Looking back at the preliminary product, what

1. Looking back at the preliminary
product, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?

2. The brief in which I was given for my
Preliminary task was to create a front
cover and a contents page for a school
magazine. We completed a preliminary
task in order to gain knowledge and
confidence with the software we would
have to use for our main task, (E.G
Photoshop). As a result of completing the
set brief I was able to create significantly
more professional and better standard
magazine pages for my main task.

3. As my set brief was to create
magazine pages for my
school magazine, a key
feature in which I had to
uphold was a colour scheme
to replicate the brand
identity of my school.

4. The colour scheme I had to use for
this task was Navy and yellow,
these two colours were
particularly complex to work with
as when it came to editing my
main image and the images for my
contents page, no extreme effects
could be added as they clashed
with a saturation and intensity of
the background colours.

5. In order to portray the
school’s brand identity
throughout my magazine I
used the eyedropper tool and
selected both the yellow and
navy colour and saved it into
my swatches so that when
creating the contents page
the colours would be
identical.

6. Exact same shades of Yellow and
Navy

7. This taught me that
when it comes to
choosing colour schemes,
you should choose more
neutral toned shades, or
colours that complement
the images in which I was
using.

8. When it came to my
main task I chose an
earthy toned pink,
similar to one that my
magazine of
inspiration ‘CLASH’ has
used on a previous
front cover.

9. This tone of pink was
very easy to work with as
it allowed me to edit my
main image of Jess
without it clashing; this
colour also enhanced her
skin tone.

10. When choosing my font
styles for my preliminary
task, I learnt that in order to
produce an eye – catching
front cover, as well as
contents page; you have to
use a bold and vibrant font.

11. As I was creating a school
magazine the font style had
to be colourful as well as
bold; this made the magazine
look very unprofessional and
un - smart, when creating my
main task I did not choose to
replicate this style of font as
my magazine was targeted at
a much older age group who
would appreciate a
professional look rather that
a ‘Fun’ one.

12. Looking back at the
preliminary product, I have
also learnt that it is
important to use multiple
font styles throughout the
magazine pages in order to
distinguish the levels of
importance between each
convention which I didn’t
particularly do during my
preliminary task.

13. Learning from this, when
completing my main task
I made sure that my
masthead was a larger,
bolder font than the
cover lines to denote
their importance.

14. MASTHEAD
(highest
importance)
COVERLINES
(low importance)
HEADLINE
(high importance)

15. I also learnt that ‘STAR
APPEAL’ (Dyer) was also
crucial when creating a
magazine, this is because
makes a wider interest and
appeal for the magazine as
the fans of the ‘star’ will feel
obliged to buy the magazine
if their favourite star features
on the front cover.

16. When creating my preliminary front cover I decided
to use the deputy head teacher Miss Archer to be
the ‘star’ as she is a very well – liked, popular
member of staff at my school. By featuring her on
the front of the magazine it will attract a wide range
of students to pick up ‘INSPIRE’ because they will
want to know what she has to say.

17. After completing my preliminary task I discovered that the
use of ‘Star Appeal’ is effective due the popularity and
interest it brought to my preliminary pages. After being
enlightened of this, I decided that I would repeat the use of
‘Star Appeal’ on my main task by placing a large image of
‘JESS MAY’ on the front cover.

18. Completing a preliminary task was also a very useful step to take
because it helped me to know how to organise my pages effectively
and professionally. Before completing my planning and research I had
very little knowledge on how I wanted my magazine pages to be
structured. I decided I would keep a similar appearance and structure
in my main task pages as I did for my preliminary task (mainly front
covers). I did this by keeping the same layout, E.G position of main
image, masthead, cover-lines)

19. Changes I Made:-
• The first change I made was the amount of cover-lines in
which appeared on my main task front cover. After
completing the preliminary front cover I decided that
more cover-lines would look more aesthetically pleasing
and professional.
• Another feature I changed was the position of the
barcode.
• I also decided to alter the shot type of the main image,
instead of it being a medium-close up, I decided that it
would look more effective if my ‘star’ was shown at mid-
shot so that her outfit could be shown to its full extent.

20. After gaining sufficient experience with Photoshop CS5.1, I learnt the
importance of staying organised when creating my different magazine
pages. When creating my preliminary front cover and contents page, I
was very messy with the layers and things were made very complicated
and it was extremely difficult to find certain features on my magazine
pages as I also did not name things properly.

21. Therefore, when it came to creating my main
task pages I grouped all my layers into
categories, I also linked all my layers so it
made it easier to move conventions around. I
also made sure I named each layer
sufficiently so there was no confusion when it
came to finding particular features.
E.G

22. • As I did not use the software INDESIGN
throughout my preliminary task, I was unable to
gain any experience before completing my main
task.
• However, throughout the process of making the
preliminary pages in Photoshop I picked up many
keyboard shortcuts that could be used in
INDESIGN too, for example Ctrl + R to bring up
the ruler tool, and Ctrl + H to hide ruler lines.

23. To conclude, completing the Preliminary brief
was extremely effective because it allowed
me to gain several needed skills as well as
knowledge that I needed in order to create
sleek, professional content for my main task.