my magazine as well as it did. Having a multi media background for you magazine is essential
because the audience will be able to access your magazine no matter where they are. Wix is most
certainly something I would use again because it was so helpful and easy to use.