The student learned a great deal from their preliminary task to their final product. For the preliminary task, they did little research and it showed through the unprofessional design. However, for the final product they conducted extensive research on magazine layouts, audiences, and styles. As a result, their final product had a much more eye-catching and professional design. They were able to apply skills like Photoshop to enhance images and create consistency across fonts and colors. Overall, the student felt their work showed clear progression and a wider understanding of media design principles.

1. Question 7“Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that
you have learned in the progression from it to full product?”

2. Prelim

3. Final Product

4. When comparing my final product with my prelim I can see how much I have improved and learned. I
think that this is because of the extensive research that I carried out before the creation of my final
product, which helped me learn about layout, audience and style. My final product is much more eye
catching and professional looking, which is due to all the existing magazines that I looked at in
preparation. For my prelim piece, I didn’t really do much research, which is shown through its
unprofessional appearance.
Comparison

5. - The image on the front cover from my preliminary task is very bland, and does
not represent the college well, as it is a simple photograph of the front building
which shows no element of fun or enjoyment. In order to improve this I
could’ve included people in the photograph to show evidence of student life at
Winstanley College. For my final product, the main image is much more
professional and better quality, as well as a good representation of a typical
female pop artist. This is because I used my knowledge of Photoshop to
enhance the photograph, whereas there was no editing at all on the Prelim
photograph.
- There is a lot of negative space on the Prelim task, which gives an empty and
unprofessional appearance. On my final product, I made sure to make use of
the space with cover lines, a masthead and my main image.
- The choice of font types on the Prelim product are inconsistent and don’t
follow the conventions of a typical magazine, which shows my lack of research.
On my final product I had carried out more research and looked at existing
magazine covers, which is what inspired the simple sans serif font that I used
consistently across the different pages.
- The colour scheme on the Prelim example is also not very attractive or
professional in appearance. The green text is an unusual shade that doesn’t
stand out against the background, and the use of white and navy contrast and
clash. For my final magazine cover, I chose mostly neutral tones of black and
white with a pop of bright pink. This kept the colour scheme very minimal and
simple, whilst still creating an attractive and eye catching appearance.
Comparison

6. - The title on my Prelim Contents page is very small and doesn’t catch the
reader’s attention. For my final Contents page, I made sure that the title was
bright and bold in order to instantly indicate to the reader what page they are
currently on.
- My final Contents is much more organised, as I organised it into categories to
make it easier for the reader to navigate. Once again this shows evidence of
research, as this was inspired by the layout of existing Contents pages. I didn’t
include categories on the Prelim Contents which would make it more difficult
for the reader to find which sections they wanted to look at.
- Additionally, the Contents page from the Prelim is very unstructured with lots
of negative space which gives the impression that the magazine doesn’t
include much information, and would therefore not attract an audience. I
made sure that my final Contents page appeared more full, whilst still keeping
a single list format and only including three images to avoid it looking too
cluttered, as this would not match the layout of my other pages.
- The images that I included on the Prelim example aren’t very good quality or
professional in appearance, which was due to the fact that I did not yet know
how to effectively edit photographs in Photoshop, or what kind of photos to
include on my Contents page. In the final product, the images I used are good
quality and well-edited for a professional appearance, as well as representing a
variety of areas in the magazine.
- The font used on the Prelim example once again challenges the conventions of
real media products, as it is quite childlike and unprofessional. I made sure to
keep my fonts consistent on my final product, by using a simple sans serif font
that was easy to read and created a clean appearance that followed the
conventions of existing magazines that I looked at.
Comparison

7. Overall, I think that my final product looks much better,
as it is more professional in appearance and doesn’t
look rushed in the same way that the Prelim does. This
could partially be due to the short space of time I had
to create the Prelim in contrast to my final product,
and because it was created so early on in the year
before I properly learned about Photoshop and
researched into media products.
Additionally, I found it more enjoyable when creating
the final product, as the magazine was more like
something I would read, and there were more
elements to explore during the design stages, with it
being a music magazine which provides more freedom.
With the college magazine, I wasn’t as enthusiastic
about it which I feel is reflected in my work.
I think that there is a clear level of progression that can
be seen from the Prelim task to my final piece, as I now
have a much wider understanding of existing media
products compared to the start of the year, and I feel
that this has now benefited my work.
Conclusion