The student learned many new skills from their preliminary sixth form magazine task that helped them create a more advanced music magazine. They learned to conduct audience research through focus groups and questionnaires, plan photoshoots better, analyze magazine conventions, improve graphic design skills in InDesign and Photoshop, and create more complex layouts like double page spreads. The preliminary task helped them understand basic magazine elements, but for the full project they applied these skills plus new research and feedback to create a higher quality music magazine tailored to their target audience.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 7:
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR
PRELIMINARY TASK WHAT DO
YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT
IN THE PROGRESSION FROM
IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?
By Aimee Gras

2. PRELIMINARY
TASK

3. MUSIC
MAGAZINE

4. OVERALL
• Since the preliminary task I feel like I have learnt a great deal; I’ve
learnt a great deal on how to edit on other programmes such as
InDesign as well as Photoshop.
• After taking media for GCSE, I used all my skills that I’d learnt to
create my sixth form magazine that enabled me to create a basic
front cover and contents page in not a great length of time.
• Producing the preliminary task of the sixth form magazine helped
me to understand the layout of where certain things should and
shouldn’t be placed.

5. RESEARCH AND PLANNING
• When I created my preliminary task I didn’t have a focus group that I
referenced to throughout the creation and I didn’t create a questionnaire
before hand that asked my target audience what they preferred.
• Whereas, when I created my music magazine I learnt that this needed to
be done in order to create the best music magazine possible that would be
of an interest to my target audience.
• Before I took the photos for my music magazine I created flat plans that I
showed to the model so that she could see the type of photos I was
looking for. I also showed my focus group to see their opinions on the flat
plans, which can be seen here .
• I also created a questionnaire that I sent out to a wide group of people,
this enabled me to get feedback I needed to create a music magazine that
would appeal to my target audience.
• By doing audience feedback as a class it really helped, this is because by
helping others with the creation of their products it made me look at my
product with fresh eyes.

6. FRONT COVER: ANALYSING
SKILLS• From creating the front cover of the sixth from magazine to creating
the front cover of the music magazine made me realise how the
layout of different magazines differ.
• My sixth form magazine analyse was less extensive than my music
magazine analyse; from creating it I learnt that I needed to analyse
further so that I could follow the typical codes and conventions of a
music magazine that was based on a particular genre of music.
TEXTUA
L
ANALYS
IS OF A
SIXTH
FORM
MAGAZI
NE
TEXTUA
L
ANALYSI
S OF A
MUSIC
MAGAZI
NE

7. SIXTH FORM MAGAZINE MUSIC MAGAZINE

8. FRONT COVER: DESIGN AND
LAYOUT
• Front cover of my sixth from magazine  quite simplistic, didn’t
contain a great deal of information. However the image was very
busy so it made it hard for the writing on it to be read.
• I learnt from this to use a bolder font in a colour that stands out
from the background and can be read. Also certain effects such as a
drop shadow can be used which would help the text stand out more
against the background. After learning this I was able to transfer my
knowledge when creating the front cover of my music magazine.
• My music magazine front cover is different from the other one; it
has more of an edge to it as it adheres to the typical conventions of
an alternative pop magazine. I used a bolder font in brighter colours
that contrasted well with the background. The use of dark red and
white against the blue background and clothing of the model made
it easy to read.

9. SIXTH FORM
MAGAZINE 
 MUSIC
MAGAZINE

10. CONTENTS PAGE
• I found creating the contents page for the preliminary task was
more of a challenge. For the sixth form magazine I found that I
needed to have taken more photos as I felt very stuck on what to
choose as the main image. In the end I just used one image and
kept it as simplistic as possible.
• Going into creating my music magazine contents page I had a lot
more to chose from as I had organised numerous photo-shoots to
get the best range of images possible. As I wanted to include so
many of the photos I had taken as well all the other information I
needed to include I had to create a double page spread. I was able
to include all the images I wanted to as well as all the necessary
information and I also added a personal touch to it which was an
‘editors note’ with a signature at the end. I learnt from my further
research that many music magazines have this on their contents
page.

12. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
• After learning a great deal from the preliminary task I
then had to go on and create a double page spread for
my music magazine, which we didn’t have to do for the
sixth form magazine. After the skills I had learnt I felt
more than capable at doing this. These skills include
new skills learnt on Photoshop and InDesign – I learnt
how to use a drop cap on InDesign along with many
other skills. This helped me to produce a double page
spread that looked professional.

13. DO IT AGAIN?
• If I was to do this again I would consider
concentrating more on the studio shots I
did for my contents page as I focused on
the main shots that I’d be using
throughout.